Time expands on Lizard Island with no mobiles and minimal WiFi

BEING disconnected from the digital world sounds frightening at first. Then you rediscover the refreshing relativity of island time.

Photographer Graham Shearer at work on this month's fashion shoot on Lizard Island. Picture: Da...

IT'S a cloudy and windy day and, as we wait for our flight on a small 12-seater airplane to take us from Cairns airport to Lizard Island, we're delivered a warning.

"I just thought I should let you all know that this is your last opportunity to access email, text messages or make mobile phone calls for the next few days," our host at Lizard Island tells us. What!?! A frenzy of typing suddenly breaks out. Lizard Island, it turns out, has no mobile phone reception at all and very limited WiFi (just in the business centre and it's slow and intermittent).

At first I was furious with our host. I had assumed that Lizard Island Resort was like most other luxury resorts in that it would have, at the very least, WiFi in all the rooms and cable television (it doesn't have that anywhere, by the way). It's not that I'm totally dependent on being connected at all times - really, I'm not. I'm more than happy not being contactable, but I would have liked a bit more warning so I could prepare myself. This was a work trip, after all, and being out of touch electronically, even if only for a few days, takes plenty of preparation.

The great thing about being on an island with no access to email or mobile phone reception is that there is nothing you can do about it. You soon forget what your mobile phone sounds like, you don't have to worry about how much battery life you have left and, after 24 hours or so, you actually stop carrying it around in your hand everywhere. And when there's no television and no internet, you start to read again and you go to bed when you're tired rather than when there is nothing left to watch on television and then you get out of bed earlier.

We were on Lizard Island for three nights to produce this issue but it felt much longer and I mean that in a very good way. On day one I was perversely looking forward to hitting the mainland again and regaining mobile phone reception. When that finally happened the familiar beep-beep of my phone, which I'd almost managed to forget, was one of the most depressing sounds I'd ever heard.

Whether you're spending time this holiday season on a tropical island, in the countryside or staying in the city, as I am, there's a lesson here - put the phone away, shut down the computer and drop out electronically for a little while. If I can do it, anyone can.

We wanted to give this, our final issue for the year, a special summer holiday feel so when it came time to deciding on a location it was pretty hard to go past the brochure for Lizard Island that had been sitting on my desk for months. Could its beaches really have such white sand, I wondered? And is the water really that crystal clear? I'm happy to report that both are true.

We hope our fashion spread, which we photographed on Lizard Island, gives you plenty of inspiration for what to wear this holiday season and that our Christmas menu, created for WISH by celebrity chef Luke Mangan, whets the appetite.

We couldn't have produced this issue without the assistance of Virgin Australia or the support of Lizard Island Resort, and we'd like to thank both of them for making this the best Christmas issue we have ever done.

On behalf of the WISH team, I would like to thank you, our readers, for your feedback into this magazine this year. We hope you enjoy the issue and have a wonderful summer break.