Another day, another beautiful sunrise from the QT Hotel.
I am a huge buffet fan and the QT is the best I’ve been to.
Huge selection of juices and milks.
Shayne Tilley on stage during the email marketing sessions with great advice: don’t just build a form for your email newsletter, build a benefit.
Great advice for pretty much any situation – learn from others, but don’t think you have to imitate them.
I was in the bar and missed lunch (and an entire session), so a quick bar meal it was.
Chris Ducker on stage with his wisdom.
Two years in a row I’ve been to the QT for ProBlogger, and two years in a row I’ve been so busy I haven’t gotten to enjoy the hotel facilities. It was a bit too cold for a swim, but I did dip my foot in!
After two very full-on days, my roommate and I took a sunset walk to relax and clear our heads. I love how empty the beach was.
We did go out for dinner too, but I think the AH-MAZING food at Bazaar deserves its own post…and another trip down there for more eating!
Beautiful sunrise to wake up to. Hello Gold Coast!
The best part of the buffet breakfast at the QT Hotel Gold Coast.
The point at which I got very excited because it was STARTING!
Mr ProBlogger himself on stage – with great advice behind him. Because if you don’t start, you’ll never have opportunities.
Virgin Australia were major sponsors again and we were treated to some Business Class food of theirs. FAR too sweet for me but it’s also not the sort of thing I have often, so anything juice-like is too sweet for me!
Lunch time sweet treat.
Amazing Fruit Tower at lunch.
I left a session that afternoon & went back to my room to decompress – ProBlogger is a conference where a LOT of information is thrown at you and sometimes you need a break. I was following along with the hashtag on my laptop.
No conference is complete without a cocktail party!
Food to go with the champers :)
And that was day two in photos! There is a lot more that I learned, but copious handwritten notes make for a boring blog post!
Woah. Well the ProBlogger conference was last weekend at the Gold Coast, hosted again by the quirky QT Hotel. I took many photos of the conference and hotel, so I’ve divided the posts up by day to give you a visual tour of what the Gold Coast, the QT hotel and the ProBlogger Conference is like.
Suitcase packed and read to go! Other bag full of food. And maybe wine.
On the road!
I love the carpet in the hallways at the QT Hotel!
Comfy twin room at the QT hotel on the Gold Coast
View from 14th floor QT Hotel Gold Coast
A couple of days before the conference I was reading a travel article that said you HAVE to check under hotel beds for dead bodies when you check in. So I checked. No dead body here.
Instead of eating out on the first night, my roomie and I did a little DIY room service.
Sangria from the Stingray bar within the QT Hotel.
And there you have it! Day one (travel day) of the 2014 ProBlogger conference in pictures. Stay tuned for part 2.
Have you ever stayed at the QT Hotel on the Gold Coast?
Brisbane and its suburbs have a huge selection of markets for the population. I think it’s safe to say that markets, particularly farmers markets, have been a very successful enterprise in and around South East Queensland.
I actually lived in Nundah years ago when these markets were introduced. They were very busy at the first one, then it tapered off quickly. Since moving away from Nundah years ago, the area has become a bit more urban and funky. I decided to go back to the markets and see what they were like these days. And you know what, they’re pretty good!
Nundah Fresh Farmers Markets are not huge – they are held in the train station car park. But what they lack in size, they make up for in being funky! I actually buy all my fruit & vegetables from a shop a few doors from my house, so if I go to farmers markets, it’s just to browse, enjoy being out and see what little secrets are in each place.
Flowers to welcome you to the market!
Cute cafe area where you can eat any of the bits & bobs you buy at the market.
Great selections of fresh fruit and vegetables.
I was really happy to come across a stall I’ve seen at a few markets. They sell iced tea and have a range of flavours – but it’s not always the same ones. I’m not sure what markets they are at regularly, because I’ve seen them at quite a few around Brisbane.
If you’re around the Northside of Brisbane, or stopping through, Nundah markets are a good way to get a dose of markets without spending your entire day there.
What makes or breaks a market for you? Have you been to Nundah Farmers Markets?
I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for a good, chilled out ride at a theme park. It’s nice to have a little time sitting down, preferably in the shade in the midst of a hectic day of thrill seeking. At Seaworld on the Gold Coast, this ride was the Bermuda Triangle for me. It was an old, slow boat ride with some physical special effects and a little drop into water.
And then, like all good things, it came to an end. The ride closed for maintenance and never reopened. This seems to be how most theme parks go about decommissioning rides. Having not held an annual pass for Seaworld in a couple of years, I was pretty disappointed that I wouldn’t get to go on the Bermuda Triangle ride again. I really like my indoor relaxation rides. I was a cross between curious and resentful toward what they had replaced it with.
Well, Seaworld, I forgive you! The Storm Coaster is FAN-TASTIC. (There’s a video of the ride on the Seaworld website, but it’s not 100% accurate towards the end, based on my experience.)
I went to SeaWorld with my husband Ben, but he can’t go on all rides, so it was on to the Storm Coaster solo for me! Gulp. It was a great day at the park – very quiet and with basically no queues anywhere. In fact, the queue was so small that I was ushered straight on to the roller coaster the second I got up to it! There was a train (boat?) nearly ready to leave and since I was on my own, I filled the spare seat at the front. Yep. At the front. Not only did I miss that waiting time that lets you feel better (or worse) about getting on a new roller coaster, I was ushered straight on and straight to the front. Well, I guess some days life doesn’t let you do things by halves.
The entryway to the Storm Coaster, a bridge over the ride.
I was strapped in and at the top of the chain lift before I knew it. Since Ben was down below with my iPhone, I’ll let some photos he took tell the story of my first ride on the Storm Coaster:
I’m in the very front row, on the way up and holding very tight!
Going around a big curve
Here I am, plunging down the big drop.
And there I am, up the front, alone, and screaming as I go down the big drop!
You spend the last part of the ride ‘blind’ – I don’t mean that you will be blinded, but once you go down the big drop your vision is obscured by darkness, mists of water and then ALL THE WATER. Oh yeah, you’ll get slightly wet on this ride. Slightly meaning DRENCHED.
Ride Tip 1: Wear your swimmers!! (Togs, board shorts, bathers, whatever you call them, wear them!)
And I couldn’t explore a new ride without taking a few videos, now could I? Below is the coaster after it comes out of the big drop. I was standing on the entryway bridge:
I took full advantage of the lack of queues and went on the ride twice. The exit path actually has a little viewing area where you can watch the ride do the big splash down. Be warned: you can still get wet there! It was too wet to pull out my camera on viewing area, so I stopped on a different part of the path and captured the big splash:
Ride Tip 2: People who can’t go on the ride can ask the staff member to let them go in the exit path and watch from the viewing platform inside.
As we were walking around the park afterwards, Ben asked me if it was my new favourite roller coaster. And you know what? I couldn’t think of one I liked better. The Storm Coaster is very smooth. It has great big turns and huge heights to let you see the rest of the park. It has a great balance between fast and so fast you can’t enjoy it. And it’s also a boat ride that soaks you. That really hits all the criteria for me!
Have you been on the Storm Coaster? What makes a roller coaster good for you?
Something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now is make my own inspirational travel-related quotes. Now, I’m no graphic designer, so this take taken much playing with two of the common tools bloggers use: PicMonkey and Canva.
