Here is my honeymoon travelogue. I tried to avoid any undue sappiness. I hope that you find it useful. Reading it over makes me want to go back, but then reading the posts in rec.travel makes me want to go every bloody where. We fully realized before we went that we would only cover a tiny part of the continent. There are nine million other things to do in Australia. We tried to only do one small part (Far North Queensland), and we checked out Sydney because it was there. You may want to do totally different things, don't think our not doing them means we looked into them and thought them not worth it. We wanted an island getaway honeymoon thing; cliche but magical. Lizard Island gave us that. Even on the reef there are many other possibilities. There are other islands with other resorts, and there are the dive boats. We found the Lonely Planet guide to the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef to be extremely helpful in plannng where we wanted to go. And once we were in Australia its comments were uniformly proven correct. I'd call it indispensible if you're seriously thinking about an island. We didn't use the general Lonely Planet guide to Australia, but I'm sure it is excellent. After they are, I believe the best guides to the world, and they are headquartered down under, no surprise they should do it right.
A few more comments on diving: we found the water to be surprisingly chilly. Of course, we were there in the depths of winter (which was quite warm and dry, even in Sydney). Still, winter meant no jellyfish on the coasts, and mostly good, not steaming, weather. Both of those might prove important factors in any trip. The jellyfish can sting horribly, they say. And the tropical weather can really drain a person (I've been in Sumatra and the Yucatan in the hot seasons, and they can take the joy out of the day). Still, Summer further South would surely be a plus.
Last thoughts: you need visas, they don't take long. Check out the tourist info, probably available where you get visas. They had alot of pamphlets with excellent photos to help you plan. Pack light; there are plenty of excellent clothes opportunities in Oz. People really wear those Australian hats with one brim up, and they really say G'Day. But, most of all, they say 'No worries,' all the time. It means about five different things, depending on context. You'll see. We loved that expression, and we loved our trip. You will too. Best of luck and have the best of times. Alright, here is the travelogue.
The real honeymoon began with a 27 hour epic series of flights on ever smaller planes, from LA to Sydney on a 747 (rack up those frequent flyer miles), from Sydney to Cairns on a 737, and from Cairns to Lizard Island on an 18 seater two engine prop plane. We did the brown paper bags on the feet thing (it's supposed to help overcome jet lag), and, what can I say?, we felt good when we arrived on Lizard.
Flying to Lizard Island was itself a pleasure. In fact, there are several companies that fly you out there or elsewhere on the reef, just for the views and maybe a lunch. The flight is a moving spectacle of the reef and the coast and the verdant mountains: every shade of blue and green you could imagine. And the reef doesn't stop there, even from 5,000 feet, it shows through the blue water in a welter of pinks and yellows, greens and browns, like great bubbles and daubs of paint dropped from some easel in the sky.
Yes yes, you say, get on with it. Okay, when they say Lizard Island is secluded they are not kidding around. You can only get to the place cuz they built a little landing strip there. It's about 150 miles from Cairns, which is not exactly a metropolis, and sixty miles from the coast, where there's nothing but rainforest, anyway. And, after all that, when we got in, at four in the afternoon, we went snorkeling. It just had to be. Well, first we went to the small, but thoughful little shop by reception, and Nina bought rather a nice bathing suit. They also have sunscreen, toothpaste, underwater cameras, T-shirts, videos, and postcards. We went back to the cabin to change, but we didn't stay there long (we never stayed there long). The beach beckons from outside your cabin; you can see the coral patches from your cabin porch. The cabins are very simple, they are clean and spacious, though hardly decorated at all. Good bathroom and dressing area. Porch, as I say, that looks out across a swath of grass to the bushes that mostly hide the beach. Though this means you can't see much of the beach from the cabins, it also means that you feel more private when you are on the beach. You know only the lizards are looking at you from behind.
All told, we spent four days there. Simply idyllic. The resort only has 32 cabins, the staff quarters, and the reception/bar/restaurant building. The only other buildings on the island are the little marine research station, around the bend, and a shack at the airport. We snorkeled, we dived, we lay on our private beach (accessible via our dinghy for the day), we windsurfed, we waterskied, and we ate. How we ate! They served us nine courses of food, every day. And beautiful food, at that. Real pride in presentation, and just excellent materials, especially the seafood and the fruits and vegetables. Very French influenced, but more nouvelle than haute. Anyway, better than we expected, and by far the longest onslaught of gourmet vittles in our experience. We only had lunch at the restaurant once since we were out diving or what-have-you, but it was as ambitious as dinner. The other days we had sort of picnic-y food away from the resort. But picnic-y food means crayfish tails and prawns and salad and cheese platters and tropical fruit, which they served on the boat when we dived or they put in coolers for us when we took our dinghies out for the day. Dinner was always your choices of one soup, a hot and a cold appetizer, three main dishes, and three desserts (one of which was always a chees platter). There was also, of course, bread, tea or coffee, and ice creams. You were expected to take the soup, an appetizer, a main, and dessert, but they seemed to like it when we elected to make stranger combinations. Vegetarians would have a problem, though. The soups were usually vegetarian, but nothing else ever was. But then, you'd be an odd bird to come here and not eat a bunch of seafood. I was particularly fond of the mackerel and the barramundi. We were always offered the wine and beverage list, but we only once had a glass. We were always tired and always getting up early the next morning. More leisure minded guests would want to drink, however, and though not cheap, the list was well thought out, and the wine steward was quite knowledgeable about Australian wines. This was good because I believe the only non-Autralian wines on the list were champagnes. Well, maybe not, but for sure there were no California wines at all. On the other hand, who needed them?
