Getting out and about in your active wear.

Last Sunday I was active in my activewear. Just for the record, I usually am active when wearing my gym clothes. This time I took activewear to where it is most at home, the great outdoors, or more specifically, Royal Sydney National Park. The RSNP is an hour (with no traffic) drive south of Sydney. You can actually see the headland when you're coming in to land at Sydney Airport! We set out on our 7km walk from a nondescript car park. The thing about this walk, and the car park, is that there aren't many signs confirming exactly where you are. Luckily, we had Google Maps! We walked, and walked and walked through similar looking track and bush for what felt like forever. Until we came out to some cliffs that look over the ocean and revealed a secret beach. From there, we were about 900m from the Wedding Cake Rock - a geometric cliff-side that is made from naturally occurring white sandstone - bound to fall in to the ocean at any time. There is a fence warning you not to go on the rock because it is so unstable. I fear these words and these images will come back to haunt me when the rock finally does depart in to the sea. I was a nervous wreck for most of the time whilst standing both on the rock and off it, watching brave tourists get adventurous photos. Facing my fears of following the rock off the side of the cliff and in to the ocean I crawled on my hands and knees to the magic Insta-photo-opportunity spot. With my hands in the air, a smile on my face I confronted my fears of heights and cliff edges, and now have a photo to prove it. After we left the rock, and the adrenaline subsided, I felt a little proud of overcoming a fear and was able to relate it to different areas of my life. Fear can be a fickle beast, but when you meet it head on and work your way through it, it's not so bad. In someways I think we feel fear to remind ourselves of how much we are capable of once we get to the other side of it. I'll be the first to admit that getting out of my comfort zone isn't one of my natural talents, but when I do, boy, do I feel so much better for it!

When was the last time you were in nature and out of your comfort zone?

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Into the Blue: Airlie Beach, Queensland.

My first adventure of 2016 was a five day trip to Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is located in North Queensland and is the gateway to The Whitsunday Islands, aka blue heaven. The Whitsundays are made up of over 70 islands but the ones you are most likely to know are Daydream, Hamilton and Hayman. These islands are developed with luxury resorts are a familiar to the rich and famous. 

I had high expectations of crystal clear skies and waters and our trip did not disappoint. Every day was perfectly sunny, hot and humid. Our first day included a day trip out to Daydream Island and Hamilton Island. Daydream Island was practically just the resort. The resort have incorporated their surroundings in to the resort through their very incredible "living reef" which is an artificial reef with stingrays, reef sharks, coral and fish that pans throughout most of the property. As it was stinger  (jellyfish) season you needed to borrow a stinger suit to swim in the ocean water so we just stuck to sun baking by the pool - this was meant to be a more relaxing day trip after all. The next stop was Hamilton Island which was much the same, resorts and not much else. We had a quick lunch and then headed straight to see Catseye Beach. It was the same situation of needing stinger suits to swim in the water so we just stuck to swimming close by the shore. The water was crystal clear but very warm as it was so hot and 100% humidity. We had a quick swim at the Beach Club before heading back to Airlie. To be honest I had higher expectations of Hamilton Island and was a bit disappointed. I'm not sure exactly why. I know that I wouldn't spend the money it would cost to stay there when there are so many other places to see with more things to do.

The absolute highlight of the trip was an overnight sail cruise we did on the SV Whitehaven. We had a full day snorkelling on the reef in the clearest of waters seeing the most spectacular coral and fish. When snorkelling it wasn't hard to get lost in imagining how cool it would be to be a mermaid and live under the sea, just like Ariel in 'The Little Mermaid'. And the the coral, the coral! I can't tell you enough how much of an amazing natural wonder it is! The shapes! The colours! The texture! The gorgeous yellows, greens and pinks that line the ocean floor in which the multi-coloured fish swim over the top to create a most wonderful contrast is just like magic to the wanna-be-mermaid soul. The photos don't do this incredible environment any justice. You need to see it with you're own eyes to be truly touched.

After the day of next-level snorkelling we anchored to watch the sunset and carry on with dinner, drinks and forging new friendships. The next morning started at the crack of sunrise with us setting off to explore world famous Whitehaven Beach. Did you know that Whitehaven Beach has some of the purest, whitest sand in the world?! I didn't. The sand is so pure in fact that NASA are the only organisation to have permission to remove sand to use in their satellite dish reflectors....! Walking through Hill Inlet, to make another movie reference, is similar to Leo walking through the jungle and finding the beach in 'The Beach'. Queue Moby's Porcelain. And there you are, standing on a wooden look out, starring straight into the bluest of blue water that is met with the whitest of white sand surrounded by an untouched tropical island. After taking it all in, 'being in the moment' and getting a few pics for Insta it was time to hit the beach. The sand felt like powder under your feet, the softest sand I have ever felt, and the water, was warm and clear as day. Spending three hours frolicking on Whitehaven Beach was no hard task. It was by far and beyond the most spectacular beach I have ever been to. 

