Glenn's Journal 02-19-03 Queensland
We were up early as we have a bus to catch at 7:40 am so we can make the 8:30 am ferry. We arrived at Shute Harbor in plenty of time and made our way to the ferry that would drop us off at our first destination, Daydream Island. It only took 20 minutes or so to reach Daydream Island and we are dropped off on the daytrippers side of the island. The island is very small as you can walk to the other side in 10 minutes or less. The daytripper side has a beautiful pool for everyones use, a glass church, a manmade reef, and even a million dollar miniature golf course. There are, of course, shops and a restaurant on this side of the island as well. The other side of the island has the actual resort which has a beach area, pools, and everything else you would expect a resort to have. The island is so small that there are not many activities here to do but if you just want to relax and do nothing for a few days then this is a perfect spot. Erin and I checked out the manmade reef, spent some time looking around the million dollar mini golf course (which was actually pretty neat) and then took the nature walk over to the other side of the island. While we were on the nature walk we met another couple (Diane and Gary from Sydney) as they were running back to the boat. They were moving quickly as they had remembered the wrong time for the boat departure from the island. As we verified the right time we had an additional half hour before departure. After checking out the beach we made our way back to the daytripper side for a quick dip in the pool before loading back on a boat for our next destination.
Our next stop was Hamilton Island. Hamilton Island is a bigger island with a quite a few activities including parasailing, target practice, and about half a dozen other choices. You can also rent a golf cart to get around the island to visit some of the beautiful locales that provide the best views. We, along with Gary and Diane, checked out the golf carts and a map of the island to see if it would be worth renting together. We decided against it and ended up walking to the other side of the island towards the main accomodation. We spent the hour and a half we had here enjoying the view of the beach, ocean, and swimming in the pool at the resort. We made our way back to the ferry as lunch would be served during the trip to our next destination.
We went aboard just before our 12:30 pm departure time and made our way through the lunch line. The four of us sat upstairs while enjoying the lunch and the trip to Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven beach is a beautiful white silica sand beach that extends for miles and seems only reachable by boat. There are definitely no amenities here. Eighty of us unloaded from the boat as we were taken to shore on a smaller craft. We were also offered "stinger" wetsuits (lycra wetsuits to prevent jellyfish stings as this is the time of the year for an abundance of stingers along the Great Barrier Reef coast.) which I gladly accepted. We had a few hours here so we went swimming in the ocean (no pools here) and played a little volleyball before our time was up. We returned to the boat for a 3:30 pm departure and headed back to Hamilton Island. We had another hour to enjoy Hamilton Island so the four of us returned to the pool where we found it to be happy hour at the pool bar. We all enjoyed a cold beverage from the bar while in the pool. We also met another couple from Melbourne that were on their honeymoon and staying on Hamilton Island. We enjoyed chatting with them about weddings and receptions and all of that stuff. They were enjoying themselves very much. We sped off as we had to catch the last boat out of here at 5:30 pm. We arrived abck at Shute Harbor around 6:00 pm and caught the bus back to our caravan park.
Once back at our cabin we quickly showered and dressed as we were to meet Diane and Gary at the Hogsbreathe Cafe in town. We arrived just before 7:30 pm and had enough time to stop at a information shop to book a day trip for tomorrow around the north side of the Whitsundays. We checked with the clerk only to find out that most of the tours for tomorrow were already sold out due to a couple of busloads coming into town today. When you want flexibility that is the chance you take. We told her that we would call in the morning to check on any cancellations. We met Gary and Diane out front of Hogsbreathe Cafe and agreed on the restaurant for dinner. We enjoyed dinner with a view of the Airlie Beach lagoon. We talked about all kinds of things during dinner including an invite to stay with us during their next trip to the states. We felt like we had a lot in common with Gary and Diane. New Friends!!! After dinner we went to a park bench where we played Shangai rummy until almost 11:00 pm. Diane had mentioned earlier in the day that they enjoyed playing cards and since we had not played cards with another couple in a while Erin took it upon herself to bring our two packs of cards to dinner with us. We had a great time playing cards. We made it back to the cabin around 11:30 pm and called it a night. What a great day!! |
