Make Hayman While The Sun Shines

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday February 1, 1990

SUSAN KUROSAWA

WHEN the wraps were taken off Hayman Island's five-star facelift in April 1987, the similarities between the demolished original resort and the brand-new model ended with the fact they had both been built on the same island.

The original Hayman was all family fun, casual and comfy accommodation, rollicking cabarets and jovial theme evenings. One saved the paper umbrellas from a week's worth of dizzy blue cocktails and sewed them onto a parrot-patterned sarong for Hawaiian Night. Grown men overcome by hot sun and holiday madness would win bottles of bubbly during fancy dress parades for appearing in their jocks and holding up signs like, I came in my underpants.

Such things do not happen on born-again Hayman. Built at a cost of mega-millions, the new resort was launched with a lavish promotional campaign that pitched it so far up-market the average punter would have considered a trip there to be as achievable as hopping a space shuttle to the moon. The brochure showed impossibly attractive people (women with no cellulite and men with all their own hair) posed in blinding white linen against a background of movie-set magnificence.

Although I happily soaked up this splendour during my first visit there for Easter 1988, the drop-dead elegance of the place was, at times, intimidating. I did things like check my toenails for specks of dirt before dipping into the pool and sent my best white shorts to the resort laundry when they got sullied by a teensy spot of suntan oil. As a holiday experience, it was anything but relaxing.

I was there again last week and things have changed - not in a thundering, clean-sweep way, but in nonetheless noticeable fashion. For a start, children are actively welcomed on Hayman these days. There was never a rule you couldn't take the kids, but there was no special provision for them which suggested they would soon get restless and parents could expect little sympathy for being silly enough not to have left them at home with the nanny. In the shiny world of the perfect resort brochure, untidy little brats would have been as welcome as towelling hats and thongs.

The people who decide such matters (in this case, one presumes, the supremos of Ansett's hotels and resorts division) have seen the error of not catering for families, and now there's a well-equipped children's activities centre and trained minders to keep kids out of the way while mum and dad pursue such serious leisure pursuits as ordering cocktails by the pool. Children are provided with special Hayman backpacks and T-shirts and are whisked away for excursions and watersport activities. Tots under the age of four can be cared for in the resort's creche, and experienced babysitters are available around the clock.

Food is another area where a more realistic approach has been adopted. There are children's meals available at most of the resort's restaurants. At$10 a head for a multi-course nosh, junior appetites are handsomely catered for and such well-priced options are awfully important on an island where meals are not included in the tariff.

Holiday packages are available, too. With visitor arrival figures into Australia plunging after the pilots' dispute, the domestic holidaymaker has become increasingly important. The designers of the resort may have wished for Texas tycoons and Italian counts swishing across the marble floors but the new and viable Hayman market rests with up-beat Aussies used to value-plus packages.

As for costs on the island, I'd budget $60 a person a day for food, and double that if you plan an evening at the formal La Fontaine restaurant.

I'm pleased Hayman's elitist image has taken a plunge. I padded into the Health Centre for a flotation tank session one morning and emerged all prawn-pink and at peace with the world only to crash into a fellow guest out for an early-bird jog. I was in bare feet and cellulite-friendly long shirt and he in nasty Stubbies and old sandshoes. And while Lacoste crocodiles and Ralph Lauren polo ponies are not exactly endangered species on Hayman Island, it's nice to know there's room, too, for the odd slob.

Hayman Island is offering special packages from now until March 24. A seven-night holiday from Sydney costs $2,392 for two people. As well as air fares, transfers from Hamilton Island and accommodation, guests are treated to champagne upon arrival, full breakfasts and free use of all non-motorised watersports equipment. Cost for one child from three to 14 sharing with parents is $620 ex Sydney. Stay 14 nights and the cost for two adults is$3,912 from Sydney. If you're visiting the Whitsundays and would like to try Hayman for a couple of nights, until March 30 there's a special of $255 for overnight accommodation for two, including full breakfasts. Details from offices of Ansett Airlines or the Hayman Travel Office, phone (02)3272255.

© 1990 Sydney Morning Herald

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