Cathy and I had the fortunate opportunity for a quick visit to Hamilton Island last weekend. We stayed on the seventeenth floor of the Reef view Hotel, with spectacular views over the coral Sea and Whitsunday Island. We went there for long enough as we had some work to do as well as play. On the Saturday we played golf on the new Hamilton island golf course which is located on the adjacent dent island. A short ferry ride takes you across and you are met by a shuttle bus service to the club house.

The Staff had all our equipment and buggies ready and we set off on what became the most memorable rounds of golf I have ever played. The course is superb and the views, nothing short of spectacular. The round took about five hours and I will always remember some of the most spectacular holes. if you get the chance, and you like golf, then don’t hesitate to come and play here. After golf, we inspected the new Hamilton Island yacht Club Villas. These are absolutely spectacular and provide the one thing that Qualia does not, and that is top class Hamilton Island accommodation with the ability to take your kids. The Villas are multi storey and all have magnificent water views. They are located adjacent to the new Hamilton island yacht club.

We had dinner at the yacht Cub restaurant that night which was also fantastic. You must visit Bommies restaurant if you come to stay. We left hammo the next day for Mackay as I had booked a fishing Zcharter with huntress Fishing charters. They run a 36 foot charter service from the Mackay boat harbour. maximum 8 passengers so there is plenty of room. They provided top line equipment as well.

We had a fantastic day and caught an icebox full of prime table fish. At the end of the day we had Coral Trout, Red Emporer, Nannygai and Sweetlip to take home.

It was a quick trip north, but we did have a fantastic time.

Just wanted to let you all know how great our time on Hamilton Island was for us. We had an amazing few days, living like the “Rich & Famous’.

The island is just like the travel brochures with wavey palm trees ( lots of them) azure blue waters and heaps of fancy yachts & boats. We were blessed with the weather – just perfect. A bit on the hot side but that was to be expected as it is December and we are in the tropics. Out plane trip over was comfortable and it really didn’t take all that long before we touched down on the beautiful tropical Island. Despite our long walk across the hot tarmac to the terminal our excitement grew as we saw the many and varied tourists as excited about their holiday as we were. We felt like VIP’s as our names were called and we were met by 2 handsome guys who took us and our bags back to our fantastic resort. Nothing seemed to be a trouble to the staff who were all so welcoming & helpful.

Our room or should I say ‘suite’ was on the top floor (19th), providing us with the most amazing views over the island and some surrounding islands, ie Whitsunday Island. We felt like we were in paradise – well, almost. The food was delicious and there were numerous places dotted around the island where we could indulge. We had to watch the ‘indulge’ bit or we surely would ‘bulge’. First evening as this was our 50th wedding anniversary we checked out the famous Pizza Resturant overlooking the harbour. The pizzas did not disappoint us, neither did the so called sexy cocktail we had prior to our dinner to start the evening off. Very nice indeed.

We mustn’t forget the breakfasts at the resort, these were included in our stay. All you could imagine – everything you ever wanted or dreamed of was on the menu. Our biggest dilemma for the day, what culinary delight to choose? It didn’t take us too long to decide what we wanted and we started each day off well fed and watered! There’s heaps to do on the island, so no chance of getting bored! The numerous swimming pools were all so inviting. We could have rented a gold type buggy to transport ourselves around but decided we really needed too “hoof” it as much as possible as we needed the exercise. However, we did weaken at times catching the little oh so free bus to various parts of the island. The 3rd night we really spoilt ourselves and booked for a dinner cruise aboard a lovely ol 107’ Huon Pine Vessel (came from Tasmania), called ‘Denison Star’. Despite a rather wild storm breaking over us as we left the harbour we throughly enjoyed our romantic dinner even though we had to forego the famous tropical sunset – no way that night! We did meet some great people and had lots of laughs.

The last night we celebrated Bills 75th birthday having dinner at a superb seafood restaurant called ‘Marinas’, overlooking the brightly lit harbour & fancy boats, very nice indeed too.

All too soon our time on lovely Hamilton Island was over – time to head for home. After quite a wait at the terminal we found ourselves once more tramping across the ‘baking’ tarmac to our waiting plane.

Now we are home and as most holidays go, we have some beautiful memories and some fantastic photographs of our time spent in paradise and wonder where the next exciting trip will be?!

All of this now means that we are now having to arrange their nuptials for June 2009 and a return to Hamilton Island is definatly on the cards. We did a bit of investigation on a Hamilton Island wedding before we left and they certainly make it easy. Firstly there is a dedicated wedding planner to take over the organision for you. The chapel is magnificent and is situated high on the hill overlooking the ocean There are wedding cars, celebrants, flowers, hairdressing and beauty and a range of reception options all available to choose from. Hamilton Island is the ideal wedding destination as guests can fly in direct from anywhere in Australia and combine a short holiday with the celebrations.