Hamilton Island is the largest inhabited island of the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland. It's positioned 551 miles north of Brisbane and 318 miles south of Cairns (Cans).

It was also a big surprise island for us. I’m pretty sure that there is lots and lots of money on this island of about 1,400 people. There are NO cars anywhere, but it makes up for it with the amount of four-seater golf "buggies" that are everywhere. You actually need to be careful crossing the street as the locals refer to most tourists as having “buggy brains”. There’s no cost for the bus system on the island, so it’s a good way to explore Hamilton. We did a brief photo stop at One Tree Hill which offered a 360-view of this very picturesque island along with a and a drink at the cafe if needed.

They have a “resort center” that’s near the center of town and again, it’s all free to tourists. You can use any one of the three pools, restaurants and beach toys, albeit they come with a small price for their use. You can even rent a 4-seater golf “buggy” for 4 hours at about 85.00AU, which is definitely the way to go if you want to explore on your this lovely, very contemporary island on your own.

It is also the only island in the Great Barrier Reef with its own commercial airport, which provides for short direct flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns. Like most in the Whitsunday group, Hamilton Island was formed as sea levels rose which created numerous drowned mountains that are situated close to the east coast of Queensland.

If the marina’s yachts are any indication of the money here in Hamilton, there’s definitely no shortage here whatsoever. If the distance wasn’t so very far from Vancouver, this would be a definite place for a return visit. As this is a tender port, we pull up anchor at 4:00 p.m. and we’re off to Cairns (Cans) for arrival tomorrow.

We’ve booked a Tropical Rain Forest & Aboriginal Adventure tour tomorrow in Cairns (5 hour tour) which will provide us with some access to the Aboriginal culture and wildlife along with a ride in an amphibious “duck”. Apparently we’ll learn how to throw a boomerang or play the dideridoo. Hopefully my brief lessons with Lewis Burns from Dubbo will help me master this one. Having traveled a total of 1,111 nautical miles so far in these past five days, we’ve got lots more ground to cover so stay tuned.