Elite Traveler September-October 2016

Left: soak up the view from your plunge pool at Qualia, one of Elite Traveler 's Top 100 Suites 2016

elite traveler SEPT/OCT 2016 109

Bob Oatley, Nicky’s late grandfather, bought Hamilton Island in 2003. He made his money first in coffee in the 1960s, just as Australia was developing a serious caffeine habit, then in wine, his Rosemount Estate brand blazing a trail for antipodean tipples on the international market. He sold it for $1.1 billion in 2001 and bought the island, transforming it into a stylish resort, with nature always at its heart. It’s an astute approach given most visitors to the Whitsunday Islands, on the Queensland coast, come for the nature. From the big draw – the Great Barrier Reef – to bountiful bushland and fantasy beaches, this scattering of green and white in the Coral Sea has long been non-negotiable on any naturalist’s bucket list. But in recent years Hamilton Island, followed by neighboring resorts, has also created enough of a chic social hub to draw beautiful people from around the world. Everyone from Carey Mulligan and Leonardo DiCaprio to Johnny Depp and Oprah Winfrey have stayed at Qualia – and it is easy to see the draw for paparazzi-hounded celebrities: privacy. The architect who designed Qualia, which is sequestered in the quiet north of the island, trudged off in his boots with a pad of paper and placed the sleek wooden pavilions freehand, working around trees and scanning the topography to ensure you couldn’t see one from another – the only witnesses to your outdoor shower will be yellow-crested cockatoos. Gazing out from my secluded balcony (Windward Pavilion gets the best sea views) the ghostly gums glow in the sunset and beyond them lie milky blue waters and the lush shores of nearby islands – it is an edge-of-the-world view, and one that invites exploration. You can do this the fast-slow way or the fast way. For speed, Hamilton Island Air will zip you by helicopter to other island resorts. It may be a utilitarian means of transport, but it is still a visual treat: the shallow ocean an ombre of turquoises scalloped with black reef. It puts a thrilling pick and mix of islands at your disposal. For those seeking total luxury, Lizard Island to the north makes one of the grandest boasts of any resort in the world – one beach for every guest. Cyclone Ita battered the island in 2014 but it reopened last year with extra treats – most notably a new 1,022sq ft, two-bedroom villa with views across Sunset Beach and the Coral Sea. All the louvred beach-house-cum-villas are styled in calming tones of pale grey and white by über-cool Melbourne design guru Hecker Guthrie. If they venture out, guests can pick at freshly caught sashimi in the Salt Water Restaurant, sip Louis Roederer in the Driftwood Bar, or have the staff whisk them out to a deserted

island for a beach picnic. One&Only’s Hayman Island resort has a romantic air, with white cotton-canopied beds in its villas, designed in spare, woody Bauhaus style by Sydney architect Kerry Hill. Restaurants run from seasonal fare in super-chic Pacific, to cozy Italian Amici and Pan-Asian Bamboo. A new addition is Aquazure, family-friendly poolside dining. The pool itself has varying depths of water and an area for PADI diving classes. Nearby there’s a boules lawn and ice cream. For a more remote feeling, Heron Island has no TVs, no phone reception, no day trippers – and some spectacular nature to command your attention. Turtles are the big draw – hatchlings scuttle down the beach in April – but snorkelers can paddle straight into the water from the resort's top accommodation, The Beach House, and explore the island's teeming coral reef. Scuba divers, meanwhile, return repeatedly for trips out to a wealth of sites. For those who want to go full Robinson Crusoe, Haggerstone Island looks like a Polynesian village – and is, in fact, halfway You can shower ‘in the wild’ in your gargantuan shower, where the scent of Aesop suds mixes with eucalyptus to Papua New Guinea. Specializing in fishing, expect crayfish feasts, as well as papaya and passion fruit plucked from its orchard. Once you have had your fill of pampering, it is worth experiencing the slower method for exploring these islands. Boats in the Whitsunday Islands are much more than a means of getting across its 109 square miles. Charter a yacht with advice from Abell Point Marina in Airlie Beach, book a berth at Hamilton Island Marina as a base, and the archipelago is your oyster. There should certainly be some spectacular beaches on your itinerary. “Whitehaven (on Whitsunday Island), one of the world’s most amazing beaches, is 98 percent silica,” says Tindill. For divers and snorkelers, a yacht is a key to some of the world’s most magnificent sealife.

kookaburra swoops from a silver-barked gum tree to rest on the edge of my breakfast table, cocking its cartoonish head at the amuse-bouche between us. The morsels of fruit – a sort of chef-prescribed vitamin injection before my daily pile of fluffy pancakes – and the precocious bird, are becoming part of my morning ritual. It’s the kind of animal-meets-opulence experience that litter days here at Qualia, arguably one of Australia's swankiest resorts. You can shower ‘in the wild’ in your gargantuan shower, where the scent of Aesop suds mingles with eucalyptus. You might have to sit still for a long time to spot a wallaby creep out of the bush, but that’s not a chore if you’re sipping a concoction of rum, fresh pineapple and lychee liqueur in the pool on your veranda. The Oatleys, the family that owns Hamilton Island and Qualia, have a very 21st century understanding of luxury. It doesn’t pave paradise but uses nature to amplify the experience. "Seventy percent of the island will always be national park," says Nicky Tindill, the glamorous scion of this dynasty. "We have regulations about building heights and how things sit in the natural environment. Removing trees is a no-no."

Photos: Timothy Burgess; Yoshio Tomii & Lonely Planet Images/Getty Images