Christmas on Hayman Island

Christmas

G'day Mates! Wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

My Australian Christmas: It was the most different Christmas I have ever had. The reasons why......

1. It's an average of 30 degree Celsius everyday, therefore, it literally does not "feel" like Christmas.

2. A tropical island.....which is a new one for me :). 

3. Spending the day at the beach with a lot of people that I didn't know well or simply did not know.

4. A lack of Christmas spirit (in my perspective, of course). The typical Christmas is spent getting "pissed" or what I know as getting drunk. Most Australian felt that it was a normal holiday, nothing unusual.

5. No Christmas services

6. No Christmas programs to enjoy

7. Unable to watch the magic of Christmas in little children's eyes, when they open up their Christmas presents. :)

8. No prune tarts :) ......or any of the traditional Christmas food.

9. There was no Christmas tree to be found anywhere.

10. No original peppermint candy canes.

Regardless of the differences, it did feel like Christmas in one aspect. I was fortunate enough to visit with friends and family over Face Time, which was awesome :) Thank goodness for technology! It's so easy to chat to people!

Christmas Eve was spent over at D1, Mia and Buff's room! Our rooms do not have any furniture other than beds, so that's why you will not see us sitting on a lovely sofa or arm chair ;).

Miss Mia!

Christmas Eve snacks! It was all the corner store had to offer :). This was the first time I had Doritos and salsa as a Christmas Eve food!

Spent the evening with my awesome travel companions, relaxing, singing and just being.

Bon Bon's. These are an Australian tradition. They are mini fire crackers. They often have them on the Christmas tree as decoration, but they are usually filled with a paper hat, a piece or two of candy, a small toy and a joke. Before you sit down to eat Christmas dinner, you would pull one end, while another person pulled the other end. It then "cracks" open. Then you put your paper hat on your head and eat dinner. 

Pablo and Fabrina are from Argentina. They are a couple of my co-workers :)

My Christmas dinner plate!

Yummm!! Dried apricots, almonds and pistachios! A good combo :)

Part of the AHS work crew!

Ann! Seafood is a traditional part of the Aussie Christmas.

Mango cheesecake, cherries and pecan pie! Yumm :)

Chillin at the staff beach with a bunch of folks! Slacklining, listening to the guitar and harmonica, watching a backyard game of cricket. Oh and playing catch with a football.....so much fun. Although the footballs here are not the same, it was still a hoot :)

Enjoying the warm waters of Christmas Day

Tony and Haidi! A couple of my awesome co-workers.

The music players

I love Buff's laugh in this pic! :) and Brianna is loving it too!

Australian Christmas

Sunset slacklining!

 Boxing Day morning hike to watch the sunrise! Brianna and I joined Brian and Tiffany on this early morning adventure :). Although it was so early, it was worth it, especially when I don't wake up too early on a regular basis ;). We ventured to Dolphin Point, an island lookout, to watch the sunrise. Beautiful!

The morning light starting to come through!

Brian and Tiffany, fellow Americans! When you meet someone who knows Wayzetta.....Wuolett Bakery and Punch Pizza to name a couple, you realize how small the world is! Tiff is from MN. 

Bambs, loving the morning :)

Sunrise!

Love it! Life is grand!

Boxing Day evening.....at the staff beach! During the day we relaxed at the staff beach again and to my delight, I met this amazing family that is new to the island! The father is going to be the new school principal. His wife is going to be a teacher. Class size at the beginning of Feb will be five. They have two kids! Adorable I might say :). They wanted to slackline, so I gave them a hand and they loved it! This is Noah, my new buddy, who just yesterday gave me the most adorable picture that he drew of the slacklining events!

And here is Tilly giving it a go!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and may your New Year be wonderful! Cheers until next time! :)

Christmas Greetings

The life I know, Part Two.

