Cats, wallabies and a shark…

Location: Hayman Island, Whitsundays, Queensland

Weather: Scattered gathering clouds, strong winds 20 knots, warm, 25°c

I really should get an early night soon, stayed up until 2am getting the photos and collage finished for the blog and then couldn’t get back to sleep. Isn’t it weird how that happens…you’re more tired than ever and would expect to crash instantly but can’t?!

Made my way down to breakfast in Azure and found the first automatic toaster which was actually on the correct setting, normally the toast either comes out the same as it went in or smoking and black. Well done Hayman!

The advert for Queensland/Whitsundays says 300 days of sunshine…that does therefore leave 65 days for clouds/rain/wind and today appears to be one of them. As I munched away on some melon the glass doors at the front of Azure, which overlooks the beachfront, the wind was howling through the resort, bending brollies, cartwheeling the Hobie Cats and making even me think twice about my first appointment of the day…..Watersports Beach Attendant!

A uniform had been delivered to my room complete with Hayman name badge so put them on and made my way down to the beachfront where Luke and Jill were waiting for me. Two of the residents, obviously with much more sailing experience than me (not that difficult as I’ve never done it by myself before!) each had one of the Hobie Cats out on the water and were racing across the tops of the waves getting awesome amounts of speed out of these brilliant little craft – even with the reduced sail area due to the blustery wind conditions.

I’d been really, really looking forward to this, the chance to finally get out on the water and try my hand at sailing. My great buddy Jay has his own yacht which he lives on and one of the things we’ve talked about doing in the next few years is sailing around the world…this would be the start of it all…it will just be interesting to see how it goes in these conditions. Luke ran me through the basics of setting up the rigging, what the sheet and halyard do, tacking, jibing, downwind, upwind – oooo so much to learn. But these little Cats make everything extremely easy.

With the wind dropping all the time I left the sandy beach behind and headed out into the choppy water, pulling in on the sheet to tighten the sail and increase the boat’s speed. As I did the bows cut through the water, lifting slightly as the wind gusted propelling the boat at speed across the ocean covering me in salty spray – this is amazing, a total rush and another new sport I can’t wait to spend plenty of time absorbing myself in.

The next hour was perfect; I raced across the bay learning more about how to sail with the wind, the maximum wind envelope I could enter to ensure I kept my forward momentum and how to turn swiftly without a problem. I loved it and can’t recommend it enough to you – don’t think sailing is a reserve of the rich and famous or particularly difficult I spent an hour out there and came back grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Still working as a Beach Attendant I helped the guys clear the Cats out of the water as low tide approached (there’s a limited 3hr time window here when the bay has enough water in it to allow sailing) and pulled them to their parked positions at the top of the sand, a process which left me with pumping thighs and calves, and feeling as though I haven’t done enough exercise recently!

It had been an excellent day so far and it was only half way through. Next it was time to go and meet Doug Van Wyk Smith, the Landscape Environment Manager who has another important job on the island.

Over lunch he explained the setup of the island and the role that his department play in not just the resort but the management of the entire island including overseeing the new prestigious residential development for which construction is set to start soon.

I’ve found it very difficult whilst staying on Hamilton to swallow the idea of not recycling my waste. Living on an island there just isn’t the infrastructure here to do it. That guilty feeling rushes over me every time I throw away a glass jar, drinks can or newspaper and there’s nothing I can do about it. Frustrating, but it also makes me feel happy that where I live in the UK something is actually being done about it. Hayman have made progress though and, along with aluminium can recycling which has happened for a while, plans are in place to increase the levels of green waste composting on the island and to also install a glass compactor.

It’s great going behind the scenes of somewhere like this, as a tourist or guest you only get to see one side of a resort and not the workings, how things happen and how everything functions so smoothly on the other side of the fence. It’s the hard work, the nitty gritty and the engineering of a major operation like this that interests me.

There’s a population of Wallaby on the island and together with two of Doug’s team I headed into the steep bush behind the resort to try and find them. They’re cunning little critters, agile across the rocky gullies and intent on staying out of our way – understandably! Then after an hour of climbing and searching two scampered away into the distance dashing for cover, but I’d seen one and that’s what mattered.

Down at the operations HQ there was a surprise in store for me, over the past few days two little local creatures had been brought in as they’d been found in difficulty on the resort – a Green Tree Snake and a Cat Shark. The Landscape Team have been looking after them and it was now my job to help release them back into the wild – this is like a series of Pet Rescue and I get to take part in it. Sweet.

The snake was easy enough, swiftly wiggling back off to find a sheltered retreat so then Grant carefully took the shark from its holding tank (a little fellow at only 50cms long). We loaded it into a bucket and onto the back of the truck and headed back to the beach. With the tide still at its lowest ebb, we made our way to one of the natural tidal pools on the beach, Grant emptied the bucket out and the shark, slowly realising he was free, made for the deeper water happy to be back in an altogether bigger tank once more

Hayman Island is one of those places where you go to get away from everything; it has solitude, it feels remote and it’s a retreat from the hassles and pressures of everyday life and unlike other islands on the Great Barrier Reef, it can offer you that exclusivity without bounds. In saying that, if you’re looking for it, it can also be a hive of activity with so many discreet activities on offer along the beach and within the resort itself. The shopping offered is superb with a boutique to suit all tastes and maybe if you’re lucky…your wallet too!

The food still wins the Best Food of the Job so far Award…..

