November’s word is attitude, which is a personal state of mind or feeling towards something. Your attitude can make a drastic difference in how you enjoy your experiences in life. Often times, your attitude can make or break a situation, so I think it’s pretty important to be well aware of it. As you grow older you learn that in life, we don’t always have control over obstacles that come our way. There can be things that make our lives very trying at times such as job loss, death of a loved one, financial instability and poisonous relationships. But, how you cope with these obstacles is in our control and this is where attitude comes in. If you can change your attitude, you can change anything. However, it’s not something that you can just tell yourself, you must believe it. Once you believe it, you can action it. As legondary Winston Churchill once wrote, “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”
I’ve certainly had my ups and downs since I’ve moved to Aussie land. However, for most November I’ve been on cloud 9 with anticipation because of a few exciting things happening, which have massively affected my general attitude in a positive way. One thing that I was really looking forward to was a little getaway Jack and I treated ourselves to in North Queensland.
North Queensland is a tropical part of Australia with gloriously hot and humid days- a climate that I love. This part of Aus has a combination of beautiful beaches and lush rainforests. We first started out in Cairns, which is one of the major inner state cities. From Cairns, we took a ferry over to Fitzroy Island, an absolutely stunning place. With only one resort on the island it was quiet, clean and reserved. Two days there gave us enough time to explore. The first day was dedicated to chilling by the poolside and snorkelling in the ocean (something I’ve completely fallen in love with it). The room we stayed in was a beach front suite so we could easily get to the ocean and woke up to a lovely view.
The second day was a bit more active. We walked through the bush to a pristine beach called “Nuddy Beach.” The water was turquoise blue, clean and lukewarm. The slightly cool breeze carried the smell of salt and the sand was white as snow. It was truly a paradise. After spending a few hours there, we went back to the room and changed into our hiking gear- it was time to get down n dirty and take on the summit hike. Jack and I confidently made our way up the mountain. While the staff had explained the level of difficulty, we weren’t fazed by that. It wasn’t until half way up that I began to realize they weren’t just saying that. Jack and I were the only ones doing the hike that day. It was 38 degrees and the sun was blazing down on us as we climbed closer to the top. Thankfully, we had that water bottle considering the hike was a vertical slope essentially the whole way up. We climbed 800 feet before we reached the top. We were sweaty, thirsty and exhausted by the time we got there but the view was well worth it. We had a 360 degree view of the whole island including the lighthouse, rainforest and other surrounding islands. Without question, it was the most beautiful view I have seen to date. Additionally to the breath-taking view, there was very little breeze so you couldn’t hear a sound, which added to the tranquillity of the experience. After making our way back down, we finished with a high five, a feeling of accomplishment and a refreshing corona.
We left Fitzroy Island and with the intention of making our way to Mission beach where we would be staying at Jack’s family friends beach house. However, things changed when we realized we left our luggage on the boat. So, as “ballers on a budget” we had to stay the night in a sketchy motel in Cairns that we later realized rents out by the hour (if you know what I mean). While we both felt silly forgetting the bag, this night provided a lot of hilarious moments and laughter for us, so I’m totally OK with how it turned out. The next morning we got our bag from the boat, hopped into our awesome bright yellow rental car and hit the road.
Mission beach is a beautiful little coastal town just two hours south or Cairns. The house we stayed at was right across from the beach. During our time here we stayed pretty active doing a lot of activities like kayaking, bush walks and white water rafting. Kayaking was a bit nerve racking considering in was stinger season and the water was continuously falling over our kayak and our bodies. Of course we were too cool to wear stinger suits. Looking back, that would have been the better option but we’re still alive so all good!
We lucked out massively with the weather. The only day it rained was the day we did “extreme” white water rafting. And by extreme I mean they were flipping the boats in the rapids, jumping out and float on our backs down the rapids and stopping to do some cliff jumping. Aside from a couple bruises, we came out of it scratch free! Heaps of fun! It was nice to finish off the day visiting with Jack’s family friends over some wine, music and a lovely meal. Just spoiled rotten we were!
That day came and it was time to head back home to Sydney, so we packed up, stopped briefly at a waterfall for one last swim and headed for the airport. It was an incredible few days and I was really happy with me and Jack’s travelling compatibility- very refreshing! Jack and I had both had really good attitudes during this trip. Travelling makes you more vulnerable to risks and having things go wrong and while we did run into a few issues, we always remained positive and that made for an enjoyable experience for the both of us.
Our next adventure is one that I’ve been anticipating for months. I’m finally going home. It’s been 1.5 years since I’ve seen my friends and family (apart from Mom and Emily in Hawaii) and I’m so unbelievably excited to see them all. I leave in two days and I have had a permanent smile on my face all week. Ain’t nothing gonna break my stride! Thanks for reading.
