If ever you were going to go to a conference, THIS is the place to go!
The others would disagree with me, but I loved it.
Lady Elliott Island. Located 70 nautical miles from Hervey Bay. It’s totally isolated…no phones, no TVs, no radios, no outside communication. Well, it DID have a general phone, and it DID have A computer if you REALLY NEEDED it. But generally speaking, no forms of communication. Ray White held their Central Queensland Conference here. And since we’re now part of the Ray White team, we went along as well.
I loved it! Chris didn’t MIND it, but he’s not open to going there again. ( along with many of the other agents who attended)
You see, when we arrived, we were told that it’s the mating season for many of these birds. These little fellows are called Noddys. And there were several other species of birds as well. But in total, there were over 1 MILLION birds on the island. Lady Elliott island is the only the size of maybe 5 city blocks, roughly. That’s A LOT of birds! And of course, with that comes the smell. Most people held their noses until they got used to the smell. I noticed it, but didn’t mind. I’ve smelled worse, like dirty nappies, rubbish tips, tanneries, to name a few. So THIS wasn’t too bad at ALL. AND! I brought my wide brimmed hat! (smile)
We were then guided out to the resort area while our luggage was sent off to our bungalows. Going through the dining/bar area, this is what greeted us on the ‘other’ side…
Tropical paradise. Lady Elliott Island is an island made of coral reef. There is NO sand. It’s just crushed coral. The whole island is surrounded by coral reefs. The clarity of the water is unsurpassed. And once we got passed the “oohs and aahs”, we followed our guide around as he led us to our bungalows. Once we settled in to our bungalow, we booked in, picked up our snorkel gear, and headed in to the conference hall.
Our lead in to the conference was interesting for some, boring for others, depending on your own position within the company. I for one, usually get something out of these even if it’s a tidbit that will improve my performance. So I’m usually encouraged.
The first part only went for one hour to reconvene later that night. By this time, it was lunch, so we headed off to the dining room first and had lunch over looking this beautiful reef.
After lunch, we geared up and headed out to the boat to get to outer reef edge. Sorry, but there’s no pictures of old fat people in snorkel gear. This is where “old people’s talk” starts. My knee held up while paddling around in the water. Mostly, because I used my left leg most of the time or my arms to paddle along. And NO, I didn’t swim around in circles. (smile) Chris wrenched his hip while putting his flippers on. Afterwards, we found out that he had one of MY flippers and one of HIS flippers and it was tough trying to put on the small size that wouldn’t fit. And while the boat is bobbing around on the swell, it was tough going. Some aspirin later on helped. I didn’t notice that I had on two different sizes either, otherwise I could have saved him the trouble.
Back to the story….the snorkelling was FABULOUS! We saw HUGE sea turtles, manta rays, fish that you would LOVE to have on the end of your fishing line. The colours of the coral were great. There were little “Nemo” fish (clown fish) Angel fish, and a myriad of other marine life. It was great. I could just float around all day.
But, it was time to come in. Dinner time was coming up and we needed to get ready for the next session.
Just as the sun was setting on the other side of the island, we waited and chatted a while until the dining hall was open and queued up on the buffet.
Once session two was completed, some headed for the bar, others headed back to their bungalows. Chris and I made our way back to the bungalow dodging birds in our path. The noise was almost deafening. There were two birds on our deck cooing out to any females that might be flying about. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen any bats or not, but the amount of birds that were flying around, it was like the volume of a bat colony. The noise was extremely loud especially in the night air. Chris and I settled in to our bed and another jolt. The bed AND pillows were firm. I mean EXTREMELY firm. These old fat bodies were used to cushy comfort with foam underlays, a woollen overlay, and squishy pillows, so THIS! was a little uncomfortable. And those that drank heavily probably never felt a THING! In the middle of the night those little birds who were cooing so softly started screaming like babies and screeching….ALL NIGHT……LONG! it didn’t stop until morning. And the morning…….despite not getting much sleep…….
The following morning was absolutely glorious! Chris and I headed down to the water’s edge. Chris talked to one of the other agents while I snorkelled in the shallow areas of the reef. That morning, I saw blue starfish and some good sized Bream. (fish) We decided to have breakky and we headed back in for session three which was all morning and we stopped at lunch. Free time for the rest of the day. We headed over to the light house as did some of the others. I forgot my snorkel mask and fins, so I just took pictures.
Tonight was the night for AUCTION! And who better to specialize in auctions that REAL ESTATE agents! And of course, I was called up first to sell off a cooler that helps keep your drinks cold. I don’t know how I did, but I got the thumbs up from the boss, so it must have been okay. We were given some token dollars to play since we were new to the business, but it was fun watching all the antics that people got up to. Chris was one of the last few called and he was very sneaky about selling off his product an electric “ mozzie repeller”. he sold it to me without waiting for further bids. I was shocked, but everyone else took it in their strides. ( I think…maybe not…who knows) Well, there were laughs all around. Once the fun was over, everyone headed out either to the bar, or the beach or their rooms. Chris and I settled down for HOPEFULLY a better night’s sleep.
Well, even the birds settled down. No more screeching like babies, no more calls to each other in the night. Only soft cooing. We slept much better. Chris was up early our last morning. He got up to watch the sunrise and got some very interesting pictures.
I knew he couldn’t sleep, so I made a coffee and walked down to the beach to watch the sunrise too.
Later in the morning, we had awards to give out to the top performers. Three of our Hervey Bay group received awards this year. Maybe we’ll see Chris’s name up there next year! After that we packed up and headed out to the airport to wait for our plane to arrive to take us back to the office. It was back to reality.
I loved Lady Elliott Island. I thought it was great. And while there’s not that much to do except for snorkel, eat, drink, and RELAX. It’s a nice place to simply unwind and just enjoy BEING.
