Scuba Diving in the Whitsunday Islands: Hamilton Island

From the beginning it was the Great Barrier Reef that drew me to visit Australia. And to think that since my first visit I'd only been one other time when Michelle was visiting in 2011.

I was headed to Italy right after Christmas, so Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday Islands at the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef was a quick and easy trip to squeeze in before the long haul trip to Europe.

Hamilton Island is owned by Oatley Winery so unsurprisingly all of the restaurants and wine shops on the island sold Oatley Wine.

I stayed at a fantastic resort, Beach Club Resort, which had a beautiful white sandy beach and beach chairs with wait service.  The room had a beach side view with a great big patio that was ideal for relaxing and watching the sunset, with none other than an Oatley Wine.

All of the restaurants on the island had spectacular food and views.  My favorite was the Bommie Restaurant in the Yacht Club which was architected with the sleek lines of a sailboat from the days of pirates long ago. Sailboats and even our scuba diving boat entered and exited the harbour each day sailing by the Yacht Club past the lighthouse.

Coca Chu Restaurant was on the beach and an average Thai Restaurant which was in what felt like a wide open tiki hut that frustratingly didn't allow take-aways for left-overs.  Mariners Seafood Restaurant was right on the mainstreet and had a nice outdoor patio that looked over the marina and had great seafood.

What did surprise me was that the scuba diving required a minimum 2-hour boat ride to the Great Barrier Reef. For some reason, I thought that by being on an island, I'd be a heck of a lot closer to the reef and could crank out 3-4 dives each day. Yet, when I stopped by H2O Sports Scuba Diving Shop, the trips all involved a 2 hour boat ride to the reef, 2 dives and then a 2 hour boat ride back. All totaled, it took a big chunk of the day and I was really hoping to do more diving.

All that aside, H2O Sports was a great dive shop to spend my three days of diving. It was nice to be diving with just a thin lycra protective suit and not a neoprene wet suit that always makes me feel like Gumby. So the water was warm, the reef not as flourishing or as large and further up North in the outer Great Barrier Reef near the Osprey Reef. I saw a shark, a turtle, bat fish, some large grouper that are the size of humans but mostly very small fish.

I've included a few slides shows of my photos and movies taken with my Canon G20, but here are my top underwater photos.

 Photo library of my above water activities



Photo library of Day 1 Scuba Diving

Dive # 167 on Dec. 21, 2012
The Maze, 54 minutes at 12.2 meters. 24 degrees C with visibility of 8 meters.
Saw a white tipped shark, yellow trumpet fish called a flute mouth, and a green moray eel.

Dive # 168 on Dec. 21, 2012
Drift dived from the Stepping Stones to Shark Alley, 45 minutes at 12.4 meters, 27 degrees C with fantastic visibility.
Saw a gigantic hump maori wrasse fish (nick named "Morri"), 3 band damsel fish (black and white), a giant clam, crown of thorn sea star and 2 black nudibranch.



Photo library and movie of Day 2 Scuba Diving

Dive #169 on Dec. 22, 2012
Luncheon Bay, 42 minutes at 15.9 meters, 27 degrees C
Saw large wrasse fish, nice soft coral and did a few swim throughs.

Dive #170 on Dec. 22, 2012
Manta Ray Bay, 44 minutes at 15.4 meters.
Fed human-sized Maori Wrasse in the beginning, giant travelli, bat fish and a flat worm (poisonous) swirling in the water (see movie video).







Photo library and movie of Day 3 of Scuba Diving

Dive #171 on Dec. 23, 2012
The Maze, 45 minutes at 12.9 meters, 29 degrees C with 8 meters of visbility
There were calm sea conditions, I saw a Queen Sea Turtle in the beginning (great video). I bumped my right need on some coral while I was waiting at depth for the dive master to bring two other dives low on air back to the boat which caused a rash despite pouring vinegar on the cut.

Dive #172 on Dec. 23, 2012
Stepping Stones, 45 minutes at 14.8 meters with 8 meters of visibility.
I saw a family of clown fish and another white tipped shark at the end but I had no memory left on my SD card. I won't have that problem again as I purchased a 32 GB memory card for next time.