Chasing summer to the Whitsundays

With summer officially over in Sydney, I was thrilled to be invited to the Whitsundays for a long weekend as a guest of Tourism Queensland. Having never been further north than Brisbane, I couldn’t wait to experience what Far North Queensland had to offer. Since starting This Island Life, I’ve travelled the world in search of the best beaches and islands on the planet. But it turns out, some of the most incredible were right here in my own backyard.

The Whitsundays is group of 74 islands located smack bang in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef – the largest coral reef in existence and one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It’s actually the only living thing on earth that’s visible from space!

We flew direct from Sydney to Hamilton Island and hopped off the plane just two hours later in what can only be described as a tropical paradise. The sun was shining, there were palm trees everywhere and our transfer was by boat. We headed over to Airlie Beach on the mainland for a two-day blogging conference before making our way to the exclusive Hayman Island by HELICOPTER!

Over four idyllic days we island hopped around the Whitsundays by boat and chopper, where I shot the latest N.L.P Women (formerly A.T.G Women) neoprene swimwear for our new Bikini Love section, made awesome blogging buddies, frolicked on the best beach in Australia, drank champagne like it was going out of fashion and learnt the coolest island life fact ever.

Did you know? If a starfish gets lonely, it can detach one of its five arms to grow a ‘special friend’. A starfish arm takes around a year to grow into another starfish, and their arms regenerate.

I loved the Whitsundays so much I’ve already booked a girls long weekend to Hamilton Island in October YAY! Stay tuned, because over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing our stories from this magnificent part of Australia.

Flights go daily from Sydney and Brisbane direct to Hamilton Island with Jetstar and Virgin Australia. We used Whitehaven Beach Day Cruises for our transfers. For more information on how to get there, visit Tourism Whitsundays.

Have you been to the Whitsundays? Which was your favourite island?