Hamilton Island holiday – last day, portraits of doughnuts
This is post 8 out of a series of 8 posts (the full list is at the end of this post).
This was the plan for our last day on Hamilton Island: go out for a hearty breakfast, then finish packing and tidy up the apartment. Because no one was due to check in at the apartment that afternoon, our Customer Liaison Officer Garth had rung us the night before and let us know we could have a late check-out time of noon instead of the usual 10.00am.
Breakfast at the Beach House
The Beach House restaurant is located near the Main Pool and overlooks the beach. After walking past the restaurant signs a number of times – pretty much every time we used the Main Pool – we were keen to try their buffet breakfast. We arrived with an hour left of breakfast buffet time. It wasn’t very busy, so we had a nice selection of tables to choose from. We chose a sun-dappled table right next to the beach. 
Here’s my plate, loaded up with bacon, scrambled eggs, chipolata, mushrooms, baked tomato and a hash brown. The scrambled eggs were nice and creamy; the chipolatas were served pre-tossed in barbecue sauce; the tomato was topped with cheese and herbs; the mushrooms had been flavoured with cumin or something that didn’t really fit in with the rest of the breakfasty flavours on the plate. I didn’t get a photo of Jac’s plate, but it did look similar to mine. :)
Jac went back for another round – this time she returned with ham, fruit (fresh pineapple, kiwi fruit, stewed plum), cream of rice and a sultana danish dusted with icing sugar.
I liked the look of the danish so much I got myself one. And there were lamingtons too! Lamingtons for breakfast! What a great idea! This lamingon was light, fluffy and super soft in the middle, just how a good lamington should be.
But before I tucked into my sweets, I dug into my second round of savoury hot items – another crispy hash brown, more scrambled eggs, another of those yummy barbecue sauce-coated chipolatas and some spaghetti. The last time I posted a photo of breakfast featuring tinned spaghetti, the response was very interesting!
As we ate, we watched the activity out on the water. There was lots of rowing and paddling going on. The little island you can see in the water is the same one we walked to when the tide was out a couple of days before.
We finished our breakfast with cups of tea and a couple of tubs of strawberry yoghurt, just the standard kind you can buy from a supermarket.
From our experience at the Beach House, I wouldn’t particularly recommend the buffet breakfast. The service was lacklustre – the staff were completely disinterested in looking after the breakfast customers; they were instead preoccupied with setting tables for lunch. Prep is important, but Rule Number One – the customers who are already there are more important than the customers who aren’t there yet! The food was okay, and it was nice listening to the waves crashing nearby, but if you want a fabulous buffet breakfast on Hamilton Island, I’d check out the Reef Hotel; for a similar price, you’ll get a more impressive buffet and far better service. At the Reef Hotel, our dirty dishes were whisked off the table while we returned to the buffet for more. We’d come back with our newly loaded plates to a clean table. At the Beach House, we had to pile our dirty dishes on one side of the table out of our way when we returned with round two, and then pile round two’s dishes on top of round one’s dishes when we came back with round three.
As we had to get back to the apartment to finish packing and tidy up, there was no time for a last swim. It was a shame, as the sparkling blue water looked so inviting, especially since the pool wasn’t that busy.
Garth returned a little after noon to escort us to the airport. I took a photo as we drove up the path for the last time.
The journey home
I wasn’t looking forward to the flights home. I had a really sore bum from the flights to the island, and I was reluctant to have a sore bum all over again. Anyway, this is the view from the window as we flew over Mackay.
We’d hoped to grab a bite to eat in Brisbane between flights since we had another 5 or 6 hour break before our flight to Perth, but the first thing we did when we arrived at Brisbane Airport was buy Krispy Kremes to take home. The Krispy Kreme lady was the crabbiest customer service person I’ve been served by in a long time – lucky for Krispy Kreme, I’d say most people buying Krispy Kreme doughnuts already know about them, really want them, and don’t need any convincing to buy them. This lady was so unfriendly and grumpy she’d put off the uninitiated for sure.
We were worried that if we left buying the doughnuts until closer to our flight, the kiosk would have run out by that time. As it turned out, buying them right away was the right move – when I walked past the Krispy Kreme kiosk a few hours later, the crabby attendant had already packed up and gone home for the night. But back to my original point: now that we had boxes of doughnuts to carry around as well as our carry-on luggage, we were reluctant to go traipsing around Brisbane. We set up camp at the airport in one of the waiting areas, near a TV screen and close to a number of food outlets.
Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the food I ate on this holiday, but I was having terrible cravings for Asian food by this time, having eaten Western food the whole holiday. When it came to dinner time at the airport, I did not hesitate to grab something from Wok on Air, which is another one of those Noodlebox-type places. I chose the Singapore noodles and shared them with Jac – yes, yes, I know, there is no such dish in Singapore! It was freshly stir-fried to order, with thin rice noodles and plenty of barbecue pork, big pieces of fried egg, choy sum and bean sprouts. It was surprisingly delicious!
Jac was still peckish after the shared noodles. She went for a walk in search of more food and returned with some crackers and cheese. We just watched TV, read magazines, went for walks and looked at the shops while waiting for our flight.
The flight home was fine – I slept through most of it. The woman sitting on my right ordered the lamb shank with mashed potato for her dinner – it looked like baby food but smelled quite good.
I had a great holiday, but I was glad to be home again. It’s always such a good feeling to be back in your own bed after you’ve been away. On our last couple days on Hamilton Island, I started missing the cats. I wasn’t pining or anything like that, but for example, every time I looked at my black handbag, it would remind me of Pixel. I’m not suggesting that Pixel looks like a handbag – it was just seeing a black shape on the couch or bed that did it. :)
Krispy Kremes
When I woke up the next morning, I took photos of the Krispy Kremes. I’d bought a Krispy Kreme Sampler, which includes a dozen assorted doughnuts and a dozen Original Glazed. They were packed by Surly the Krispy Kreme Lady in four boxes that held half a dozen doughnuts each. The plan was to give the doughnuts to our housesitters, my sister Juji and boyfriend Jay, who are Krispy Kreme fans as well as being infinitely sweet toothed. We had a family dinner to attend that evening, so we thought we’d give J and J the doughnuts and let them decide if they wanted to keep them for themselves or to share them with the rest of the family. And so now, I present portraits of assorted Krispy Kreme doughnuts. :)
As mentioned in the first of my Hamilton Island posts, the controversial Pink Iced Bobby Dazzler:
Choc sprinkles doughnut:
Choc iced doughnut:
Caramel doughnut:
Very Vanilla:
Strawberry creme filled:
Strawberry drizzled:
Choc custard:
A glazed cruller:
The powdered strawberry:
The plain old cinnamon doughnut:
And of course, the Original Glazed.
So, having gazed at the doughnuts in their plump, shiny glory, which would you choose?
Would I go back to Hamilton Island again? Yes, definitely! But maybe next time it would be fun to visit another of the Whitsunday Islands. Jac likes the sound of Lindemann Island – they have Australia’s first Club Med resort there. :)
This is the final post in a series of 8. Hope you’ve enjoyed it!
The full list of Hamilton Island holiday posts, in reading order
- Hamilton Island holiday Day 1
- Hamilton Island holiday Day 2
- Hamilton Island holiday Day 3 – the wedding
- Hamilton Island holiday Day 4
- Hamilton Island holiday Day 5
- Hamilton Island holiday Day 6 – dinner cruise
- Hamilton Island holiday Day 7
- Hamilton Island holiday – last day, portraits of doughnuts – this post