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.