Island paradise: lazy days in the Whitsundays

Almost all the islands are national park, part of the Great Barrier Reef, and most are uninhabitated.

Hamilton Island, however, is privately owned. It was bought by legendary developer Keith Williams, while Beatle George Harrison once owned a house on the northern tip and played guitar in the local hotel and venues. The house that George had built is still there.

In 2003, Australian yachtsman Bob Oatley bought the island, sparking a revival. In recent years the Oatley family has spent close to $300 million improving hotels on Hamilton Island's Catseye Bay, building a nearby golf course and a new yacht club.

The view from the island's peak (195 metres) is worth the walk, although, at 45 minutes one way, it is best enjoyed in the cool of morning or afternoon.

It provides me a bird's eye view of the route for our ocean race around the Whitsundays the next day.

Plain sailing

Our vessel, Condor, is part of world yachting's history, an 85-footer that twice won the Sydney to Hobart (1983 and 1986), as well as the World Maxi yacht championships, the Newport to Bermuda races and the Miami to Montego Bay. She is the only maxi yacht to have won each major race twice.

Today Dave Molloy skippers the Condor. The former Sydney police detective has spent $300,000 restoring the giant maxi over the past five years, outfitting the galley, installing new motors, replacing the sails.

Our crew is charged with trying to win back Race Week honours for the sleek-lined ocean yacht after its overhaul. With an air traffic controller, a mine compliance worker, a nurse, an army lieutenant, two builders and a journalist amongst our crew, it was perhaps lucky Dave had his own three experienced crewmen aboard to help guide us.

We are divided up according to experience. While more seasoned sailors take the ship's wheel under Dave's watchful eye, I am allocated to the “grinders” - winches that you wind vigorously by hand to raise and lower the sails, to tack to catch the wind.

And catch the wind we do, as the Condor took the honours in Hamilton Island's Race Week in Cruising Division 1.

It's an undeniable thrill on a gorgeous spring week, with just the right mix of drama – one of the specialist crew almost sliding from the Condor trying to stop a sail being washed overboard – and genuine ocean racing majesty.

Condor arrives home with “the big yellow balloon” - its famous spinnaker - filled by the final breaths of the 18-knot wind that pushed us through the Whitsundays' course. A few celebratory beers marked our win before heading back to the mainland.

Whitsunday gateway

Airlie Beach is a town divided by night and day.

By day, it serves as the portal to the Whitsundays, while there's the picturesque boardwalk leading to the town's man-made lagoon and park. At night, it is for the under 30s.

The main street at night reminds me of Coolangatta. Four pubs or hotels with acoustic guitarists each beckoning people to have a meal and a few drinks.

A good cafe, or an alternative to the pubs and steakhouses, wouldn't go astray.

Back to the beaches

The next day we head to Whitehaven Beach, the pure white, 6.5 kilometre strip of silica sand beach on the northeastern edge of Whitsunday Island that is the main photograph on thousands of tourist brochures.

Our mode of travel is Camira, an 85-foot catamaran that runs daily full-day trips from the Cruise Whitsundays from Abel Point Marina at Airlie Beach.

It's billed as “one of the world's fastest sailing catamarans” capable of cruising at 30 knots and on the downwind leg between Daydream and Whitsunday islands, we hit close to 20. The wind is “oh-so-cold” on the boat's deck.

Thankfully, it's warmer in the water when we go snorkelling over coral in full wetsuits (great for first-timers). On a clearer day, you would have people in their togs, in the “decknet” at the front of the yacht, rather than huddling together inside accepting their mouth-tempting barbeque lunch (steak, local fish, chicken).

Regardless of the weather, Whitehaven Beach is worth a visit to hear the "squeak” of your feet in the sand, to swim and to look over the nearby islands over the clear water.

There are picnic areas, and conservation officers have built “bush toilets” to match the unspoiled environment.

But it's the next day at Daydream Island – 30 minutes by ferry from Airlie Beach - that provides my second real highlight for my trip.

Life is a dream

Daydream Island is the oldest of the five “resort” islands in the Whitsundays and one of the few not geared to backpackers, catering for newlyweds, couples and families looking for a break.

Here you can pat a leathery stingray and hold rough-skinned baby bamboo sharks as well as the regular island resort activities, including snorkelling, swimming, day trips, eating and relaxing.

The fish handling is part of the resort's “Living Reef” experience, built around a network of sea water lagoons up to a metre deep that house blacktip reef sharks, several species of stingrays, reef fish, clownfish, barramundi and eight tonnes of living coral.

This “Living Reef” winds its way through the main accommodation areas on the northern tip of the kilometre-long island.

On my tour, marine biologist Fin Lambermon walks me around the seawater pools to teach me about shark breeding – yes, some shark species breed from eggs – about barramundi, and encouraged me to think of stingrays as shy, timid creatures.

Fin puts pieces of fish under the water and the quiet, two and three-long metre rays move over the top and simply vacuumed them up.

At one stage Fin feeds one ray through a breathing hole on the top of the ray's large flat head.

Then it's my turn. Thankfully the rays have had their tail barbs removed.

We put on rubber shoes to stop us slipping and stepped into the lagoon. I nervously put a slice of reef fish underwater and wait.

Like silent pets, the rays feel like large pieces of warm rubber that need sandpapering. They find my fish pieces and “shlooook”, simply hoover them up, returning again and again for more food. It's an intriguing way to bring the Great Barrier Reef to life and an exciting extra polish to another of the Whitsunday jewels.

Tony Moore travelled as a guest of Tourism Queensland.