87

Now that you know I’m living in paradise, you must be asking how did I end up here…and what exactly am I doing? In a simple answer, I’m here working on the island in the resort café and kitchen. Obviously the house guests that come to the island need to eat, that’s where I come in. I run the little café that’s here and cook them breakfast and lunch, then for dinner our main kitchen opens and I take orders and deliver their meals.

In exchange for work, I get free meals and accommodation. I work roughly 25 hours a week and live on an island…not too bad. I’m not getting paid, but many places in Australia offer this work-trade-off to backpackers because that’s our biggest expense. Plus, living on an island eliminates your temptation to spend money because you simply have NO WHERE to spend it (besides the resort bar of course!)

The staff is around 20 from owner, to paid staff, to backpacker workers. The island houses the national park and the resort…that’s it. No stores, no shops, no mail, and scarce cell phone service. So clearly we all see each other a lot. Everyone gets along from what I can tell since I’ve been here. Interestingly enough, out of the 20 staff only about 5 are Australian, the rest range from Dutch, Germans, Canadians, and Europeans.

That’s one thing about Australia I find neat, everywhere I go there is always a large number of foreigners from every corner of the globe, doing exactly what I am. Being able to share a room with someone who has been brought up on the other side of the planet is really fascinating to me. What is also amazing is that these people come here and can speak amazing English. Yet not only knowing English and their native tongue, but one or two MORE as well.

Back to the question at hand…How did I end up on the island…where did I find this job?

That is a 87 day long answer…

-Josh