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Suzanne Rees was an absolute inspiration; at 81-years-old she was an exceptionally active woman who was an avid hiker & had a lifelong passion for travel & adventure. When she boarded a luxury ship on Friday, October 24, 2025 to take a 59-night cruise around the top of Australia, her adult daughter never gave it a second thought. She was happy for her mom, excited to hear all about her new adventures. Tragically, Suzanne’s first stop ended in devastation in what her daughter would later say was a failure of care & common sense.
Before Sue boarded the Coral Adventurer for her 60-day cruise, the grandmother, who was a former accountant, made sure to have a medical check-up even though she was in good health. She was always on the go as an avid gardner & member of a bushwalking club. After the doctor gave her a clean bill of health, she packed her bags & got ready to set sail.
The ship was built in a Vietnam shipyard for $119 million & according to their website, the Coral Adventurer launched in April 2019 in Singapore. It describes itself as a tropical expedition ship designed to access remote wilderness shores along Australia as well as internationally that are often inaccessible to larger cruise vessels.
With 60 staterooms & suites, all of which are outward facing, it holds up to 120 guests & 46 crew members. The ship has seven decks, five of which are passenger accessible & four of which house cabins.
The Coral Adventurer is one of the three small cruise ships operated by the Cairns-based cruise company, Coral Expeditions & owned by the NRMA (National Roads & Motorists’ Association).
According to their website, guest safety is their top priority. During Sue’s 59-night, 60-day sailing, the ship was set to travel over the top of Australia from Cairns to Perth in what is known as a circumnavigation.
Sue boarded the ship along the northeast coast of Far North Queensland in Cairns on Friday, October 24, 2025. Some sources indicate that she paid $86,400 AUD which is equivalent to $62,543 USD. According to ship tracking data, the Coral Adventurer left Cairns on Friday at about 5:30 pm.
By the following morning, Saturday, October 25, 2025, the ship was making the first stop of its destination, anchoring off of Lizard Island at about 8:30 am. Lizard Island is a 3.8 square mile (9.9 km) island off of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, 149 miles (240 km) north of Cairns. It’s one of the most popular remote tourist destinations on the Great Barrier Reef where divers, snorkelers & hikers flock to.
Although people do live on Lizard Island, it’s not a permanent residential town & according to the 2021 census, there were about 65 people living there. It’s home to Lizard Island Resort, an all-inclusive luxury resort as well as a research station & a small campground.
As they were getting ready to dock that morning, Sue sent her daughter, Kate, what would be her last text message. She wrote, We are heading for Lizard Island. She went on to say that she was hoping to do a walk that morning & go snorkeling in the afternoon. She ended her message writing, On wifi so may not always work.
The ship anchored off the island while tenders ferried passengers to & from the ship to the island. Sue came ashore that morning with a small group of fellow passengers for a challenging 4k (2.5 miles) guided hike. The day was hot with temperatures at 30℃/86℉ while the heat radiating off the rocks were closer to 50℃/122℉.
Any information Sue’s family have been given moving forward has come from police as the cruise line itself has failed to share any of the circumstances surrounding her death.
Sue set out for a mid-morning hike along the Cook’s Look trail, a strenuous climb with steep terrain that pays off in the end as hikers reach the top to take in the spectacular views. The hike is difficult for hikers of any age, but since the cruise that Sue was on has a hefty price tag paired with the fact that this particular sailing was 60 days, passengers are mainly retirees of a more advanced age.
According to Lizard Island’s website, Cook’s Look is the highest point on the island that offers panoramic views that can only be enjoyed from this vantage point. The trail was named after British explorer, Captain James Cook, who climbed it in 1770 to get an understanding of how to navigate his ship. According to Captain Cook, the only animals he came across on his exploration of the island were lizards, which is how it earned its name.
The website indicates that because the 4 kilometer trek can be very steep at times, medium to high fitness & agility levels are recommended for safety purposes. It’s recommended that hikers set out early in the morning due to the time it takes to reach the top of the trail as well as the heat of the day.
From what Kate understands, while her mom was in the midst of her hike, she complained that she wasn’t feeling very well. Sue was instructed by a Coral Adventurer guide to turn around & hike back down to the beach.
Kate & her husband, Andrew Cowie, believe that she tried to do just that. However, not only did none of the guides accompany her back down, but no one radioed staff on the beach to alert them to look out for her arrival. Because of this, no one noticed that she hadn’t made it.
