I have been fortunate to have worked in some amazing jobs in my life so far - whale shark guide in Western Australia, on an expedition ship visiting remote destinations experiencing different cultures, flying in helicopters across Torres Strait to all the inhabited islands, feeding sharks and rays and big fish in an aquarium on SCUBA.......these have been my favorites. And now that I've embraced my new lifestyle of: my "reality" can be whatever I chose (I don't HAVE to work 9 to 5 Monday to Friday!), since being home, I have purposely chosen to work in jobs that give me the experiences I enjoy and new skills that will help me in my future. So, what job did I choose? Driving a tender for a helicopter company at the Great Barrier Reef!

I'm a nutshell: I work for Nautilus Aviation as a Coxswain/Ground crew at Moore Reef . To get to work, I take a big boat with Sunlover Cruises (capacity 350 passengers) to their pontoon. During the transfer, I sign people up to their 10 minute scenic flights over the reef, or to scenic flights back from the pontoon to Cairns (25 minute flight vs 2 hours on the boat). I create the manifests, figure out weights, organise the schedule, liaise with the pilots and our office regarding flight times.....yep, it's pretty hectic at the start of the day. Throw in a couple of hundred Chinese passengers, most not understanding English, and trying to co-ordinate flight times with the additional activites of our guests, like diving, seawalker or a guided snorkel tour, it can get chaotic! Once we arrive to the pontoon, we have to drive our guests from the big pontoon to a smaller heli pontoon in a small boat/tender, load them into the helicopter and send them off on their flights. I have a 15 minute window in which to find my guests (often late or lost), brief them, drive them over to the heli, load them, unload them and do it all again . The slightest delay pushes all flights back and can blow out even the best designed schedule! All it takes is one person going to the toilet at the last minute, forgetting their camera, or the need for refueling and the day can be delayed so much that you might have to cancel the last flight for the day! So, on busy days, for 3 hours you feel the intense pressure of time tick tick ticking......while the people you are trying to organise are lahdee dah-ing around with out a care in the world expecting you to do what they want, WHEN they want, coz they're on holidays!

While it is a job where literally every minute counts, I still get my moments of bliss and awe usually coming in the form of drooling over the heli when I see them hover over the heli pontoon on take-off, the nose dips a little as the rotor blades pull the heli along effortlessly and then up over out heads, the power unmistakable - still something I get a massive buzz from, even though I've seen it a million times! Or on super quiet days, I am lucky enough to have the reef at my finger tips to enjoy . After all other jobs, like cleaning our tender or the pontoon are done, I'll have a snorkel for lunch. The corals at Moore Reef are surprisingly healthy and diverse. There's gardens of branching corals, plates, boulders, giant clams, anemones housing clown fish, a huge resident Maori Wrasse, turtles, reef sharks, etc, so lots of life to enjoy underwater. It is the helicopters and the reef that make this job the perfect job for me - two of my most favorite things!

HELP ME to AIM HIGH
To be honest, it was a little bit of a daunting mental/confidence challenge to accept that after 12 years of having a "proper job/career" I was back in the tourism industry, one of the plebs, earning not too much money. I felt like I was taking a million steps backwards. But, then I decided to make the most of this situation I was in and turn it into a positive: getting reconnected to what's happening in my local tourism industry, seeing the health of one of my local reefs, seeing Cairns through new eyes - this will all ultimately help me in my new adventure .....I'm planning to launch a travel planning/blogging/travel writing venture this year. And my goal is that it will help me to maintain the lifestyle I am trying to live - to see the world one step at a time. 

So, if you can please help me with this - First request: on this story you are reading now, and any others,if you enjoyed reading it, please like me! There is a "like" button on the bottom of every story (make sure it's not the like button for the travepod site, which is at the top!). Even better - why don't you leave me a comment? I love to get feedback on my stories. Second request: please please please visit my profile page on my blog site at: www.travelpod.com/members/impressionsbykk and under my profile photo is a tiny "like" button - please like me again :) Third & final request: from my profile page towards the bottom are my 3 Blogs: "No place like Home", "Flying Solo 2015" and "World Adventures 2014". Click on each one and push the "like" button under the profile photo for each blog. Yep - this action item involves 3 x "like" clicks. 

Every "like" click and comment you leave helps to boost my readership as it is super important I can prove I have followers to progress to the next step towards my future life. I really hope you will join me on my journey. And don't forget to Fly High and AIM HIGH yourselves. Nothing is impossible and everything is worth trying. Thanks for your help everyone!
 

** Check out more images by Jason Van't Padje on instagram @therawphoto or visit his website therawphotographer.com