Covid -19 and the 2020 reset button
God has it been almost 2 years since a blog post? So much has happened in life, business, fishing, food and now all under the cloud of Covid 19 it is hard to know where on earth to even start a blog post. Maybe this is all a bit cathartic just doing a blog recording the somewhat insane curve balls life throws my way. But hey. Never boring. So, in condensed form, I am living on a boat by myself these days….sigh! Which, in fact, is pretty special and in arguably the best marina in Australia and right next door to the amazing “Ocean Club”, which has become almost part of my “house”. Amazing amenities block, laundry, BBQ deck, Coffee machine, ice machine, Business centre, even a day spa it helps set this marina apart from any others, certainly in Australia and has made the transition from big luxury apartment to a floating small “apartment”, pretty easy.
I also spend a fair bit of time in Brisbane with the 4 favourite women in my life, one of whom happens to be my granddaughter, 2 of them my lovely twin girls, and, well, one other; plus a wood fired pizza oven called Harold and he will provide some food adventures worth blogging about for sure.
Retirement and fishing were going fine. Further adventures with a fly rod to Cuba, doing maybe the silliest thing I have every done (I blamed the rum for swimming with the crocodile), doing much more exploration around the Whitsundays and eventually coming to realise that we actually have amongst the best salt water fly fisheries in the world, right here in our own backyard. Maybe Cuba is worth a blog post all by itself, so I will do that.
Out of left field again and opportunity arose to relocate our restaurant operation back around to the waterfront esplanade, just 50 meters from where it all started 16 years ago. This was a big decision and big commitment but with our lease on the existing venue coming to an end, and in an industry where all venues need to “re-invent” themselves so it was that retirement was shelved for a while and we threw the team gung ho at a new, larger and ultimately stunning new venue, and with the project well advanced and with, quite literally a tiger by the tail, it happened.
Covid, bloody 19, and everything changed. Our industry brought to its knees and the world and international travel will maybe not be the same again into the foreseeable future.
It has been a roller coaster of adapting to the new order of things, repositioning ourselves into home delivery meals for a while, working to be ready with the new venue when the conditions allowed and exploring any new opportunities to adapt our business model to suit the new normal, and this is something we are still working on every day.
We got the doors of the new venue open 5 weeks ago to great numbers and feedback, within the context of reduced capacity due to social distancing rules, have struggled with staffing and training which appears to be causing issues all over the industry and genuinely think we can get through this and be more agile and better positioned than ever when the dust settles.
We have maintained our relationships with our fishermen throughout, even buying product when we were closed, just to make sure they did not go elsewhere and now find these relationships better than ever and with a very inspired and innovative team of chefs we are starting to push the boundaries of just what we can do with fish, so, it’s all a bit “fun”. A challenge, a bit nervous, but we are also enthused and excited to be part of the rebirth of Airlie Beach tourism.
We have always been a “one day” kind of destination for Australian holidays makers, but, that day was always competing with Fiji or Bali, The Cook Islands or the Maldives. With all those tropical exotic destinations off the table for some time, we are already witnessing that “one day”, is coming sooner than we expect. If you have the Whitsundays already on your bucket list, I would suggest you book early. You will be very surprised at how busy we already are, just with Queensland holiday makers. Hopefully we can put 2020 behind us and make 2021 a great year. I am going to start blogging for fishing tips and food tips again now that my head space is OK.
Just hit the reset button on my life knowing I have a lot to be thankful for and hopefully get back to helping drive interest in the wonderful world of food, fishing and the Whitsundays.