According to Fern Trent, a former employee for the Coral Adventurer who once guided hikes, sending an ill hiker down unescorted was unheard of. Standard protocol would be to radio in that assistance was needed while the guide waited with the hiker for assistance to arrive.
During Fern’s employment with the ship, guests were required to sign on & off. In Sue’s case, many safety protocols had been missed; no one escorted her back down to the beach, no one radioed that she would be coming & no one noticed that she hadn’t gotten back on board.
Other guests who previously sailed the Coral Adventurer & stopped off at Lizard Island recalled their processes as very stringent. They couldn’t imagine that they allowed an unwell, elderly passenger to hike back down by themselves as crew members, who carried radios, had always been nearby to offer assistance, ready with a first aid kit as well as water.
Kate has made the assumption that due to the exceptional heat that day, Sue became disoriented & ended up only 50 meters/164 feet from the walking track, the very path the rest of the group would have taken back down after reaching the summit.
Since the stop at Lizard Island had only been a day trip, guests were taken back to the ship by tender in the early afternoon. At 3:35 pm, believing that all guests were back on board, the Coral Adventurer once again set sail, headed for its next destination. According to global marine tracking, five hours & 50 nautical miles would go by before anyone was aware that Sue had been left behind.
It’s unclear when Sue succumbed to the elements, but it’s entirely possible that she watched her ship sail away, leaving her stranded & alone on the island.
Peter Graham, who spent his life on boats, is now a marine search & rescue volunteer who trains cruise ship staff on safety. In his entire career, he’s never experienced losing a passenger on a land tour. According to Peter, safety protocol 101 is to ensure that a head count is done each & every time guests go ashore, something that didn’t happen in Sue’s case.
When the crew finally realized that Sue was not on board, it was 8:43 pm when they turned around to sail back toward Lizard Island. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority was notified of her absence at 9 pm. Two hours into their journey back, they sent a small search party on a tender at 10:30 pm to search the beach for Sue while a rescue helicopter from Cairns was also dispatched.
Back in Sydney, Sue’s daughter Kate & her son-in-law, Andrew, were completely unaware that she was missing & that people were actively searching for her. It wasn’t until 2:30 am on Sunday morning, October 26, when they awoke to a knock on their door.
An officer from the New South Wales police department stood on their porch, asking them if Sue Rees lived at their home. They were completely confused as they explained that she did, but she was currently away aboard a ship off the coast of Queensland. This was when they were told that Sue was missing, something that Kate struggled to comprehend.
Traci Ayris, a woman who was sailing in the area, was awoken on Saturday night at about midnight to the sound of a helicopter flying overhead, using its spotlight to scan the trail to Telstra Rock on Cook’s Look track. She saw the light from seven flashlights as people on foot searched as well. When she noticed the Coral Adventurer was heading back to Lizard Island, she knew that someone was missing. It wasn’t long before the search was called off & set to resume at sunrise.
The owner of a nearby fishing & charter boat could hear the helicopter crew discussing Sue’s last known location, which was halfway up the scrub-covered hill.
Meanwhile, Kate & Andrew were understandably unable to go back to sleep, sick with worry over the wellbeing of their beloved mom/mother-in-law. They held out hope that because the island wasn’t very big, as soon as the sun came up, searchers would find her. They assumed that they would find Sue sitting on a rock, feeling rather annoyed by the situation, but otherwise okay.
However, as time went by, Kate & Andrew were reminded just how hot Saturday had been when the ship sailed away from the island, basically instructing them to prepare for the worst.
At first light on Sunday morning, ground search crews were sent back to the island to pick back up where they left off from hours earlier. According to Traci Ayris, who was still docked nearby, the helicopter hovered over the plateau & then flew straight back to the air strip which made her believe they had likely found who they had been searching for.
Sue’s body was located at about 9:30 am about 50 meters/164 feet off the hiking trail that led to the island’s highest point, Cook’s Look. She was not far from the beach where help had been available at the time. This highlighted just how preventable her death had been. Sue’s body remained where it was found until just before 4 pm when her remains were airlifted away. It was later determined that she died from heatstroke.
Kate learned the devastating news of her mom’s death over the phone when she spoke with a Queensland police officer sometime on Sunday. It had been the helicopter that had spotted her mom’s body. When Kate asked how the pilot had known her mom was deceased, she was told that it was based on the color change of Sue’s body. On top of her grief, she was haunted to think that her mom had died alone.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority would be investigating Sue’s death & planned to speak with the crew when they reached their next stop in Darwin. On November 1, Mark Fifield, the CEO of Coral Expeditions, announced that the remainder of the cruise would be cancelled due to Sue’s death as well as mechanical issues on board.
