Treated like a celebrity!
I am an Aussie Specialist and made it as a Qantas Global Achiever in 2007. That meant I was one of the top 20 consultants for sales to Australa in the whole of the UK and Ireland and I was taken out there on an educational adventure. Our itinerary was very busy to say the least!
On arrival we transferred to Surfers Paradise and took a 15 minute helicopter tour of the area – wow! – the beaches stretch as far as the eye can see! The idea was to keep us busy so that we’d get used to the local time zone so we had lunch, were given a shower and a massage (as our rooms weren’t ready) and then went to the ‘Australian Outback Adventure’ dinner show. Here we saw stampeding cattle in a huge arena, bush vehicles and superb horsemanship followed by an Aussie BBQ feast. Boy were we ready for bed that night!
We all loved our hotel, because when we looked down at the pool in the grounds it not only had it’s own beach and shallows but also a large reef pool with tropical fish where you could snorkel. The rooms were great too! (Marriott SP) - also spent a night at the Palazzo Versace as used in 'I'm a Celebrity'
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary hosted us one morning and we all got to hold a koala. The park has kangaroos and wallabies that roam freely and huge saltwater crocodiles that we were pleased to see in a large habitat enclosure – as well as many other smaller mammals and birds. After a lunch at a surf club by the beach we were off again – this time to Tropical Fruit World.
Steve Irwin had a passion for his wildlife (Australia Zoo is fairly local) & the host at tropical Fruit World had a passion for fruit! He showed us so many things we’d never seen before and tasted several that were weird and wonderful to look at. This is the largest plantation farm in Australia and we went round on open sided trucks pulled by huge tractors. There are other things on offer here such as rainforest walks and a jungle river cruise for the kids but we’d all had an interesting time.
The next day was our craziest – we did a treasure hunt in hire cars which saw us jetboating, running around the local shopping centre collecting what we could for ‘free’, then off to Dreamland where we had to have pictures taken of us the their ‘big five’ rides. After lunch (!) we followed clues that took us to the Holden Performance Driving Centre where we were driven round the track at racing speeds of over 100mph and then a more leisurely drive to ‘find’ the Q1 tower. This was the world’s tallest residential tower block and has an observation deck where the winning team was photographed for the local press. The following day we found ourselves at Seaworld - swimming with sharks! Not as scary as it sounds - they weren't great whites but they were HUGE!
Another adventure was Tangalooma – we weren’t there at the right time to feed their wild dolphins but we did a short tour of the island by quad bike followed by a wonderful seafood lunch in their beach restaurant.
We flew on to Adelaide and went on to Kangaroo Island for a complete change of pace. This is like going back in time and we spent three days with a local guide doing walking safaris. Here is a place where everyone knows each other an no one locks the doors. We filled the (one) restaurant in town and the locals who wanted to eat and found their tables full of strangers just came back later and joined us - no worries! Here we found roos in the wild, koalas in trees and seals on the beach - not an ice-cream stand in sight - lovely!
Our last stop was Perth (so we thought) but we ended up on the ferry to Rottnest Isand. This is a holiday island with chalets, shops and - no cars.... so to get around the island we were given bikes. We went in search of the legendary 'quokka' which is found here - and find some we did - along with sore legs and all of us needing cushions for the plane journey back to the UK!
Thank you Qantas so much for an incredible trip!