After setting sail back to port in Airlie Beach it was time to shower, nap, get ready and go out and cement the great friendships already made on the boat. The shenanigans wrapped up in the early morning hours like all great backpacker-cheap unexpected nights do. And I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

I would encourage anyone and everyone to visit the Great Barrier Reef/The Whitsundays. This was my second Great Barrier Reef experience and I can't wait to go back and do it all over again. I would also encourage you to invest your money on getting out and exploring the reef rather than spending it on sterile hotel experiences. You won't regret it! 

Paris: A Moveable Feast.

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” 
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Bonjour! It's been a long time between travel posts. I apologise profusely. Here we are now, in Paris, the city of romance. From these images above I hope you can see why. On our first day in Paris we headed out to see the most notable sights: the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and the Champes Elysees. I truly underestimated the popularity and scale of people who flock daily to snap away at these famous monuments. It was exhausting to walk through the teaming crowds of people and to watch them all crowding around these magnificent icons, selfie sticks in tow. We managed to negotiate the crowds to take our own token tourist shots before being quickly squeezed out. 

After a massive afternoon of walking and negotiating crowds in the sprawling city centre we plonked down at a signature Parisian cafe' for our first French meal and a glass of rose to unwind. Day one of Paris felt very overwhelming and a little unsatisfying.

It wasn't until the second day when we went on our Hidden Paris Walking Tour of Montmartre that we felt like we had discovered the real, raw, magical Paris that we had been hoping to discover. Montmartre is home to so much history, especially in the arts and writing movements. It's where Picasso lived and worked for a lot of his career. He would meet up with Dali, Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein in the 1920s. It's where 'bohemia' emanates and where one of my favourite movies of all time is set, Midnight in Paris. We walked around winding cobblestone alleys, saw forgotten windmills and a secret vineyard. Marvelled at the mixture of architectural influences that make up the Sacre-Coeur and the hidden convent that resides next door. Our wonderful tour guide pointed out all of places to eat including a bakery which had won the "Best Baguette" in Paris - which turns out is a pretty big deal as the winner becomes the official supplier of bread to the President and the Elysees Palace for a whole year! Once the tour was over we made sure to eat as much amazing food as possible and shopped like true Parisians at the many amazing boutiques. 

That evening, continuing with the Montmartre theme we had a quick creme brûlée at Le Chat Nior and then took ourselves to see a cabaret show at the La Nouvelle Eve. To top it all off and come back to present day Paris we took and Uber back to our hotel. 

Terrigal.

Wearing: Camilla and Marc top (from sample sale), Zara jeans, scarf from Brunswick Markets, near Byron Bay, Michael Kors watch.

This Easter Monday I traveled up to Terrigal to meet my sister who was staying in Newcastle. We thought instead of one coming to the other why not meet half way and explore somewhere we hadn't been before. Driving in to Terrigal felt a lot like being at home on the Gold Coast. Wide roads, open spaces, big pine trees lining the beach, a concentrated area of people and shops all buzzing thanks to the public holiday. It's a different, more carefree vibe than that of being around the city. We did what tourists do and drove around, parked, got out, explored a beach, had lunch, people watched, you know the routine. A storm had been brewing since we arrived. The sky had been turning a deeper shade of grey every time I looked up at it. Racing against time (and somewhat like that Tornado movie in my mind) we managed to make it to Long Jetty for some quick pictures before the storm fully set in. Those last moments before the heavy spots of rain fell to the ground felt electric, like we had won the storm chasers race.

Secret beaches.

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I know I talked about my resolutions last time but I'm still sticking with them and enjoying them much the same. One of my personal resolutions is to get out and explore more of Sydney's secret beaches during summer. I stumbled upon this perfect list on Friday afternoon and picked out Shelly Beach for a Saturday adventure. The main reason I picked this beach was because it involved a ferry ride and I like those. Being out on the Harbour,  in a big boat, even if it is just public transport, out amongst all of the yachts and fancy boats is one of the best cheap thrills available in Sydney. I had only been to Manly once before and its similarity to the Gold Coast  really resonated with me. Before we trekked over to the mysterious 'secret beach' L and I stopped for quite possibly the best burritos we have ever consumed. I am still thinking about the freshly made tortillas and the mushy mess of rice, black beans, sour cream and guacamole left at the end. 

It was the perfect summer day in every notion; heat moving slowly, if at all, crystal clear blue waters, not a cloud in the sky, people with colourful towels and umbrellas dotting the shoreline as far as the eye could see. 'This is summer' I thought when I stopped to take the above photograph. 'This is living' I thought when I dived into the deep cold water for the first time. We stayed in a shady spot under some trees for nearly four hours. Just reading, thinking, talking and lying, taking intermittent runs across the hot sand for cool dips. We left lightly sun kissed and blissed out. This 'secret beach' was well worth the adventure. 

Update: If this day was a song, it would be this.