Cocky love

It’s funny how your memories trick you. I was convinced I snorkeled off the beach in front of Hayman Island Resort 25 years ago, but I was wrong.

There’s no coral out the front of the resort, it’s all sand flats until you are much further out to sea.

I must have hiked with the Cosmo crew over the island to Blue Pearl Bay to snorkel.

DD and I booked a trip to a bay only accessible by boat for the second day of our mini break.

But we turned up to the activities desk and discovered the trip had been cancelled for some unexplained reason, with nothing to replace it.

Dammit!

I wasn’t about to have my snorkelling dream snatched from me, so I convinced a reluctant DD to pack a bag full of gear and trek across the island.

We hiked up and over the hill behind the resort as wallabies peered curiously from the bushes at us.

It was a grey, drizzly morning, but the skies cleared as we sweatily approached Blue Pearl Bay.

It was worth the trip – while vast swathes of the coral was dead, there were still glorious little pockets of purple, yellow, blue and green hard coral, plus the most gorgeous shades of orange and yellow soft coral swaying in the currents.

Not the technicolour dream I remembered from my youth, but still lovely.

The highlight of the day was swimming with a turtle who looked just like this guy, who was totally unperturbed by us floating less than a metre away from him. Magic!

Less magic was hiking back to the resort afterwards, but we soothed our weary bones with cocktails and a sunset dinner at Bam Bam … a ferocious yellow fish curry that even the Thai waitress admitted was too hot for her to handle!

Then DD watched the footy and I crashed in bed … I have a lot of sleep to catch up on!

After our early night we were up at the crack of dawn the next morning and sipped our coffees at the breakfast buffet while two cockatoos made extravagant love on the glass fence in front of us.

It was very educational …

I decided not to take photos of them in the act, which DD said was very restrained of me.

The cockatoos are actually a bit of a menace on the island. We ate our breakfasts indoors to avoid them swooping on our food, while one concussed itself on the sliding door of our room when we accidentally left it open a fraction – he made a dash inside to eat the sugar beside our coffee machine and panicked when he couldn’t get back out.

As for the breakfast buffet at the resort … it was remarkable … a whole room full of cold treats ranging from cheeses to pastries, muffins and fruit salads.

The hot buffet featured the standard bacon, sausages, eggs and hash browns, plus a daily curry, noodles and even dumplings.

My reflux didn’t thank me for it, but I tucked into curry and roti every morning.

After brekkie we boarded a catamaran for the famed Whitehaven Beach an hour away, past an endless parade of picturesque islands.

As we cruised towards the beach, a pod of whales was frolicking less than 20 metres from shore – amazing!

Equally amazing was Whitehaven Beach itself, which is rated as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

If you’re wondering why, THIS is what it looks like from the Hill Inlet lookout, which was too far from our boat landing spot for a beach walk, despite my desperate desire to head there …

Fortunately, the whole beach has insanely turquoise water and brilliant white sand. I had the most glorious dip during our two-hour visit.

Redheads are not supposed to spend two hours in the midday sun, so DD secretly paid $25 for a pop-up gazebo for me to sit under and eat my lunch. So sweet of him.

When we returned to Hayman Island we lazed poolside, sipping spritzes and soaking up the resort vibe.

It was an absolutely magical day and we ended it deliciously with hawker-style chicken at Bam Bam (we begged an early outside table despite the app saying the restaurant was full) to celebrate the last night of our gorgeous mini-break.

But there was still our last morning to go, which included DD’s biggest highlight of the trip.

I’ll save that for tomorrow’s blog post …

Song of the day: Madonna “Holiday”