A night of luxury

As my time with Hannah has unfortunately come to an end our luxury night has finally arrived! We figured it’s best to end our travels on a high and that high would be a night at Crown Towers Hotel. From the minute we stepped out of the lift I was in love and it was then that I knew I was going to need to work hard to get this kind of future! 

And then we stepped into our room (that might as well have been a suite)… I thought things couldn’t get any better but it just kept surprising me! 

  

  

We decided to spend the day relaxing in the spa and my day was slightly ruined by the 30 squeamish girls waiting for a glimpse of One Direction as they were outside playing tennis and the sauna being out of action for some reason but I don’t let that get me down! How could you with a view like this…! 

  

We then headed back to our room for a relaxing dip in the tub before heading out for dinner on the promenade.    

The views from our room put my poxy house in Carlton to shame! 

     

Ho ho ho!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you’ve all had/having a wonderful day wherever in the world you are! 

 We arrived in Fraser Island yesterday and paid a quick visit to the resorts swimming pool by hitch-hiking a ride there instead of facing “heart-attack hill” by foot. The pool was filled with Santa hats and feel-good vibes but unfortunately we didn’t have much time to relax until dinner.  

 

After dinner we had drinks in the lodge lounges and then moved onto the bar to crack out some killer dance moves!  

 

 Christmas morning was welcomed by a dodgy breakfast followed by a 4 wheel drive across the island. I am still thanking the lords for blessing me with no hangover this year!! As our 4WD bus first took off over the bumpy grounds our driver blasted the song ‘Jump Around’ just to make sure we were all awake and aware of the fun day ahead… Our first stop was Lake Mackenzie where we had a swim in the beautiful fresh water lake and took some Christmas themed photos.

After lunch was a drive along the 75 mile beach (name not literal) to see the shipwreck and then over to Eli Creek, a natural, fresh water lazy river on the beach opposite the sea.

After the adventurous journey back to the lodges we gathered on the pier for sunset, nibbles and presents – after first picking some photo frames which we definitely too big for my suitcase I stuck to an edible present for myself and roommates to enjoy!

After calling home and having a shower I’m ready for bed already but we’ll see what kind of lodge parties are going on tonight…

The outback for whimps

We arrived at Kroombit National Park yesterday, it’s a farm stay/outback experience but luckily it’s not quite as hot and not as many flies as the actual outback. There was optional extra horse riding or quad biking but I was very good at saving my pennies and went for the free option of an afternoon nap and a swim in the pool.

We then went and had a go at lassoing targets and the goat rodeo, it wasn’t easy! It was also very hard to watch the animals being manhandled around the park!! Alongside this my allergies were playing up again so I happily sat on the sidelines and watched this one. After the winners were announced we were asked if we wanted to play one more game… The group collaboratively said yes and we were told to stand in a circle and hold hands. None of us knew what was going on we were just being told it will be a game which requires as much body weight as possible so everyone should take part…

Before we know it the Manager has walked into the circle holding a taser gun and wants to send volts around the circle!!! Amazingly no one backed out for the first round (including myself!) and thankfully it didn’t hurt as much as we all expected however as the groups got smaller the pain got heightened but it was only the guys in our group which suffered that.

After dinner was whip practicing (on the floor!), line dancing and mechanical bull rodeo which is always funny to watch!

After a nights sleep we left for Fraser Island to spend Christmas Eve and Day on the beach! Although unfortunately my phone didn’t make the cut and has been lost at Kroombit! Sad times!

Theres something about a good tune

I don’t know what it is about a good song that just makes you feel good and appreciate all the little things in life.

Today we had a cruise around Katherine Gorge (as the tide had risen too much to kayak unfortunately – got to be careful of those crocodiles!!)

This afternoon we did a small hike (which was ridiculously hard in this humid heat) to some beeeeeautiful waterfalls where we had an afternoon swim to cool off…. And where I nearly drifted off down the lake because I was trying to hard to keep my bikini bottoms on! First stop in cairns is going to be a bikini shop!!

But besides all of this… I am very thankful for the following today:
• Having an air conditioned bus and pool at the hotel to go back to
• Having great company to share this experience with
• Having clean drinking water – even if it was extremely hot water
• And finally having a camera and this blog to document my journey to re-read again in the future

Finally pool time!

After three days of sweating buckets in the 40 degree heat of the outback it is finally time to relax in the pool on our free day. I am currently writing this post from the safety of the jacuzzi with a view of the guys throwing a ball around in the pool.
And what a pool it is…!

We spent the first day doing the 11.2km base walk of Ayers Rock, the second day walking around The Olgas and finally the third day at Kings Canyon all as part of the Topdeck Rock and Top tour. Several people in our original group have now left, either it being the end of their journey with Topdeck or are continuing their adventure down to Melbourne. There are 10 of our original group joining another group to head up to Darwin.

On Wednesday evening we spent one night in Australian Swags – which basically means a very large and very thick sleeping bag, with another regular sleeping bag inside…. Not the best in this heat!!

I’ll be honest I’m not looking forward to the thought of even more flies and bugs on our way up to Darwin but I will power through!

Feeling hot hot hot!

Welcome to the red centre!!!

Everyone keeps telling me not to worry it will only get to 37 degrees today…. ONLY?! It’s 35 at the moment and I’m staying in the cool air conditioned room for the time being!

If you’re staying in Alice Springs the place to be is Toddy’s! It’s a very nice hostel (even has a mini pool!) and the staff are great… Already we’ve had free towels, water an wifi simply because the ‘boss man’ couldn’t be bothered to scan it. Fine by me!

He told us that yesterday it was 42+ degrees and apparently when washing towels they took 6 minutes to dry!
After the sunstroke I had from Thailand I think it’s probably a good idea I stay in the shade for the next couple of hours!

If I could offer you only one tip for the future…

Sunscreen would be it.

It’s ironic that Baz Luhrmann’s ‘song’ “Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)” is one of my favourite to listen to and yet I still can’t take his main tip.

So no I didn’t wear sunscreen and yes I did burn. I actually think burn could be an understatement here. I blistered.

My one and only reason for writing this post – to try and remind myself to wear sunscreen !!
(But here’s a few nice pictures too)