18th June- 19th August 2011

Lindeman Island
After being in Cairns for 2weeks and being unfortunate in not finding any work like Jamie and Emily, I applied for a pot washing job on a Whitsunday Island that I received through work and travel via E-mail. The next day I then received a phone call from Nagia who is the HR manager at Lindeman Island and after reading my CV was offering me a maintenance job. She said she would ring back in a couple of days to confirm which she did, however that job had been filled already but she could offer me housekeeper which I still took as I was desperate for work. It was for an immediate start so I had to find means and ways of getting to Airlie Beach- 'the gateway to the Whitsundays.'
On the very same day (Saturday 18th June) I was packed and catching the midnight Greyhound bus to Airlie which was a massive 11hr journey. Oh the joys.
Once I arrived at Airlie (after sleeping for 90% of the ride) I then had to catch a shuttle bus to Shute Harbour, from there a ferry to Hamilton Island and then switch to another ferry which would take me to Lindeman Island.
I arrived to a bunch of people on the jetty waving and singing to us on the boat and then literally grabbing us off and chatting away. I remember thinking 'where the hell am I- bloody Butlins?'. Then once I said I was new staff- 'GE', they more or less left me at the jetty with another girl who was also new staff- Holly.
The first was hard. It was the first time I had been anywhere new on my own and after tea with holly who I got to know a bit and is really nice, I returned to my room which I can only describe as a tin port-a-cabin divided into small signal rooms and it was only 6.00pm. There was nobody else about apart from a few old guys stood outside the little staff bar drinking. I couldn’t even get any phone or internet signal anywhere so I did feel quite lonely and cut off. I started to feel a bit down about what I had decided to do. I remember thinking to myself 'where the hell am I?')
After my first night here, I was up at 6.30am for my first day of work. When we got to the office, everybody was talking and busy getting things ready for the day ahead. There was a lot of French but there was one other English las, Ash who we got chatting to and she was here with her newly wed- Peter. (I'll come back to these 2)
To say its housekeeping, it isn’t that bad after all. We work from 7.30- 4.30. the days go fairly quick especially through July when the resort was full. The worst part of job is having to listen to the 3wicked witches of managers. First theirs Vikki who has a 'face like a slapped arse' who is the top dog. Then there's the 'yes' girl in Sharon who comes and checks our arrival rooms and always finds the smallest of things and tries and gets us running round after her. Finally theirs Vincent. The man that only knows three sentences- 'Good morning guys', 'have a nice day' and the classic 'you know what I mean?'. I'll never forget the morning routine of this job.
When the excitement of work is over, the general routine I got into was to go I the gym or for a run with someone then after straight to tea to pile back on the pounds plus more! Apart from when one chef is on- Haymish which is a story in itself, the food is always top notch. Plenty of choice and there always fruit and ice cream out. To top it off though, the chef now and again will do a pudding which gets everyone’s tails wagging- chocolate sponge and custard, bread and butter pudding, caramel cheesecake to name but a few.
Then when thus animals have been fed, Ash plugs her hardrive into the big screen in the canteen where a good little group of us sit and watch movies. As the group got bigger, Peter always joked that they should start charging like 'pay per view'. To spice our lives up, we sometimes play cards or uno after Peter bought/ found/ nicked a pack and gave them to Ash for her birthday. There's even been a few games of monopoly been spotted. The excitement is just too much sometimes!

All in all, living on this deserted island isn't that bad at all. It's what we do to make it fun that counts. This is done by the fantastic people I’ve met whilst being here. Unlike when we're in hostels, you meet people one day but then gone the next, here you actually get to know people really well. There has been some great characters past by. Most importantly I’ve met Ash and Peter. Two amazing people that have become like my new best mates. I don’t know what would of happened if they hadn't been here. For starters I’d of had no-one to cut my hair (Ash) or anyone to sneak us some coco-pops in a morning on my days off (Peter). Then there's been the comedy times of the banana incident, Ash who has 4 poos a day and the hilarious scooby doo moment when we was coming back from the mountain in the pitch black. Its never a dull when we're all together. Its quite weird how we just seem to click after a couples of just small talk, to where were now talking about meeting up back home.
As well as us getting on so well, they've even managed something no-one else has ever managed before. Something so big my own mum and dad gave up on years ago. Something that makes me owe them my life now... they got to me try and even like new foods! When I say new foods, I actually mean the normal foods of jam, watermelon and my new favourite of all- coco-pops. They are the future. (please see food blog for more)
I’ve also had some great days off here just chilling by the pool on a beautiful day with other people, going kayaking, hitting the beach and the mad day that we went to gap beach and 4 lads got stranded and we nearly had to call for a rescue helicopter to find them. Then there's the amazing memories of Mt Oldfield. A truly amazing lookout at sunset over all the surrounding island.
After being here for 8weeks, I am ready however to move on again, as is everybody. I want to get back to Jamie in Cairns, where he's a bought a camper van for us. I’m getting really excited about starting to travel properly now on the open road like 'Max and Paddy'. Our plan is to set off on the 29th August, heading south- first stop is Mission beach where we're going to kick start the trip off with a 14,000ft skydive, landing on the beach (hopefully).