We took advantage of just about everything the island had to offer. We didn't get to climb Cook's Look, from which the famous Captain searched for an escape from the mazes of the reef, but that was about it. We took full advantage of the extremely personable and competent aquatics staff. They have their own little building right by the water, and it's chock full of snorkeling gear and wetsuits and stuff. The dive instructor, Paul, was serious, patient, conscientious, and affable. In fact all the guys (and they were all guys; it seemed to both of us that Australia suffers from some deep and powerful sexism, despite its openness) were happy and obliging. They really don't have to work much unless people ask them to do stuff (set up a windsurfing board for me; take me waterskiing; etc.), and yet the seemed always to really want to do it and to enjoy the process. We asked one of them about this and he said, listen, we live on an island for months or years among the same few people; the one who aren't both easy going and responsible just don't last. Quite understandable. For me the highlight was the trip to Cod Hole, where both Nina and I scuba dived among four foot long groupers in crystalline waters, surrounded by, it seemed, the sunken remains of a thousand rainbows, having suffered a sea-change into the rich and strange denizens of the Great Barrier Reef. This was Nina's first scuba dive. Wow. The divemaster on the trip was, of course, the one (Paul) who gave Nina her resort class. He was a perfect resort class teacher, and Nina was the only student. Since the resort is so small and the bay there is so calm, the resort dive was just perfect. They let me tag along, too, for only the equpment rental charge; that was good for Nina. Talk about a perfect introduction to Scuba: Nina has her private lesson (2+ hours), walks immediately out into the fish-full, azure waters, and ends up following a sea turtle around the bay! Then, next day, she takes a boat that would hold 20, but only has six divers on it, out to two dives on the very outer edge of the reef. She gets to pet fish weighing more than her, and gaze out at coral outcroppings that disappeared so far away I didn't believe it when someone said the visibility was 'only' 100 feet. Boy, is Nina spoiled.
One more thing: the stars. Now this is not confined to Lizard, but is particularly pronounced there: the stars shine in the southern hemisphere in a way that makes ours positively fade by comparison. We lay on the beach or grass and fell asleep gazing at the heavens, not once, but three times. Lizard's distance from the mainland and almost total lack of lights at night, make the spectacle truly magic.
This is the real world, though, and our time at Lizard Island had to end. Some staff person remarked that most people stayed about four days, as we did. I noticed, though, that a five day stay works out the fifth day being roughly half the price of the first four. Though we didn't take advantage of this, we both thought it was a good idea. We could easily have filled up another day on the island. I would recommend this special deal to travellers who either have the money and inclination to be pampered while avoiding the glitz of other beach resorts, or to clients who are sure they want to snorkel and hike and dive for five days. The time passes quickly on the island, especially if you spend one day on a dive trip. By the way, for snorkelers: the trip we took to Cod Hole was attended by two snorkelers in addition to about six divers. Though it's very expensive for snorkeling, it's a beautiful spot and not too deep to have a good time just floating on the top of the water. Right, prices: the resort usually does outer reef trips and inner reef trips on alternate days. The outer trips are A$165, including gear; the inner trips are A$140. That's a chunk of change, but the trip we took was fantastic. Much better than the overnight we did later (more below). They also take people out snorkeling around the island for free, but for really wonderful visibility you need to get out to the water that's flowing in directly off the Coral Sea. This rule applies everywhere along the reef. My guess is that the Rumrunner, Mike Ball, etc., trips, out to isolated reefs in the Coral Sea itself, are pretty nearly what they're cracked up to be in their brochures. For serious divers, I think that might be the best thing to do down there. I'd do it if I came back, unless I learned something surprising in the interim. Or I'd stay on Lizard and go diving every day (but that is one heckuvalotta clams). Speaking of clams: they were Nina's favorite, some looked to be nearly four feet long, and all were partially open, revealing iridescent lips of green, purple, and blue. Yes.
So, we had now spent two thirds of our budget and had to fly back to the mainland. But we immediately jumped on a bus and headed up to Silky Oaks Lodge, this beautiful, rather refined cluster of cabins up in the rainforest in Mossman Gorge. Now this was quite another side of Far North Queensland: one usually thinks of the reef and the coast, not the inlands. Here we found ourselves in the middle of what botanists claim is the oldest continually extant rainforest in the entire world. |
