Whitsundays (and Mondays)

Let us start off by saying that Australia has fantastic tourist information centers and they are in most towns. There is only one problem - if you venture in to the center you WILL come out with no less than 20 pamphlets, five maps and no idea what to actually do next… After a near disaster at the first Whitsunday region info center we drove to Airlie Beach (gateway to the Whitsundays) and had a nice lunch which calmed our frayed nerves. Let me tell you, it’s work over here...you would think that our total lack of schedule or obligation would be relaxing BUT picking your tropical island resort location can be quite a stressful task! Australia does not have readily available internet however, they still have many travel agents (Krista, they may know Stephanie). So after going through the pile of pamphlets we went to the local travel agent/info center to book a standby rate at a very cushy resort island (sadly, the very cushy Toyota LandCruiser was not able to join us).
[Note: The Whitsundays are Australia’s Tahiti – 74 tropical islands surrounded by calm turquoise waters, fringing reef and a menu full of water sports. Because of the stunning back drop and serene waters, one of the most popular things to do in the area is to take a sailing trip. After careful review of our own negligible sailing abilities, we decided to forgo it this trip reserving it for a future adventure]
We had a fantastic time on Hamilton Island where the main mode of transportation was a “buggy” AKA American golf cart (left drive but driven on the wrong side of the road). Sarah and I went kayaking for a bit and I “had a snorkel” and found two giant clams both bigger than a basketball! Sarah sipped cocktails by the pool and had a taste of what a typical honeymoon destination might be : )
We watched the wild and very obnoxious birds (sulpher crested cockatoos for you birdies) fly back and forth from balcony to balcony squawking all the while. We closed the night with prawn pizza and a cocktail from the balcony!

View from our hotel balcony



On our balcony