20:07.160 S  148:55.210 E

Hamilton Island, Whitsundays

23^rd-26^th July 2007

Norbert and Sharon Wijzenbeek kindly invited us to stay at their delightful apartment on Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays.  Here they are next to their Swan 57, Swanky on which they were sailing when we met them in Musket Cove in 2003.

Their apartment overlooks the marina where Swanky has her own berth

IT was cooler than normal, with cloud at the top of their lookout hill, we took a hike to the top to get a good feel for the surrounding islands

Whitehaven is the best beach amongst the Hamilton Island group where boats can anchor when the wind is light and the tide right

Clouds cast their shadows over Hamilton        This is the apartments where Sharon and Norbert live, with golf buggies for transport!

Sharron and Norbert gave us a great surf and turf meal with our friends Rob and Meg who were also there on their boat X-to-Sea which Rob will be racing for Hamilton race week at the end of August

Sharon and Norbie took us to view the amazing murals at BOWEN North along the mainland coast.  There are 22 of these great paintings done on the sides of houses and businesses in the town, which had recently been host to the crew filming ‘Australia’ starring Nicole Kidman, which should be appearing early next year on our screens.

 Another great mural of the Catalina flying boat that my father used to pilot during the war!

We flew over to Cairns, across the coral islands of the Great Barrier Reef to spend time with our friends there

Lady Musgrave Reef is typical of what we saw from our aeroplane window!