Dude, where's my yacht?!

Plane ride

I've been to Hamilton Island many times before. At Uni, Club Med Lindeman Island (a 45min boat ride from Hamo) used to fly me per from NZ to work for them in my holiday breaks for a couple of weeks.
I also did this same trip last year. Hamo still never disappoints.

Every year my friends hire a yacht. It's huge, 4 big bedrooms, 2 smaller 'coffins' and 4 bathrooms. This year we even had aircon! Whoooo! Anyway they hire it and cruise around the Whitsunday Islands for 2 weeks, starting and finishing in Airlie. It works out super cheap as my mate Mike is an amazing photographer an he gives his pics to the company in return for a discount.

I can never make it for the whole 2 weeks - too busy and all that jazz. Read can't get additional time off work. So I fly in for the weekend when they moor at Hamilton Island Marina. Fly in Friday and out Sunday. It's cheap, thanks to jetstar, and I only need one day off.

So we flew in Friday 11am and that's when I realized that I hadn't heard from any of them for a few days. When nobody was at the airport to pick us up I had a fair idea that something may have happened.

Hamilton Island

So we started walking up the hill from the airport towards the resorts. My fantastic plan was to hang at the pool bar until they got there. I forgot how huge the damn hill was. 1/4 of the way up a lovely Samoan guy pulled over in his buggy and offered us a ride. He was a bit shy but we were super grateful.

I'm still trying to get a hold of all my mates and settled with message 'I'm at the pool bar where we go for happy hour. Ph dying, come get me when you arrive.' They would know exactly where I am. Shame ph was dying - story I my life. I really need a new one.

The Swashbuckling Pirate & I had a lovely arvo, cocktails in the pool bar, kayaking around the bay and more swimming and cocktails.

Hilariously the whole 'I lost my friends & my boat' thing worked on my favor. I got the kayak hire cheap as when the guy asked were I was staying I launched into my story and he threw in free locker rental. Lovely guy.

Hamilton Island - Pool Bar

Come 3.30pm I was starting to think that we should look at getting a hotel for the night- we still hadn't heard from them. Reception gave us the brilliant idea to call the yacht charter company, which we did. They knew the boat had had some issues and had sent another boat out to help it. Unfortunately they were out of signal so weren't sure of they'd make it to Hamo in time or not. They said wait an hour and see if they call in. So we waited. Still no word. Swashbuckling P decided we should wait another half an hour with a cocktail by the pool. Who am I to argue? With a cocktail in hand we waited.. And it paid off! Sean messages saying they would be arriving into marina in half an hour or so.... What he really meant was 1.5hrs but we weren't to know.

While we were waiting we walked back to the shops/marina. Me, always hungry, decided we should snack so I went and got us creamy Brie and crackers to snack on.

Hamilton Island Yacht Club

After a while we were surrounded by birds. One super curious duck and then some sea gulls. I'm not sure at what point I noticed all the cockatoo around us but there were 6 of them and they were gently taking the crackers from our fingers and then nibbling on it. They even say on our legs. Pretty damn cute. I got a bit photo happy haha.

Cue the yacht arriving and it was all go- settle in, shower, change, drink and to the Yacht Club. I'll write about that experience later, but in short - don't go there.

Back to the Yacht for some drinks then up to Bohemes for some dancing. Everyone rocked out and had an awesome time- I think we were the first to crawl into bed (after hot chips of course) about 2.30am.

Reality Bites/ Post-Holiday Blues

Post-Holiday Blues is a real condition. I swear.

As this article reports “The post-holiday blues might not (yet) be a recognised syndrome but it is something that darkens the first few days after a break for many of us.” The article also provides tips for getting through this difficult time. You can read them HERE. I have been reading them over and over and over…haha

But in all seriousness, it’s not that bad. There are some things I am thankful to be home for. My own bed is one, followed closely by normal food with normal portion sizes and no ‘bags to coach at 7.45am’.

The things I miss from my holiday far outweigh the niceties of being home in Brisvegas though. I miss my new friends the most. And Gemma of course, who is back in Perth slaving away at the mines. We met some awesome people on our trip and after spending all day with them on Contiki for 8-11 days it is sad not to be able to pop down the hall to their hotel room for a chat.. or a beverage… or ten beverages. Thank-god for Facey!! Yewww!

After my new friends, I miss not having my bed made daily, all my food prepared for me, having to organise my own transportation… I'm making myself sound rather lazy here, I better stop there.

Luckily I didn't have to go back to work the day after I returned from the USA as originally planned. Since I resigned while I was away it was decided it would be best that I didn’t return to my old position at the Brisbane Lions and made a clean break. It’s been lovely being a ‘lady of leisure’ this week! I have pretty much done nothing, but still managed to hardly be at home? Not sure how that works…

To recover from my post-holiday blues it is advised to think of things you have to look forward to… ironically all I can think of are my next holidays…

• NZ for a week in exactly one month for a wedding when I am bridesmaid and will see my family
• NZ for a week at Christmas a month after that
• Thailand for New Years 2013
• Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays for the weekend of 18 January.
• My next trip to America… hopefully soon! Anyone wanna come?

Anyway starting my new job tomorrow, must go organise an outfit!