Posts filed under 'Diving'
Today marks my third month of employment at Lizard Island. The time has absolutely flown by. You wouldn’t think that much would happen on a small isolated island on the Great Barrier Reef, but believe me, it does!
Last month the entire island was evacuated to the mainland thanks to Tropical Cyclone Ingrid. All the guests were flown off first of course, followed by the 80 resort staff. We spent 3 days in Cairns watching, waiting, and partying our asses off! I am quite sure that everyone in Cairns knew that Lizard Island was in town. There were many, many toasts made to Ingrid in those 3 days. In the end, Ingrid went slightly north of the island, sparing us any major damage (thankfully). For another 3 days after returning to the island, we had no guests. Much time was spent taking all the tape off the windows and putting back outdoor furniture.
After that we were back in business, and the numbers quickly picked up again. I can’t speak about other people on the island, but as a housekeeper I am extremely, extremely busy during every single moment of my day. It is hard work, especially in the heat of the tropics! Lately I have had to force myself to go to the beach, just so I don’t forget the reason why I am here. Some days though, cool things happen that make up for the hard yakka. Some things like meeting famous celebrity guests and/or partying with them at our staff bar or on their private yacht. If you sense a story or two there, you’d be right, but as an employee of the resort, I cannot divulge such secrets!!! The last 2 weeks have been interesting, exciting, and fun, let’s
keep it at that!
Let’s see, other than yet, well yesterday I got to see the crocodile that has been living in our creek. Yes, he’s a salty, so I hope I never run into him face to face in the water, but watching him from a rock above was pretty darn cool. That was on my Friday evening as the sun was setting, and I personally I think that’s a pretty awesome way to end a hard week’s work, don’t you?
View of Watsons Bay from Cooks Look
Sunset at Watsons Bay
Best way to spend a day off – underwater
April 5th, 2005
Life on Lizard Island continues. I am on a day off today. Guests often ask what we do on our days off here. Last week I went on the boat to the Outer Reef for the day. I did 2 dives – one of which was at the famous Cod Hole. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday, huh? Today I went over to the Research Station. I’ve got a new part-time job cleaning the caretaker’s house over there. It’s a great way to make some extra cash and also a chance to meet some different people. Every 2 weeks I’ll be going over there to clean for 4 hours. Luckily they pick me up and drop me back off when I’m done; otherwise I’d have to walk 2km each way! That was my morning today; in the afternoon I went to the beach and went snorkeling for an hour. It was raining a bit today, but it doesn’t matter when you are already in the water. I saw lots of good stuff, including a school of 15 unicorn fish, 3 boxfish, a blue-spotted stingray, a juvenile batfish, and a Maori wrasse.
After my last entry, I got a few comments about the island. I should repeat that the resort here is 5-star, so my job in housekeeping doesn’t involve cleaning up after drunken teenagers trashing rooms. I only clean up after drunken millionaires and their wives! No, it really hasn’t been that bad cleaning the rooms, although it is physically hard work, and the tropical heat can be a bit much at times. Mostly the guests are very neat and tidy. One thing that is very different here from the mainland is that none of the rooms are locked with keys. Why bother? We are the only resort on the island and the only way to leave is by plane. Even the staff rooms are unlocked. It’s nice not to have to carry any keys around, or worry about losing keys. Of course the guests can lock the door once they are inside for privacy, but we don’t lock the rooms when they are not there. It takes some getting used to for our guests from big cities. Usually on their first night here, they will accidentally lock themselves out and then we have to dig the keys out of the office to get them back in.
All of the electricity on the island comes from generators. We have a tower for the phone lines, but every time it rains it seems as if the phones go out. (Last Christmas it rained and none of the staff were able to call their families!) There no also no televisions in the guest rooms. Luckily the island has fresh water on it, and so we are able to get our water from a well. Every 2 weeks we have a barge that comes from Cairns with food, fuel, and supplies. The same barge carries all of our food waste and rubbish back to the mainland.
What else? That’s all I can think of at the moment.
Chinamans Ridge at sunset
Black tip reef shark
Trawler Beach, one of 24 beaches on the island
February 23rd, 2005
Well I have been here on Lizard Island for one month now, and so far I am adjusting well. Living and working here is very different than living and working on the mainland, that is for sure. Lizard Island is definitely what I would consider a ‘remote’ place. The island has a resort (where I work) and a research station, and that’s it. There are no shops (other than the gift shop in the resort); there are no restaurants, shopping malls, cinemas, supermarkets, doctors offices, NOTHING. If you have bucket loads of money and want to have a holiday on a beautiful remote island in a 5-star resort, Lizard Island is the place for you. Otherwise you will have to come here as staff, like me.
There are approximately 80 staff members currently working for the resort. We have 40 rooms and can accommodate 80 guests at the most, so the staff to guest ratio is quite high (even higher now that we are in the low season). All of the staff live on the island. There are 2 staff areas – one is called Manhattan and the other we call the Bronx. I live in the Bronx. I have my own air-conditioned room, but I share a bathroom with another girl (she works in the spa). There is one road that runs behind the resort that we can drive golf
buggies up and down to deliver things, and there is an airstrip on the island; otherwise no roads. All of the guests (and staff) arrive by plane. It is a one-hour flight from the island to Cairns. If you want to get away for a few days, you have to fly.