Part Two: Arrival at Hayman Island

At 0630, the alarm goes off. Wait, what?! Am I really waking up to an alarm? Aren't I on vacation somewhere?! haha! Yes, it's true. I get up and go to work, just like majority of the people in the world :). It's good though, I am a housekeeper for the Hayman Island Resort! It's a wonderful thing, to live and work right on the Great Barrier Reef....even if it does mean a person must scrub a toilet or brush the tile gout. For starters, Hayman Island in the northern most island of the Whitsunday Islands, located off the coast of Queensland in the Great Barrier Reef. There is a staff village for all staff members, which is separate from the main resort. However, since they are remodeling some of their rooms....there is no extra room in the staff village because the construction workers are utilizing the rooms. What does this mean for us? It means we get to stay in the resort for yet another week! I mean....a girl is quite happy when she gets to trade mopping the floor or dusting the shades in exchange for a room in the five star resort! I must say, waking up to the sunrise, or watching the sunset from my room is quite amazing. Although, I must admit that I more often see the sunset then the sunrise. (The extent of my sunrise watching is when I open my eyes a couple times to see the sun coming up....then rolling over to sleep again. haha.) So here goes.....life on an island, always something new :)

Aerial View credit of the Hayman Island Resort website. http://www.hayman.com.au

The four of us pleased to be heading out to Hayman Island. Here we are on the ferry getting ready to go! Surprise, we were treated as guests because we were going to be staying in the resort rooms instead of the Staff Village. Of course, much to our delight!

Hayman Island Resort from the ferry. 

And must I say much more......our room was poolside!

Oh my gosh, it's beautiful! These words have come out of my mouth so many times, I don't know if I could recall the number :) I mean, common on....don't you agree?! This was the first night on the island. Brianna and I took a brief walk up to Whitsunday Lookout and this was one of the views along the way.

Whitsunday Lookout. Notice the textured part vs. the blue part. This textured part is part of the Reef! Cool Eh? 

Looking down on the poolside of the resort. 

The staff beach.

Brianna....mastering the slackline!

Simply gorgeous, plus this may be the best spot to slackline!

And yet another view, looking towards the resort!

The view looking towards the staff beach. Don't you just love the water?! It's so beautiful! The beach you see is the end of the guest beach.

The view going up toward Whitsunday Lookout again! A storm was coming in and it looks as though it might have been threatening, but it really wasn't bad at all!

Aren't the trees just great. Perhaps they are a bit like Dr. Seuss trees (or one type anyway).

Bambs! Hiker buddy and roomie :)

Oh, I love this! Majority of the storm bypassed Hayman.

Success! We still got to see the sunset....which is why we went hiking in the first place. :)

Here is the beautimous setting sun!

A look a the resort on the way down!

So here we are, hiking over the island to the other side, where we are going to snorkel! This is day number five (Sunday) on the island and besides the spit of rain that we had, we have not had another drop since. It's only a couple K to Blue Pearl Bay, our destination! We were okay that it was the weekend after working two days, we already needed a break :). J/k, but it did feel good to get some more exploring done, because there is just stuff to see and when your working you can't go see amazing things! Along the hike, we were continually amazed at the ocean and it's blueness! I have wondered a few times, "Is this reality?!" :) It's so awesome - the people I work with, my travel companions, the island scene, the adventure of it all, and feeling quite fortunate for this opportunity!

A type of palm tree, I believe.

Xerox, sniping pics of the amazing scenery!

Bear with me, cause I just have to show you! I look at these pictures and I am amazed by it all...and then I look out the window and there it is again! :) 

Blue Pearl Bay - the snorkeling destination!

Blue Pearl Bay is a coral beach! Remnants of coral are everywhere in every shape and size!

I am not sure what this is exactly, but it was on a tree and I thought it looked neat! 

Snorkel gear!

A view of the coral! 

Another view of the bay! 

Snorkeling was a hoot and more! :) This was my first time and I can't wait to go again, but next time with an underwater camera. Some people saw turtles, but I never did. What I did see was a tons of multi-colored fish! They were amazing :) I was giddy with such an experience and felt even more lucky because staff members get a discount on the snorkel gear. As you can see in some of the above pictures, is the boats. This is a destination spot for tour boats, where they take people out scuba diving and snorkeling! It was simply an experience that words really can't describe. I do know.....I was a ecstatic to have such and experience!

Another view of the resort! If anyone wants to come visit, feel free to stay here!

The view from the Whitsunday Lookout! Isn't it crazy how much one place could look different each time you see it! Because of the sunny day, the water was exceptionally blue/green! Gorgeous :)

Xerox loving the view!

This is all I have for now folks! I apologize that I have kept you hanging in suspense for a bit, but now you get two blog posts to read and that will keep you entertained for the next little while! I hope you are well and may your Christmas season be merry and bright! Cheers :)