End of day location: Hayman

Distance covered: 8kms

Hay-man check out the coral….

Location: Blue Pearl, Hamilton Island

Weather: Scattered clouds, windy, getting cloudy in the afternoon. 25°c

Back on the road again today, or should I say ocean! Off for another week of adventure starting with a trip across the Coral Sea to Hayman.

Bit of a false alarm really, after staying up late to watch the fourth day of the Ashes test match I wedged my eyes open as the alarm clock went off far, far too early I stuffed down some breakfast and raced down to the Airport Marina to meet the boat, which would take us to Hayman for the next two days.

As Bre and I unloaded our bags from the buggy my phone rang – it was the booking office telling us there’d been a few problems with the boat and it wouldn’t be there until 9.20am now…..two hours later! Drat that could have easily been another hour in bed had we have known. Oh well, we’re up and about…..

As 9am arrived we made it back to the marina and this time the incredible Sea Goddess was there to meet us. If you know nothing about Hayman or the resort and this thing turns up to collect you, all of a sudden you can guess what you’re in for!

It was a perfect morning for sailing too; light wind, sunny spells and a blue ocean. After yesterday’s spotting of our first whale we were pretty optimistic we’d see another as we both headed up to the bridge to meet Bill our Captain for the journey. He’s been doing this for over 20 years and knows the ways of the sea and the islands like the back of his hand so the stories come thick and fast. We study a map of the islands and identify some of the peaks and passages we’re passing when all of a sudden…..”WHALE!!”

The familiar sight of one of our blubbery friend’s exhaling hard, sending a plume of spray high in to the air about a kilometre in front of us. As we approach Bill backs off the power reducing our speed and the sound our booming 2,500hp must be making through the water and we drift along just about maintaining forward momentum.

All of a sudden there’s not just one but three flukes breaking the water to our port side as the group make themselves evident to us…..awesome sight, with the best part of all being the synchronised tails of all three dropping below the surface for another deep dive. All of a sudden they were gone, back to their watery world far below….

Monique Grant, Public Relations and Sales Manager, is there to meet us at the jetty and takes us straight to our room – well directs me, Bre is still suffering from her bruised feet so  I’m acting as a piggy-back driver whenever there’s any distance involved, call it good training for the thighs.

We’re staying in one of Hayman’s Lagoon Suites overlooking the landscaped ponds complete with white swan and through to the beach in the distance. The room’s massive…a separate lounge area, huge free-standing bath (big enough for the two of us – as we found out later!) and immaculate wood trimmings. There are a few suites sited in this block, all to the east of the resort and hidden from the coast by an exotic collection of trees, palms and bamboo which in turn attract a variety of wildlife from the surrounding hills.

Nature entwines with the hotel really well; there’s loads of water features, green walls and gardens that must take a huge amount of upkeep – I’ll find out tomorrow as I work as a Landscaper for part of the day – I can’t wait.

On our way back to the room we were walking along the ground floor and came across a dead Rainbow Lorikeet….how totally bizarre. It had appeared to fly straight into one of the buildings pillars and was out cold….well still warm when I picked it up but definitely expired. Totally reminded me of the Monty Python sketch…..”this is an ex-parrot”. (yes I know it’s not theoretically a parrot)

As Bre rested up in the room (the more time she has off her feet the better) Monique gave me a tour of the different accommodation types there are at the resort…and there’s quite a few. If you want the best then aim for the Beach Villa – literally sited with the waves lapping at the plunge pool steps, or the entry level Retreat Room still supplies all the goods you’d expect from a 5* resort.

The pool here at Hayman is breath-taking, there are a couple, but the big one is humongous! A conventional pool at home may hold 15,000 litres of water – this one has 2,000,000 which means a heck of a lot of pool cleaning and much more than I, a simple Island Caretaker, can offer. Up early tomorrow morning to test it out then….

The wind was picking up and our afternoon activity was due to be a speedboat ride across to Langford Island, with the exceptionally low tide today our planned trip to Blue Pearl Bay (our house is named after this!) had to be cancelled so we gathered together our fins, snorkel and mask and hitched a ride across to the long stretch of sand ready to take on the gusts and attempt to soak up some sunshine whilst exploring the underwater world.

We’d been advised that it might not be the best of snorkeling as the tide would be too low/wind was too strong/visibility would be bad and so I wandered into the water expecting the worst and was so pleasantly surprised I couldn’t stop taking photos! Ok there weren’t a huge amount of fish about but the coral was spectacular.

All types, shapes, sizes and colours – I spent nearly an hour in the water diving down and getting closer and closer, snapping away all the time and thought I’d take the time to produce a little collage of all the things I had been lucky enough to see….

Ok the water’s a lovely 25°c but after an hour my usually-badly-circulated fingers were suffering again and started to wrinkle up and turn a decided shade of cream – time to get out me thinks.

Running up the beach I found Bre still ‘relaxing’ on her back in the shade of the umbrella, protected from the gusty wind and wanting to get back to the warmth of the room, as did I. My fingers were getting colder by the minute. I did the only thing a good boyfriend could and tried to warm them by holding them against her much warmer body much to her surprise and disgust!

Back on Hayman we returned to the room and jumped into the bath…just to check you could fit two people in obviously! Dinner was awesome, great company with some of the key figures here on the island and an Asian food selection finished off with chili chocolate ice cream. The food standard that was set by Glenn Bacon a few weeks ago continues….

End of day location: Hayman, Whitsundays

Distance covered: 25kms