Off to the Sunshine Coast Hinterland

This morning Ross and I went for a walk down to the shops to pick up a few things for our trip. We had a coffee because the shops didn't open until 10. We picked up our groceries and then walked home in time for John's turkey omellettes for breakfast.

We packed up our stuff and about 11, we headed up the coast to the Kondalilla National Park in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland to the Tree houses resort where John and Caz had booked us in a deluxe treehouse for two nights.

We arrived about 12.30 and had some lunch as soon as we got into the room. The room was pretty cool on two levels with the lounge, dining and kitchen area on the top level and the bed and double spa on the bottom. The whole thing was open plan with beautiful 360 views into the surrounding bushland.

We spent the afternoon in the spa and then lazed on the bed watching the cricket. I fell asleep for a couple of hours and then we decided to get up and do something. We drove into Mapleton and had a drink at the pub which had been there since 1916. It had a beautiful view. We decided we were happy just relaxing so we drove into Montville and picked up a pizza for dinner to take back to the room. We watched a movie and then we were in bed early with the sounds of the bush all around us - beautiful.

Last day in Broome :-(

We woke up early this morning, packed up our stuff and dropped it at reception before heading to the resort next door – Bali Hai – for our spa treatments. At the spa, we registered and began our three hour spa extravaganza!

First, our therapists washed our feet then we went inside and began our hour full body massage. This was followed by a salt scrub and full body mud masque. While the masque did its magic, we were treated to a hair treatment and fantastic head massage. We had to wake up and head back outside to the outside shower to wash off all the mud.

Back inside, we started with a facial followed by a hand and foot treatment. It was fantastic! The therapists were very nice and the treatments were wonderful. We walked out of there with a new lease on life.

From the resort, we walked back down to Cable Beach for some lunch at the café on the cliff above the beach (see photo). We enjoyed our seafood and white wine while overlooking beautiful views. As it was our last day of holidays, we shared a Banoffee pie and had coffees before calling a taxi to take us back to the resort to pick up our luggage and then on to the airport.

We had to wait a while before the check-in opened at the airport but soon we were on our way back to Perth. The flight was pretty uneventful and when we landed the weather was wet and freezing! We jumped in a cab and headed to the Comfort Inn for a quick night before heading back to the airport early in the morning.

As the cab pulled up at the lights on Great Eastern Highway, it jolted to a stop and the driver couldn’t get it started again. Ross and I waited in the taxi and couldn’t believe our bad luck. Eventually the car started again and we managed to get to the motel before it conked out again. It was pouring rain so we grabbed our key and ran to the room, locked the door and swore that we wouldn’t be going anywhere! We ordered chicken noodle soup from the restaurant and they delivered it to our room. We had showers, organized a few things and jumped into bed as we had to be up at 4.30 to catch a taxi to the airport tomorrow morning. It was a miserable night in Perth and the rain and wind pelted the door all night.

Planning and researching

Today I spent the day doing two things:

- Researching ways to stop the cats scratching the couches (which you can see in the photo!)
- Looking at accommodation options for our trip up the coast of WA

I was reasonably successful with the first one. I sprayed a citrus scented leather spray on the couches and tried to clip the cats' nails (easy with Black - not so much with Blue!). I also ordered SoftPaws, plastic nail covers kind of like false nails. The are 'glued' over the nails so that they cannot scratch things. I figure I will check both cats into the vet, put them under anaesthetic, have the vet clean their teeth and also apply the false nails. I also looked into portable cat tunnels so that they can be outside without escaping. I came across some in the states and have asked Sonja to bring one back with her if she can. So reasonably successful I think.

The second one was not too easy! I finally figured out that we were traveling to WA exactly at the same time as school holidays. Of course this means that all the caravan parks up the coast are pretty much fully booked. I spent hours researching what parks were around, sending emails, logging responses, narrowing down options etc. We had success in some locations but it looks pretty bad in others so we may have to look at other types of accommodation. I was sick of looking at it all by this stage!

Not much else going on today.

Day trip to Melaka

Today we spent the day in Melaka which is around two hours drive south of KL. Once a vital port on the trading route from China to India, it is now a UNESCO World Heritage site city.

As you can see from the photo, we got a bit tired of walking and resorted to a one hour trishaw ride. Dad and Ann are wearing their 4 ringgit hats just to make sure that we were easily spotted as tourists!

We ended the day with a great meal on the jetty before heading home. Highly recommended for a visit - Ross and I will definitely be going back.