A little-known fact… Chris bought the ring back in Feb when he was getting it made, but obviously I didn’t know. Anyway, about a month or two ago, I was chatting with a girl friend about engagement rings and we were looking through the designs that caught our fancy? Guess which design I picked out? The EXACT one that Chris bought me :P Great minds think alike, hehe! It does mean a lot to me ‘cos it’s really nice to know that the guy I’m marrying knows my taste to a tee :)

Anyway, after The Proposal, Chris was really keen to still head out to our “celebratory dinner”. I wasn’t particularly in the mood to eat.. considering we’d only just pigged out on cheese and wine, and my stomach was doing total flipflops in excitement over the proposal :P Chris was insistent, so I decided I’d just eat light and have an entree or something.

Set amongst tropical landscaped gardens and overlooking the Reef View pool, The Pool Terrace Restaurant is chic but casual. Lit by candlelight, it’s was a lovely restaurant for us to just enjoy and bask away in our ‘newly engaged’ status :) Again, I was surprised at how fantastic the food was.. I selected the Tasting Plate which was basically “surprise” dishes consisting of whatever the chef thought was best and freshest. The food was great, but the portions were too small for the price IMHO ;)

Which meant I of course had to steal some of Chris’ :P He’d selected the Eye Fillet steak served on a bed of croquette potatoes, asparagus and porcini mushroom suace. Topped with a delicate truffle butter. That steak was friggin’ AMAZING. It was fat and thick but was absolutely tender and cooked perfectly.. was actually better than the steak we had at The Steakhouse earlier in the trip :P

Dessert was Sticky date pudding with pistachio ice cream which didn’t look too exciting on the menu, but I’m damn glad we’d ordered it because it was AWESOME! Warm and fudgy and moist.. beautifully matched with the pistachio ice cream. Too bad the resturant’s not in Sydney too!

The Pool Terrace Restaurant

Our 1st photo post-engagement, ‘cept it’s so flashed-out and we look so tired!

My tasting plate

Some kinda tart, and some risotto/truffle ball

Super tender beef with a strawberry

Smoked salmon and seaweed, and scallop at the back

Eye Fillet steak served on a bed of croquette potatoes, asparagus and
porcini mushroom suace. Topped with a delicate truffle butter.

Sticky date pudding with pistachio ice cream

CHEERS TO OUR ENGAGEMENT! :)

Picture-perfect view from THE BALCONY, the next morning

I could stand out here for hours…….

Chris’ video of THE BALCONY :)

Byeeeeeeee

And that’s the end of it… A wonderful holiday that I’d anticipated would be something that would totally rejuvenate us and it was all that and so much more :) It’s been an absolute whirlwind of craziness since we’ve returned, with engagement celebration dinners, hanging out with friends.. and of course, an engagement party coming right up!

But THANK YOU so much for all your well wishes and thoughts. It means a lot to us and really put a smile on my face reading through your comments :) It’s nice to be able to share this with you, and also quite nice to be able to talk about something for a change, since my blog is pretty much about nothing interesting except for a few food pics here and there ;)

And do I have anything planned yet? The answer to that (very frequently asked) question is… NO! Nothing at all – not even a date, or a venue, or bridal party, or theme colour, or anything at all. I’ve never been the girl that dreams of her wedding and has got everything planned/imagined.. so it’s all quite overwhelming for me and to be honest, I just wish everything would be over and we were already married – that’s kind of the part I want the most, and not really months and months of planning/stress just for one day. Pressure, much? Eek!!!

After (yet another) hearty breakfast, we headed out to the jetty to catch our boat for a day trip out by the beaches, for some sun, surf and snorkelling. Little did we realise that the boat (which I envisioned to be a chic little yacht) was actually a feisty red jet boat! There were about 20 of us and we had the TIME OF OUR LIFE on that thing. It was absolutely awesome, by far the favourite activity/event I’ve been on in quite a while. It was like a roller coaster ride, and the wind was so strong our faces felt half-blown off afterwards, haha. The best bit was a MEGA bump bump bumps the boat did, every time we rode a wave and came crashing back down. It was the best adrenalin rush, and absolutely fun. I want to do it again!!

We stopped first at Whitehaven Beach – rated Most Photographed Beach in Australia. With crystal-clear aqua waters and over 7km of beach stretched along Whitsunday Island, Whitehaven Beach boasts bright white pure silicia sand – so absolutely fine and delicate. It’s a gorgeous place, and very few people were then whilst we frolicked, which was great! I hate crazy tourists running amok – I like to be the only one doing so, haha ;) We wandered around, pranced around in the ocean, kicked a ball around, and generally had a lovely outdoorsy time enjoying the beach and surf.

BREAKFAST…. oh yummy

Pretty yachts

Waiting for our boat

All smiles

Our cheery red jet boat

All ready to speed off

Glorious weather

INSANE bumper jet-boat ride ;)

Aaaaand we reach!

Beautiful turquoise water

On Whitehaven Beach

Whee!

My superman ;)

Hurray for beautiful beaches!

Gorgeous super-fine white sand

The bushwalk/trees is just meters away

Cute picnic area

Peeling off the clothes to go for a swim!

…but not before kicking a ball around

Gorgeous view

I lack hand-to-eye coordination ;)

Chris doing a cartwheel

Us :)

Standing around doing nothing in particular..

Feeling rather small in a biiiiig beach

Slooooowly and bravely getting into the water, it was kinda cold!

WHEE!

Chris’ video of the beach……. with me jumping around like a maniac, for some reason

After that, it was off to Chalkies Beach for some snorkelling!! I bought 2 snorkel sets for the occasion but silly Chris forgot to bring 1 of the masks, d’oh. Was so excited to go snorkelling but because it was by the beach, the water wasn’t clear enough and the sun went behind some clouds.. so everyone gave up in about 15 mins, LOL. Chris and I persevered and were last ones out of the water, but it wasn’t that terrific. I wouldn’t bother doing it again, or at least next time go right out to sea to snorkel instead of trying to do it by the beach! We did see coral and fish but nothing amazing. Hence why no photos ;)

When we got back to the hotel, we ate MORE food at the free markets (WOOOOOOO!!!!!) and then lounged around by the pool. Then we decided to go on a bushwalk, along the famous trails at Hamilton Island. We brought along our wine and cheese, with the intention to bushwalk to a secluded area that overlooked a small beach, and picnic there. Little did I know that Chris had popped in the engagement ring box into the paper bag, and I had held onto the bag for a few mins without realising it was in there the whole time!

His intention was to have a wine & cheese picnic in a private area, then propose. How romantic! Except it was not to be… When the shuttle neared the area, we saw a big group of people dressed as pirates (!). Chris kept complaining that they would be there and annoying us, and I didn’t see why it was such a big deal. He said afterwards he was really annoyed because he couldn’t propose when there were silly rowdy pirates around :P Then on top of that, it started to drizzle… AND I fell fast asleep in the shuttle…. so we ended up taking a round trip and he woke me up when it reached the hotel, haha.

So we ended up having our “picnic” in the hotel bar, which was very nice since we were under cover and warm when it was raining outside as the sun was going down.

Chilling in the pool

Waiting for the little resort shuttle to take us to the bushwalk area

Having drinks & snacks at the hotel bar

But of course, it was after our little indoor picnic, when we went back upstairs to our room at sunset, where the VERY BEST part of the entire holiday happened……. :)