Even before Sue boarded the ship on Friday, it had been experiencing issues with the engine. The journey was originally scheduled to begin one week earlier on October 17, but it was delayed due to these issues. After her death, the issues continued & while the ship had been anchored in the Torres Strait, passengers & some crew were flown from Horn Island to the mainland after the rest of the voyage was cancelled. Rather than carrying on to Darwin as planned, the now passenger-free vessel turned around & sailed back to its home port of Cairns.
The family’s grief has only been compounded as since losing Sue, even six months later, they’re still fighting to get any answers from the cruise company owner, NRMA, about what really happened that day. They want to know why the hike hadn’t been called off despite the extreme heat that day, why no one walked back down with her mother, how the ship left without her.
After they were informed of Sue’s death, someone from the company contacted them on Sunday, six hours after she was discovered & then they didn’t hear anything again for two days. This was when the CEO of the cruise company called to say he’d been away traveling. Although NRMA did finally contact them, Kate feels that they were just viewed as a loose end that needed to be tidied up.
Kate has only recently gotten her mother’s belongings back, including the supplies she carried on her hike that morning. The staining to the interior of the bag that she died with, paints a picture that her body was in very poor condition when it was recovered.
Since that point, Coral Expeditions has released a statement, saying they are deeply sorry to Sue’s family for their loss & the pain her death has caused. Although they have comprehensive safety systems & procedures in place, they acknowledge that they were not properly implemented that day. They went on to say that they have since introduced additional systems & procedures to strengthen protections for their guests.
Kate & Andrew still only know the basics; that Sue’s absence was first noticed during dinner. When they began searching the ship for her, the crew initially theorized that she had fallen overboard.
Along with the rest of the public, they’ve gotten information strictly from media reports. This was how Kate came to learn that all guests aboard the Coral Adventurer would be receiving a refund, yet they received no refund themselves in lieu of their mother’s fare. Kate had to take it upon herself to request a refund for the trip her mother never got to take. This was just another added layer of frustration that gave her the feeling of ripping the bandaid back off again.
There have also been frustrations based on some of the media reports they’ve read since Sue’s passing. Many articles highlighted that it had been Sue who failed to board the ship that afternoon, basically placing the blame on her as if she’d chosen to remain ashore. They also know that Sue had been such a private person & they realize how much she would have disliked being in the spotlight.
A lawyer working with Sue’s family is trying to get answers for them while they await the results of the investigation & a potential inquest. In the meantime, they’re left to deal with knowing that their beloved mother & grandmother died alone in one of the most horrible ways.
Sue had always been a woman with a zest for life & adventure. She was enjoying her retirement years, getting out in the world, not letting the fact that she was traveling alone hold her back. At 81-years-old, she was an extremely active, adventurous person. No doubt, she had been eagerly awaiting her 60-day journey aboard the Coral Adventurer.
When she boarded the luxurious ship, her family never once questioned her safety; she had only just been given a clean bill of health by her doctor. Yet, somehow, in a series of mistakes, Sue was left to navigate her way back down the path in the engulfing heat of mid-day despite telling the guide that she hadn’t felt well. No one noticed that she hadn’t come back down nor that she hadn’t gotten back on board. Because of this, Sue was tragically left to die alone.
References:
- Wikipedia: Lizard Island
- Coral Expeditions: Aboard the Coral Adventurer
- 60 Minutes Australia: Family demand answers after woman left to die alone following luxury cruise tragedy
- Mamamia: One day into her cruise, Suzanne sent her daughter a text. It was the last time she’d hear from her.
- The Standard: Pictured: Australian grandmother, 80, found dead on remote island after being left behind by cruise ship
- YouTube: 60 Minutes Australia: How a luxury cruise liner’s failures resulted in a passenger death
- ABC News: Suzanne Rees died alone on Lizard Island. How did it happen?
- ABC News: AMSA investigators board cruise ship following 80yo’s death on island
- ABC News: Here’s what we know about the Coral Adventurer, the cruise ship that ran aground in PNG
- Wikipedia: Death of Suzanne Rees
- Cruise: Daughter of Suzanne Rees reveals she had to request a refund after her mum died on cruise ship shore excursion
- CruiseMapper: Coral Adventurer
- Lizard Island: Hike to Cook’s Look
