Just got back to the isa from my little jaunt to the coast - wat an awesome time!
As soon as i got off the plane at Townsville on saturday, Dan drove me straight down to The Strand. I got out and was so excited to see the green grass, the sand & the ocean! (Never thought I'd be that excited about lawn ever!) LOL I took my shoes off and ran on the grass, kicked some sand in my face on the beach haha and paddled my feet in the water. We headed over on the ferry to Magnetic Island. Our resort was right there as we got off the ferry and i could tell by the reception area with the day beds etc it was pretty damn swanky, but it still blew my mind when we got to our room, sorry 'apartment'. they had upgraded us to a 3bedroom, 2bathroom suite (why we needed that for just the 2 of us who knows) and it was absolutely magnificent!
Brand new, gorgeous furniture, opening out onto the pool on one side and the marina on the other, with our own private plunge pool.
A massive bath in the main bedroom and a huge shower room etc, it was out of control (in a totally good way!).
I have never even SEEN anything like it in my life, let alone stayed in something like that. The photos don't even do it any justice. I said to Dan that he had set the bar pretty high by that being the first hotel he took me to!!
On our way walking to the bottleshop we passed the mini moke hire place, so we went in & bargained them down to hire a moke for the arvo.
We hooned around in that for a while, exploring the island, it was maddd. Although the brakes were a bit shit, and I wasnt surprised to hear a bloke crashed & died a couple of weeks ago, but nar it was mad fun. At the jetty there was a bunch of scabby looking tiny kangaroo things which looked a bit like rats, so we named them "RATAROOS"
We had a couple of bevvies and a game of pool at Picnic Bay then had dinner at what we called the 'gangster' italian restaurant, the name just sounds like a gangster don't u think (say it with a strong italian accent)
We had spaghetti & a lovely bottle of red, it was delish and divine.
Back at the apartment we were going to have a dip in the pool but the water was freezing so we only stayed in there for about 45 seconds before deciding to run a nice hot bubble bath instead. SO. GOOD.
After breakfast with all the yachting folk (there was a big regatta on @ the Island all week), we picked up the scooters we'd hired for the day. We were chatting to another bloke hiring one too, and our 3 bikes all came out together. The bikes all have names apparently, i got the pink one "Lil Miss", Dan's was named "Bruce" and old mate got the red one called "Axel". Of course from then on in, the guy was known to us as Axel, and we were Bruce & Lil Miss. LOLZ. We went cruising around the island. Dan is a hoon. We raced and i won going uphill, but he killed me going down, since i was so scared I rode my brakes all the way down and Dan caned it as fast as he could.
We decided to hire a jetski & as we were booking it, Axel turned up, he was hiring one too. (Small island much?) The jetski was FREAKIN AMAZING!! So powerful its crazy. It was soo much fun! And of course Dan is a maniac jetski driver too - he was doing mad donuts and hooning over the chop he created. It was a mission to hold on for my life on the back of the jetski! It was so rough, at one point we both flew off & the jetski nearly flipped, and Dan managed to buck me off another 2 times. The fact that I manged to stay on as much as i did shows i have some serious bull riding skillz & could think about taking it up as a profession ha. I got a bit of my own back when i took a turn at driving it - i think Dan got quite a rude shock when he realised how hard it was to hang on at the back when you're flipping in the air left & right lol. He thought I was a crazy driver, but i was quite tame compared to what he was putting me through. We were utterly exhausted & starving by the end of that and enjoyed lunch at Horseshoe Bay.
We scooted around a bit more then said our goodbyes to Lil Miss & Bruce and kicked back in our apartment for a bit. I jumped in the plunge pool (Dan was too chicken, it was too cold in there) then we got ready for dinner in the resort restaurant. I've got Dan enjoying the red wine now, and we had another beautiful evening of dinner & vino before crashing, ready to leave on the early a.m. ferry as Dan had to go to work.
Dan was fully tired as he barely slept - he woke in the night with a razorblade throat & unable to swallow which kept him up and even throwing up half the night. He felt like shit & tired so decided he couldn't go to work, so he went to the doctors & got a certificate. We had lunch, found an awesome hair/beauty factory outlet where i got all the stuff John needs to give the Isa an abundance of stylin hairs then I dropped Dan back at the motel and went off on my own to HIT THE SHOPS!!! HARD!! I shopped LIKE A MAD WOMAN! Considering the only places to shop in the Isa are Kmart & Jay Jays, I was in sensory overload and just frenetically racing from shop to shop. Jeanswest! Oh how I've missed you!! The bitchez there just kept putting stuff in front of me LOL. I bought clothes, perfume, pandora charms (noone in the Isa sells them), CD's etc it was AWESOME LOL. After a manic couple of hours the shops started to close (how rude)so I had to leave.
We were going to have Indian or Thai for dinner (again -neither of them in the Isa) but they were both closed so we ended up going to a very posh waterfront restaurant on the strand. My fave bottle of red atm (Penfolds Bin 138 GSM for those of u playing at home) which i normally pay $19.99 for was $65 on the wine list just to give u an idea of the kind of restaurant we're talking about here LOL. The meal was beautiful (of course) and another great evening. The 'croquette potato' with Dan's steak made us laugh - One potato ball haha how funny
With Dan all dosed up on Strepsils & Aspro Clear I dropped him off at work the next day and stopped in via the strand at the great coffee shop we had found. The chick gave me a free coffee which was awesome. I went home & showered and packed and returned to the shops. I started off with a Boost Juice (yes, something else u can't get in Mt Isa). I tried the Indian/Thai option again but neither was open for lunch. I hit a different shopping centre but the thrill had gone a bit LOL maybe tempered by the realisation that I was going home in a few hours, leaving the 3B's (the Beach, the Bargains and the Boy). The fact that I maxxed out one of my credit cards prob didn't help either lol. I got a felafel kebab (yes, you guessed it, felafels are also unheard of in the Isa) and Dan got an early mark from work YAY! so i went back and met him at the motel.
Eventually the time arrived when i had to leave - happy to be headin home of course but not quite ready to give up any of the 3B's just yet. Dan spent so much money, spoilt me rotten & treated me like a princess all weekend. I could quite get used to this. But i do appreciate every second and every cent he spent with me & don't take any minute of our 4 days together for granted. I had a great time and I will definitely go back to Gronksville again!
Ciao beautifuls
Dxxxx
