Tuesday 26 August 2008

Kuranda Adventure


Day 2 of our fabulous Incentive Trip commenced with a wonderful buffet style cooked breakfast in the Far Horizons Restuarant at our resort. We then hopped on a bus, which took us to the Kuranda Railway. The train trip was lots of fun as we chatted, stopped for scenic views and enjoyed the delicious local macadamia nuts and orange juice. I am pictured above with Karen and Aaron Scott, whom it was lovely to meet.

Third is a picture I took of the Barron Falls. So lucky I recently completed an SLR course, and was able to make use of what I learnt. By increasing the 'time value' (keeping the shutter open for longer), I was able to capture the movement of the waterfall. No doubt it would have been better with a tripod, but I decided this was too big a handicap to have to carry for a day - Robyn was probably grateful of this too!

Not much explanation needed here. This shot was taken looking back as we crossed a 'significant' bridge on the Kuranda Railway - I was so busy talking, I think I missed why it was significant - I was just glad it held us up!

The Kuranda Butterfly house was lovely and really we could have spent much more time here, because believe me, you need to be patient to get shots of the butterflies. A few of us held our cameras mid air for long periods of time waiting for the beautiful blue Monarch Butterflies to open their wings. After a while a beautiful butterfly came in for the perfect shot - only problem was that it was right on top of my overhead flash - so everyone else got photos of that! Eventually one landed right on my jacket. It was worth the wait because it landed just like a brooch right above the Stampin' Up! Palm Cove Incentive Trip Logo - couldn't have planned it better - and no, I did not purchase a brooch from the shop, it is most definitely real!




Coming back down the mountain, we swapped the train for the Skyrail. Here is Robyn and I in one of the cabins capsules not sure what you call them really. Stampin' Up! looked after us so well and met us at the skyrail with our tickets - this was a real holiday where you didn't need to plan, stess, think, lose tickets - it was all taken care of for us. A funny note - Aaron purchased a didgeridoo and really it maust have been a bit awkward in the liitle skyrail cabin coming down - apparently it did fit though!

Monday 25 August 2008

Welcome to Palm Cove


This is the Far Horizons Restuarant, which is part of Angsana Spa Resort, where I have just returned from spending 5 days - well, not in the restuarant but in Palm Cove! One of 25 Australians and New Zealanders to achieve the Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip, I was treated a most memorable time. As I do not have a lap top, I was not able to update my blog whilst on the trip, however, I will now upload updates over the next 5 days featuring highlights of each day.

Upon arrival at Angsana, we were welcomed with iced tea and steaming towels.


This is the suite that my friend Robyn and I shared. We each had king size beds and our own bathrooms and the living area was huge.


On our first night we had a Welcome Dinner at the Far Horizons Restuarant. It was a spectacular BBQ, followed by a bowls party at the Marlin Coast Bowls Club. We all found out we are pretty hopeless bowlers, but we had a lot of fun.