The island is serviced by the Royal Flying Doctors, so if we have an emergency, they will fly in and fly the person out. We used them about 2 weeks ago when an 11-year old boy was stung by an irikangji jellyfish. The Flying Doctors arrived within 50 minutes. (The boy was in the hospital for a few days but he is ok). We have 2 nurses on the island as well.
The staff have very few options as to how they spend their money here, but somehow from what I can see they seem to be pretty good at spending it all on alcohol. We have a staff bar on the island called the Marlin Bar, and it is only open on Wednesday and Saturday nights. We also have a staff store that is open 2 days a week for one hour each day and we can purchase snacks and more alcohol. In addition, there is a barge that arrives every two weeks that has all of the food for staff and guests. The staff can make their own supermarket order and have it delivered on the barge. You have to plan well though because if you miss one, then you don?t have another chance for 2 more weeks. And if you miss that hour that the staff store is open, you have to wait another 3 days until you can buy something again.
The benefit of working here is of course that you do live here. The entire island is national park, and the beaches are pristine. Diving and all activities are free for staff, and we get discounts at the resort spa as well. (I had a foot massage last week and I got it at 50% off!) There are 20-some odd beaches on the island and the snorkeling is great on all of them. We also have a little 1000-foot mountain in the center of the island and there is a great walking track to the summit. We have surf skies and catamarans too. So far I am finding lots to so on my days off. Yesterday I swam over to Palfrey Island, an uninhabited island to the east of Lizard Island. Today I snorkeled in Watson?s Bay. There is so much to explore.
The job itself is not all that exciting, but I am not here for the job as much as I am for the place. I am working as a room attendant, and as in most corporate resorts, I am overworked and definitely underpaid. I literally RUN around the rooms as I work because we have to do so much in a minimal amount of time. Hey, at least I am active. The work is physically hard, especially in the heat of the tropics. The best thing I like about the job is finding all the stuff that the guests leave behind like books, magazines, and other little odds and ends. Believe me, in a place this remote, every book and magazine is read and passed around amongst the staff!
Anyway there is lots more to tell about this job, but I will leave that for the next entry. I will try to write more often now that I’m in one place for awhile.
One of many great diving spots near Lizard
How cute is he!
Another great sunset at Watsons Bay
February 4th, 2005
I am absolutely exhausted and the last thing I want to do right now is write in the journal, but I know I’ve gotta write now or else I won’t be able to capture the emotions of the day. It’s 10pm and I really cannot believe it, but I am in Sepilok at a B&B just outside of the Orangutan Sanctuary. It’s truly amazing that I made it here in one day.
This morning I was up at 5am, not because I had to be, but because another storm came through Kapalai to bring in the new day.
I had my final 2 dives this morning, one at 8:30am and one at 11:00am. These 2 were without Thomas because he’s flying today so he had to finish diving yesterday. Good dives. I said goodbye to the turtles, moray eels, cleaner shrimp, flying gurnards, and all my other marine friends.
Had lunch at noon and then Thomas and I were on the boat back to the mainland at 1pm. The resort van was waiting to take Thomas and 4 others to the airport, and the driver was kind enough to drop me off at the bus station along the way.
Bye-bye suitcase travelers, hello backpacker grunge.
The bus station was a harsh reality of me resuming my budget travelling.
I told the guys there that I wanted to go to Sepilok and they said ok take this minivan first then switch at this other town. Actually, they call them ‘bas minis.’ Anyway I said fine. I then proceeded to wait 2 HOURS just sitting in the van waiting for it to fill with people so we could leave. Ugh.
FINALLY we left at 4pm. We weren’t even on the road for a full minute before we stopped for gas. Ahhhh!
In 2 hours could you not go and fill up the tank???
Then we went to this guy’s house to pick up his suitcase, all the while I am thinking there is no WAY I am making it to Sepilok today.
Once we actually got moving I felt a little better. During the ride though I had to tolerate 2 men who were chain smoking the entire ride. Ok, get this, in the van there are THREE big signs that say ‘NO SMOKING.’ From anywhere you sit you can see ALL THREE, and still these guys were just puffing away.
It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where this guy sits next to Jerry and says, ‘Do you mind if I smoke?’ And Jerry says, ‘Not at all, I second-hand smoke 2 packs a day.’
Well, I think I second-hand smoked at least one pack today.
Anyway, I got to the next town, Lahad Datu, at about 6:30pm and it was already dark and I was the only foreigner on the van and admittedly I was getting nervous that I wouldn’t be able to get another bus today and I’d have to try to stay in this shanty town for the night. The guidebook actually says about this town that it’s a very dodgy place full of pirates and thieves and to try to avoid it if at all possible. Lovely.
Well lucky for me the guys in Semporna were actually right in telling me I could catch another van today and the driver took me right up to the other van and I hopped in and was off. There were only 3 passengers on that 3-hour leg here; it was raining mostly the whole ride and we passed more than one accident, but I was still feeling better off than if I’d had to stay in that shanty town.
The driver was really sweet in the end and helped me find a place to stay which is where I’m at now – the Sepilok B&B. It’s so great when things work out like this.
Orangutans tomorrow!
My last day of diving (until next time…)
September 18th, 2002
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