After a huge year, John and I recently had ourselves a little Whitsundays mini break. We had 5 days on Hamilton Island, and even though we had the 'mini Debbie' sideways rain the entire time, it was still wonderful to visit this beautiful part of Australia. Despite the weather we still managed a snorkel trip to Hook Island and boat trip to Whitehaven Beach. This is billed as 'Australia's most beautiful beach' and we can vouch that it is! Even with stormy skies – in fact it made it more epic and dramatic. The visibility for snorkeling was 3 metres but the Reef was still amazing and beautiful. The coral at Butterfly Bay Hook Island is pristine and allegedly 8,000 years old – wowza. Because of the of low visibility we were swimming very close to the coral and being super careful not to crash into any of it!