So, Sara’s company takes everyone plus family on a holiday every three years or so. Luckily Sara joined right before this trip was scheduled and we were invited along. The trip was to the Daydream Island Resort (caution: terrible web site) which is an island among the “Whitsunday Islands” which are off the Queensland coast and near the Great Barrier Reef.
We left early on a Thursday morning from Melbourne and arrived to Hamilton Island Airport before noon. After collecting our bags, we walked over to the nearby dock for the 30 minute ferry ride to Daydream Island.
After our arrival at the island, we quickly explored the whole of it while waiting for our room to be ready. It didn’t take long given the island is only 1km long and 300 metres wide.
There was wildlife everywhere – kangaroos and wallabies along with all manner of birdlife. We tried to make friends with the marsupials:
Sadly, they seemed more interested in eating grass and just pooping everywhere. They are basically Canadian geese that hop around.
We were also told at check in not to leave our balcony door open if we left the room (who does that?) – since cockatoos are quite smart and have been known to raid the mini-bars for various food. While relaxing in the hot (well… luke warm) tub one day, I actually witnessed a cockatoo fly into a room and a few minutes later fly out with a bag of cashews ($6!) in its mouth. Luckily we closed our door, as this guy was keen to eat our food:
While Sara was off in the mornings doing her corporate “team building” things – I hunkered down and read “The Martian” and generally lazed around like this guy:
It was a good relaxing weekend – we didn’t make it off the island for any excursions, but did get some serious pool / oceanside relaxing in. We ate way too much food at the various buffets and drank lots of free beer. Plus the view from our room wasn’t bad.
On Sunday morning it was time to go, and I got a bit of a treat on arrival at the Hamilton Island Airport marina – watching a 737 approach and land very close to us.
Oh, here we are, enjoying ourselves.
Great pictures. I now want to bring a trained cockatoo with me to hotels to raid other people’s minibars. At 6$ a bag, its pure profit. I can’t lose.
Second, what did you think of The Martian? I’m thinking about reading it this winter.
Remember Mike, the birds are smart, you’d probably have to pay them to do your bidding, thus cutting into your profit.
I liked The Martian quite a bit, I’d recommend reading it.