Nautilus - Fine Dining is Port Douglas, Qld, Australia

The husband and I are not wealthy by any means, but we do like splurge on good food and wine, being the gluttons we are. Anniversary dinners are no exception.

Look at all 'em forks!

As luck would have it, we happened to be (or we meticulously planned to be) in charming Port Douglas for our 2 year anniversary. Before we embarked on our journey, we did a bit of research online for a "nice" restaurant. Harrison's and Nautilus seemed to be the rated "fine dining". In the end, we chose Nautilus, although I can't really remember what the deciding factor was.

The restaurant itself was quite nice. The entrance is up a little dirt path (I wonder how ladies in super high heels do this?) through trees and bushes. The outdoor dining area is under a canopy of tall palm trees. When there's a bit of a breeze, you can hear the leaves rustle, which is a lovely sound!

The setting was beautiful and the servers were nice... I wanted to love this place. I really did, but it just didn't do it for me. The food was beautifully presented and maybe it's just that I can't fully appreciate food and wine pairings yet but this experience wasn't what we were expecting. Maybe the problem is that last 2 restaurants we had a tasting menu with wine pairings DID blow us away... Anyway, it still was a nice place to be with the husband on our 2 year.

Something that took away from the experience was that the servers didn't seem very... knowledgeable. Our waiter (although very nice) told us the wrong course (he'd have a prawn salad in his hand but would tell us it was something different, then apologize profusely). We had some other servers come to present us with the pairing wine but they'd just bring us the glass and say something like, "I have no idea what this is." Um... not cool.

Our server said of one wine, "It's the most exported wine in New Zealand". Like, why would we want to spend marked up restaurant prices for a wine we could buy at our local supermarket? Not impressed by that, either.

Now... for the food! We opted for the 6 course Chefs Tasting Menu:

Duck & Green Ginger Consommé
paired with
Cloudy Bay Pelorus Sparkling (Marlborough)
Verdict: Consomme was very salty, but the mushroom thing on the bread
(sorry, foggy memory) was quite good.

Smoked trout on potato crisps
(sorry, can't remember what it was paired with...)
Verdict: Nice smokey flavour of trout, went well with the salty crispiness of the chips!

Chilled Tiger Prawn Salad
paired with
St Hallett Riesling (Eden Valley)
Verdict: The meatiness of the prawns and the shaved long white things (fennel?) went well together.
I think the dressing was a bit bland, though. Maybe a bit more lime juice?

Pan-seared Scallops with Pork Belly
paired with
Mitolo Jester Sangiovese Rose (McLaren Vale)
Verdict: Rich, creamy and very yummy.

Other than this being an eye fillet and there being a pancetta wafer, I can't remember
what this was. Sorry! It was quite tasty though, so great for beef lovers!

Vanilla Crème Brulee, White chocolate ice-cream & crisp cocoa wafer
paired with
Plantaganet ‘Off the Rack’ Chenin Blanc (Great Southern)
Verdict: Um, how can you go wrong with this?!

I can't say I regret our decision to go here, because the ambiance was very romantic. You can get better food elsewhere, though. We did end up getting better food at a great street-front restaurant called 2 Fish. It didn't have the "anniversary" ambiance, though. Guess you can't have it all...

Parrotfish Lodge Hostel, Port Dougls

In my 20's I was a budget traveller. Through Europe and Asia, I stayed at some places that would make your hair stand on end. But hey, if that meant I had more money leftover for site admission, food, and shopping, all the better!

It turns out, I'm not in my 20's anymore. We booked the Parrotfish lodge, thinking we could handle it, we were still in our 20's at heart, and as long as we booked a private room, it'd be OK. Turns out I was wrong...

Staff: As with most hostels, the bulk of the staff at Parrotfish consists of other travellers looking to make some $ so that they can keep travelling. Although this makes for great conversation on where they've been, it doesn't make the staff very customer-service oriented or knowledgeable. There was one staff member (a lady) who was quite knowledgeable, but that was about it. You really can't tell who works there and who doesn't.

Breakfast: It's included and you get a choice of Wheetabix or toast with jam and margarine. They claim there is free coffee and tea all day but I don't think I could get any hot water out of the pot thing once. It was always empty or unplugged, and there was no one around to ask whether hot water would be available or not. Ehg.

Kitchen: There is one for guests to use but it's very busy during lunch and dinner (obviously), and not many people wash up after themselves. If you really want to save $$ by cooking your on meals, for out the extra $$ for an apartment. Then you're only dealing with your own mess.

Noise: I have to say, the Lodge was not as loud and boisterous as I was expecting it to be. They have a no-noise-after-11PM policy and I guess it's enforced because the noise really did die down later in the night. Our room overlooked the pool area where a lot of people hang out so we were expecting the worst, but were pleasantly surprised.

Rooms: Not bad. The floor was bit grimy, the A/C noisy, but the bathroom was functional, and the linens were clean. We saw 2 roach friends but hey, it's Australia so what can you do?

Location: It's on a street that isn't very well lit at night. I was always with the husband so I wasn't too worried but anyone travelling alone might be, and also, it's hard to see where you're stepping. Other than that, It's very easy to get to Four-mile beach

Great Barrier Reef with Poseidon Cruises

Being divers, the GBR was a must-see during our trip to Australia. We did a lot of research online for different operators that did diving tours and decided on Poseidon Cruises.

I can't even remember what the decided factor was for this. I know we were contemplating Silversonic as well. We really wanted to go for Silversonic's dive-only vessel, Pure Dive, but the price was just a bit too high.

Our experience with Poseidon was fine. They picked us up on time, got us settled in, had anti-nausea meds on board, fed us snacks (coffee, tea, cookies, muffins), and fed us lunch (bread, cold cuts, prawns, veggies and fruit). If you want to save $3, bring your own meds, very absorbant towels as the indoor area gets very wet, and anything else that might make you feel less nauseous on the boat trip out. It's a long boat ride and can get VERY bumpy. I wish I had brought my Tiger Balm because the strong smell of mint makes me feel a little better. It can also get very cold and windy (esp while the boat is cruising) so a fleece would be a good idea.

Oh, if the sigh of other people getting sick makes you sick, um, you might want to stock up on their biodegradable barf bags.

We had 13 divers on board, and maybe 30 snorkellers. I think the numbers can quadruple in high season. They divided the divers up in to 2 groups so I was happy about that. Our dive master was a nice guy and was quite thorough in his explanations. He kept an eye on all of us divers and went at what I felt to be a pretty good pace, although maybe a bit too fast at times? The husband likes to really take his time to look at everything around him (and he almost always spots something neat!) so I felt like I was trying to keep up with the DM but had to keep looking back over my shoulder for the husband.

I don't know if I'd book Poseidon again, though, but this is because they cater more to snorkellers. Not that I have anything against snorkellers or snorkelling (which I love) but they obviously have to pick dive sites based on how snorkellable it is. Pure dive, the dive-only vessel costs a small fortune, but might be worth it if we can take our time and go dive sites that are good for diving, not snorkelling.