Australia
Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky on Orpheus Island.
The helicopter scuds low and slow above the turquoise seas of the Great Barrier Reef. Strapped into the seats next to me, Eileen and Graham chatter excitedly to one another. It’s hardly a private conversation: all our headsets are linked. The Melbourne couple are flying to an island resort to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. Appropriate: they honeymooned here. On a mission: they want to find a dive spot they went to way back when.
Problem: they think it was called Iris Corner, but the pilot’s never heard of it and, when we land on the island’s helipad and are settling in with glasses of champagne on the seaside veranda, nor have the staff.
Graham and Eileen don’t seem particularly disappointed but it would be hard to be disappointed on Orpheus Island.
In the Coral Sea 80km (or a 30-minute helicopter flight) north of Townsville, the island has been a pretty much undiscovered tropical getaway. Well, until Australia’s favourite god of thunder, Chris Hemsworth, holidayed at the resort with his wife and sold the photos to a women’s magazine.
The island — just 11km of sun-kissed, white tropical beaches around — is mostly national park and biological research station, set inside the reef’s World Heritage-listed marine park.
Once famous for hosting Elton John, Phil Collins and Vivien Leigh, Orpheus Island Lodge had seen better days when Melbourne businessman and hotelier Chris Morris bought it for a bargain price in 2011. Limited to 28 guests at a time, the resort has only 14 rooms and villas. My villa, set in palms a couple of metres from the beach, feels more like a bach than accommodation. There’s a cheeseboard, fruit platter and another bottle of chilling champagne on the dining table.
The villa, with a huge master bedroom, living area and island kitchen, indooroutdoor bathroom, is refined, relaxed, expensive elegance. A very wealthy mate’s bach that you’ve been allowed to borrow for the weekend while they’re in the Seychelles, then.
The menu for tonight’s dinner — tables are set on the veranda, looking out to the jetty and the sea beyond — lies on the credenza. Four