I cant find the words…

….to adequately describe the last five days we just spent on the Incentive Trip. For those of you who didnt know it, I travelled up to Palm Cove (just north of Cairns in Far North Queensland) last Wednesday – with 25 other fantastic demonstrators and their partners/guests. The Incentive trip is held once a year – each time at a luxurious location, and it’s sole purpose is to reward and spoil those demonstrators that have achieved great results in their Stampin’Up business during the year. I can honestly say that it wasn’t all that hard to achieve. But you do need to set your goals and go for it.. and that means keeping your eye on the prize, and being consistent. So yes, it takes hard work, but I love doing this business so much that the “hard work” didnt seem all that hard. IYKWIM.

So I thought that over the next few days I would try to post some photos of the trip and give you an idea of what we got up to each day. There’s no way I’ll be able to cover everything, but I’ll post the highlights as much as possible. Starting with…

Day 1

We got up nice and early to catch a 6am taxi to the train station. Arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare and caught up with the other girls over a coffee before the flight. Shelli and Sterling as well as Aaron and Karen (SU Australia GM) were also on the same flight. I was lucky to be seated next to Marelle and it was a smooth flight, and we arrived in Cairns to a somewhat overcast but warm day. We travelled by coach to the Angsana Resort in Palm Cove and were welcomed to Palm Cove by Janiel and Krista in the lobby lounge area (which was specially set up just for us with Card Displays and a Prize wheel). Janiel and Krista work in the States for SU and are the most efficient and professional event planners you could possibly come across. Every detail was planned to perfection. We got to talk to them a lot over the next few days – they are just amazing!

Our bags were sent ahead of us to our rooms and after drinks in the lounge we headed up to our rooms. I have stayed in lots of different kinds of accommodation over the years.. but this was up there with the best, and definitely the roomiest place I have ever stayed in. Here’s a few pics:

(This was the view from our Bedroom window)

Then we spent the afternoon wandering along the beachfront shops and cafes, and actually managed a quick nap before getting ready for our dinner. (All the meals were either provided for us or we could use the very generous meal allowance money that we had been given to cover those meals that we did on our own.) But the first night’s dinner was everyone in together at the hotel. It was fantastic, and the food was great too. The company was great too… I got to meet some of the other girls, and Shelli and Sterling were on our table too.

Dinner over, and it was time to board our coach for…. wait for it…. the Bowling Club at Trinity Beach! Why you ask? For barefoot lawn bowling of course! We were all put into teams named after SU colours (Greg and I were in the Basic Black team, along with Makeesha and Rod, and Kelly and Paul) Who knew lawn bowls could be so much fun? We were probably a lot more vocal than the average bowling crowd, but it was lots of fun. Mmmm, notice our fetching bowling shirts?? (They’d been waiting for us in our rooms, all wrapped in green ribbons, when we arrived.)

That’s Makeesha and her hubby Rod enjoying the moment!

Not much past 9pm and we were heading home… some of the girls had started their days at 3am (especially the NZ girls) so most of us were happy for an early-ish night. I did say MOST. Not all.

We got back to our rooms to be greeted by another present… this time a lovely white box tied up in green ribbons:

And inside was….

The cutest hoodie you’ve ever seen, with the trip logo embroidered on it. I was suprised at how nicely it fitted… and then I remembered that we’d been asked to give our measurements on our forms some weeks before. See, I told you that they dont miss details. 🙂

That was it for Day 1.. I’ll be back with more pics of the next couple of days soon.
(I’ve actually got to go do some actual work….)

See you all soon.