FEB. 16th -- EXPLORING WHITSUNDAY ISLAND

We have a tour this morning at 9:15 AM.  It is called "Whitsunday's Scenic Island Cruise".
The group of islands called the Whitsunday Isles sits on the southern tip of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.  It is really a beautiful island.

First sighting

We leave from Hamilton Island and cruise around and see all the other outlying islands.

The Marina on Hamilton Island (borrowed the pix)

Lots of big boats in the Marina

The main building in the Marina was built to look like a boat.  Pretty cool, huh.

Our tour boat is completely enclosed with tables and chairs throughout. We get a little safety drill and then they offer us tea or coffee and muffins & scones.  How civilized is that.

Our sweets...

Tea Time.

On one of the islands that we pass there is an 18-hole golf course.  Wow.
Also, there is an airport on Hamilton Island...the only airfield where at the beginning and the end of  the runway, there is water.

We watched a plane come in and land.  There wasn't a lot of extra room.

Very hi-end island...beautiful hotels & resorts

After the tour, we decide to stay on the island and wander around, do some shopping and have lunch on the island.
It's very hot -- we "fried our brains" walking around in that heat (88°F/32°C).  We finally stop and have a fish & chip lunch and a couple of cold beers.  Wonderful.

My new fav...XXXX Gold

A Cockatoo right outside the restaurant 

There are no cars on the island...everyone gets around by golf cart.

We head back to the tender and back to the ship.

We go to the Stars Lounge before dinner for a glass of champagne.
We see Becky & Jim in there.  We met them at the Gala in L.A. but have not seen them since we got onboard.  We chat a bit and decide to have dinner together tomorrow night at 6:30 PM at the Compass Rose.
After that, Carol & Rich sit beside us at the bar.  She is the lady that dislocated her hip the second day of the cruise (they're on the World Cruise) and had her leg in a leg-brace.  The brace is off, and she is walking but has to be really careful.  We chatted for a while and decided we'd call & set up a date to have dinner with them.

We leave Stars and go to the Compass Rose where we are having dinner with Nickie Sheils, who is the General Manager of the ship.  The other couple seated with us is Nick & Carolyn from Naples -- we have had dinner with them once before.
A good evening.

We went back to our room and started to watch "Quigley Down Under" and got tired...we'll watch the rest of it tomorrow.
Bed.
Our excursion tomorrow isn't until 1:30 PM so we can sleep-in.  Yay!