Truly Paradise

I was incredibly glad that Manon had invited me to go to Hamilton Island.  The island was a unique paradise.  It was every bit the tropical paradise that I had always imagined as a child.

Growing up, my family wasn't very well off.  We weren't poor, but money was still tight.  The idea of international travel wasn't really something I ever considered.  In those days, the idea of international travel was one that was very much limited to the wealthy or as a "once in a lifetime" trip.  In fact, it was very common for people to have never traveled overseas at all or to only have the opportunity to travel overseas once after retirement.  People would often save up their entire lives for the opportunity to go overseas.  Times were very different then.  Flights were extremely expensive and there really wasn't the same variety of options which exist today.  Discount airlines weren't around and there weren't a plethora of websites available to help people get better prices.  Instead, most people would have simple holidays down the coast.  We would stay at holiday homes of friends or at short term rentals a few hours drive away.  Sometimes, we would visit friends and family in other cities and even that would often involve long drives.  I remember we once went to the Gold Coast for a holiday as part of a work conference my dad was attending.  The entire trip was booked through a travel agent and much of the information we had been provided was wrong.

In those days, a trip to Queensland, in particular to the Whitsunday Islands was a dream holiday.  I remember my mum would sometimes bring back travel brochures of the Great Barrier Reef and we would all think about whether it was possible for us to one day go and visit.  We looked at the pictures of the luxurious accommodation and the incredible beaches and dreamed.  That dream trip never happened for us, but times changed and we were able to have some great trips after we moved to Singapore.

Being on Hamilton Island felt like a throwback to those childhood days.  The place still looked very much like the photos I looked at when I was young.  Cheap global travel has left places like Hamilton Island a bit behind the curve and it no longer has the same luxury appeal that it had back when I was young.  There's been a lack of capital investment, so everything looks a bit dated and even retro.

It was still beautiful.  If anything, I felt like the older style meant that I was able to enjoy this place as I would have had I come when I was a kid.  It was still the tropical paradise that I dreamed that it would be sitting in the cold house in Melbourne with my family.  The sun was warm and the breeze was cool.  The beaches were wide and people everywhere laughed as they swam and paddled in the water.  I could have stayed there for weeks longer if I had the chance.  Being here felt like completing a puzzle, or finally finding something you had lost a long time ago.  I felt like that little kid again, looking at the pictures with my family.

Winter warmer

I've never really traveled much during winter in Australia.  Particularly during the school holidays, the flights become too expensive as families rush to warmer climates.  I generally just sit inside and mope about which probably isn't good for my mental health.  I definitely get a case of the SADs (seasonable affective disorder) at times so more sunlight is something I should probably seek out more.

Manon hadn't been in the apartment for a few weeks.  She was on break from her university studies and her mum had come to visit us.  Since they had the time, they decided to do a big tour around Australia.  It was quieter in the house without Manon which added to my boredom.  Before she left, Manon urged me to go with them (at least for part of their trip), but I didn't think I could with work and other commitments.  She didn't relent though and suggested I meet them in Hamilton Island when they reached there on their trip.  My initial inclination was to say no, as I didn't want to intrude on their trip, but Manon's mum was also insistent.  What was stopping me?  My lack of travel within Australia was getting strange as was the fact that I had actually seen a very small portion of the country.  The furthest north in Australia I had ever been was Brisbane!  What's more, Hamilton Island held a special childhood appeal to me.  This would be a trip to a Great Barrier Reef!  I agreed to go.

The trip to Hamilton Island was a bit more annoying than expected.  Heavy clouds meant that my flight couldn't land in Hamilton Island and instead we were diverted to Prosperine airport.  We then got shuttled to Airlie beach, and we were ferried over to Hamilton Island.  It had taken a lot longer than expected, but I still arrived.

The whole place felt like a throwback.  It felt like what I expected a perfect beach resort to be when I was a kid and it was still the 90s.  There decor, the designs and just the entire look of the place was still stuck in the past.  In a strange way, that was fine for me.  Everything was still clean and exceptionally well maintained.  In any event, it still felt like a tropical paradise.

As evening fell, the quiet of the island took over.  Sitting on the balcony of Manon and her mum's hotel suite, I felt the beautiful calm of being so far from work and the crowds.

We went for an early evening walk up to the top of a nearby hill to look out at the view.  There seemed to be a longer dusk here than normal, maybe because of the lack of any buildings to interfere with the light.  Who knows?  We went to sleep early.

The next day, we went out to the reef!  This was the reason for coming out to Hamilton Island.  Located within the Whitsunday Islands, it is the perfect embarkation point to explore surrounding reefs and waters.  Manon had arranged for us to go out to a floating platform for the day which included a huge range of activities and food.  It was all incredibly touristy, but also amazing.  Everyone was in a fantastic mood and it was infectious.  When everyone around you is happy, it's difficult not to become happy yourself.  We arrived at the platform and there was a huge amount of stuff to do and see.  We went snorkelling, scuba diving and swimming.  There were various underwater viewing rooms to look at the reef and the fish.  There was even a semi-submersible boat which had windows all along the sides which would take people out further into the reef for tours.

I had a great time.  I felt completely re-energised being in the warmth and the sunshine.  Being outside and in the water made me feel happy in a way I hadn't been for months.  As the day continued, I lay on the upper deck in the sun, chatting with Manon's mum.  Manon meanwhile had run off to do more scuba diving.  To the side of the platform, a family boarded a helicopter to go and have a look at the famous heart-shaped reef outcrop which seems to be in almost every marketing campaign for visiting Queensland.

When we sat on the ferry to head back to Hamilton Island, everyone was much quieter.  No one was sad or upset, but half of the passengers were asleep in their seats.  It was an exhausting day in the very best of ways.

Canberra in the winter

I'm really not used to the cold anymore.  Sydney has made me soft and weak with its good weather and temperate climate.

I was in Canberra visiting some friends and I could not believe how cold I was.  Standing outside, when the wind was blowing, I really didn't have any resistance to it at all.  The cold cut through my coat as though it wasn't there and sucked the life out of me.

My friend brought me to have a look at the new arboretum.  I never knew what an arboretum was until I arrived.  Apparently it's a tree museum or something like that.  Whatever it was, it was quite scenic.  Much of this area had been destroyed by the Canberra bushfires back in 2003.  I was lucky to have been away from Canberra during those fires, but I remember reading emails from friends who were dealing with the terror of the approaching fires.  It was nice to see that the area was now being used for something useful.