From the Editor

I’M WRITING this note on an island off an island. Sentosa may be best known as Singapore’s playground but I can’t hear any excited squeals from nearby Universal Studios or see local families picnicking on the beach. My view is framed by emerald palms and swaying bamboo. The soundtrack is an occasional clicking sound, which I now know to be that of the peacocks who have taken up residence at Capella Singapore.

And the humidity so many people complain about? I absolutely adore it. It wraps around me and sinks into my skin, exhorting me to slow down and live languidly.

Spending a few days on an island is my kind of holiday. I’m already planning my next respite, to Hamilton Island in the glorious Whitsundays. I first ventured there as a beanpole 14-year-old when Keith Williams, the legendary developer and original member of Queensland’s “White Shoe Brigade”, opened the resort. It was all cobalt water, oversized pools and blindingly white condos. I’d never seen anything like it.

Skip forward to 2013 and I returned for Hamilton Island Race Week to stay at Qualia – the Oatley family’s luxurious tribute to coastal Australia. I fell in love with the quiet interiors that didn’t try to compete with the water views. I sat on the deck and squinted at the yachts flying past in the breeze. I floated in the plunge pool and listened to the cockatoos squawk in the trees above me.

This is the tonic.

I go back as often as I can and I like to drop my bags and jump straight into the buggy parked outside my front door. Then I tear out of the gates, swing past One Tree Hill and careen around the island, taking in the views and the sheer Australianness of it all.

There’s something about the wind in my hair and the sense of freedom that takes me back in time. For a moment, I’m 14 again and then I wonder what my teenage self would make of this crazy, wonderful life.

I hope you enjoy our special islands issue.

Kirsten Galliott Editor-in-Chief

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