Hamilton Island / Airlie Beach
Leaving Melbourne towards Hamilton Island/Airlie Beach meant we were on the last leg of our trip. A short stopover in Brisbane allowed Photos and I to satisfy a seafood pasta craving we seemingly didn’t quench whilst in Melbourne.
Arriving at Hamilton Island, we soon realized that the airport was tiny and seemed to be built primarily for the resort on the Island. I’ve never been to an airport where the primary mode of transportation from the airport is by golf cart! Unfortunately, Photos and I left our bags of money at home, so instead would be ferrying to Airlie beach to spend the night. (I may be exaggerating the extravagance of the resort and island, but it was outside of our trip budget)
Our airport transfer ferry arrived soon after, and we were on our way to Airlie Beach. The ferry takes around an hour to get to Airlie (as it makes a stop at Daydream Island first) and to my knowledge, is the only way to transfer from Hamilton Island Airport. It made for a convenient and stress free arrangement, not needing to compare different modes of transport.
Fish D’ivine
By the time we arrived in Airlie, gotten checked in and situated in our hotel, it was dinner time. We looked up a few places to eat and ended up going to a nearby restaurant called Fish D’vine. Photos and I were on a serious seafood kick and this place looked like it had a good assortment of food. Photos and I had a tuna tataki appetizer and I had a barramundi fillet on mushroom risotto. It was delicious!
We returned to our hotel after dinner as we had to re-pack for the 3 day sail we had booked out to the Great Barrier Reef. We were only allowed a shopping bag sized carry-on to the boat so we needed to make sure we had everything. It would also be an early start so turning in early was also on our minds.
Abell Point Marina and
Early the next morning Photos and I headed to the Abell Point Marina to meet the crew of the Kiana and our fellow shipmates.
Kiana Whitsundays
We had originally looked at doing several day trips based out of Airlie beach. However after some research and talking to friends who have been in this area, we started looking at doing an overnight sail out to the reef. It tends to take a few hours to get to the reef, and so if we had done a day trip it would have been half a day of transport and then only a few hours at the reef. I had looked into a few other boats, but Kiana Whitsundays also had Whitehaven beach on its itinerary (which was another day trip we wanted to do) so it made sense for us. It also housed and fed us for 3 days / 2 nights so it was packaged really well for what we wanted.
There were fourteen of us and four crew in total. After a few introductions and an orientation from the crew we were off! (Some photos are hosted by Kiana’s own Flickr account, please check out their album for our specific voyage!)
Hook Island
Our first stop was Hook Island. This would be the first of many snorkels and scuba excursions. The Hook Island reef was all around us and we spent a few hours here and ate lunch as well.
I’ve never been very comfortable in the water and Hook island would be my first time trying both Scuba and Snorkel. Unfortunately, in both cases, I didn’t do so “well” and ended up only snorkelling for a few minutes and not passing the basic skills portion of Scuba. It was a bit of a bummer, but I was determined to give snorkelling another shot at the next opportunity!
Sail to and Sunset at the Great Barrier Reef
After lunch it was a four hour sail to the Great Barrier Reef! All of us settled in, got some sun and got to know our fellow travellers. We arrived and anchored just in time for a magnificent sunset. We were literally in the middle of the ocean by ourselves and to see the sun set and illuminate the few clouds in the sky was awesome!
Dinner was this delicious lamb they had been cooking throughout the afternoon. With full bellies we hung out on deck for awhile basking in the moonlight (The Moon was super bright over the water, sadly I only have a grainy photo to show for it!) before we all retired to our respective bunks below decks. It would be an early start tomorrow (especially if we wanted to catch the sunrise!) and a full day of snorkeling, scuba diving and sailing!
Our last few days in Australia promised to be full of adventure and wonder!
Hahahaha good lesson to never leave your bags of money at home!