Return to Hayman

More than half a lifetime ago I scored my dream job at Cosmopolitan magazine.

Well, my actual dream job as a teenager was to edit Dolly magazine, but I expanded the fantasy to include any role on a women’s magazine when I entered adulthood.

In my early 20s I was beside myself with excitement to start work as a sub-editor at Cosmo. Within months of joining the team, I found myself on a plane to Hayman Island.

Cosmopolitan Australia was a joint partnership between US giant Hearst and Kerry Packer’s ACP Magazines and Hearst vowed that if we got the circulation of Cosmo to 400,000 they’d fly the whole staff to Hayman to celebrate.

We did. And they did!

I don’t remember much about the trip other than general fabulousness, a massive pool and the most spectacular snorkelling right off the beach.

(Although there was nothing spectacular about my daggy attire in this throwback pic!)

My attempt at snorkelling was pretty pathetic – I was a panicked non-swimmer who was only able to stick her head under the water for brief moments.

But those moments were filled with dazzled joy. It was crystal clear and literally technicolour below the surface – the most stunning coral I’ve ever seen.

I was too young and inexperienced to understand how special that was.

I’ve spent the latter half of my life in pursuit of coral that matched its glory without success.

Fast-forward to last Thursday and DD and I headed to Hayman Island in celebration of his significant birthday.

I felt slight trepidation about the disappointment that awaited me under the water – I was fairly certain that spectacular coral just off the beach at the resort would be gone.

But there wasn’t the time or the weather conditions to find out on our first day there. The rain was drizzling down as we boarded a catamaran at Hamilton Island Airport to transfer to Hayman.

We still felt very fancy despite the conditions as we sipped free-flowing Bimbadgen sparkling and shared a nibbles plate during the one-hour boat ride.

Most people stayed inside the boat, but I perched on a stool on the deck sipping my sparkling, watching the islands go by and a lone whale undulate past.

After disembarking on the island we were given a tour of the facilities and led to our room, where a bottle of complimentary Bimbadgen sparkling was waiting on ice.

The room was almost as big as my apartment and just a few steps from the beach, with the most gorgeous view of palm trees swaying in the breeze.

We wandered down to the shop to grab a late lunch of coffees and a sandwich, ate them poolside then headed to the activities desk, where we discovered that just about everything was booked out during our entire stay, even the restaurants.

So my top tip for anyone planning a special occasion trip to Hayman Island is to pre-book everything before you travel.

Fortunately we had pre-booked our first night’s dinner at Bam Bam, the poolside pan-Asian restaurant, where we shared a lobster and pomelo salad and prawn noodles in XO sauce. The noodles were our lip-smacking pick of the dishes.

I was also dazzled by some of the items on the “snack” menu, which included a $95 balmain bug sandwich. Blimey!

My day filled with sparkling wine made it feel like midnight when we finished dinner at 7.30pm. We wandered back to our room, I had a bath and then I crashed in the fancy four-poster bed for an early night.

And I think that’s enough chitter chat for one blog post. I’ll fill you in on the rest of our amazing trip tomorrow!

PS I returned to the real world with a thud last night, when I was greeted by a sign on the apartment block door warning residents to keep everything locked because that “get in the effing car” and accompanying sirens incident I heard in the middle of the night last week turned out to be an apartment break-in and attempted car theft. That reality check was followed by yet another all-night symphony of concrete saws and jackhammers as the never-ending traffic light upgrade near my apartment continues. Sigh. And it’s back to work this morning!

Song of the day: Kylie Minogue “Step back in time”