Eumarella Shores – Relaxing COVID-19 Honeymoon Part 1

Eumarella Shores – Relaxing COVID-19 Honeymoon Part 1

Although our overseas honeymoon plans were dead in the water, we weren’t going to let a global pandemic stop us from having a well deserved holiday. Tanya, the research Queen, started scouring the internet for potential locations that were nearby but also something we had never done before. One place she found was Eumarella Shores, beautiful lakeside cottages at Noosa next to Lake Weyba.

Unfortunately for us, the Queensland government moved the Ekka Show holiday to a Friday to promote local travel, but this also meant that the resort only had three nights available. This was a little shorter than we had hoped, but the place looked so perfect we were willing to start our honeymoon with such a small stint. Fast-forward to the morning after our wedding, checking out from our wedding night hotel took way longer than expected. It was a mini-nightmare carrying out a wedding dress, kilt, bouquet, giant flower centerpiece, suitcases, wedding cake and more. Lucky we had a helping hand from one of our quests to help carry our stuff to reception and into an Uber.

Once home, we had to unpack our wedding suitcase and pack our honeymoon suitcase, logistical things you don’t think about before hand! It was around 1pm by the time we left, realising by the time we get there will be around 5pm but the resort check-in closes at 4:30pm. After a frantic call, they were extremely lovely to deal with and assured us that we can check-in at anytime as our keys will be in a secure safe for us when we arrive. Relaxed with this new information, we stopped for a traditional Aussie sausage roll for a late lunch and began our road trip as newlyweds.

Luckily there was still sunlight when we arrived, this was especially important as the drive through the forest driveway to reception was a hairy one, dodging boulders and trees weaving to stay on the road. Eventually we retrieved our keys and navigated to our cabin, and when we finally got inside we were totally shocked! This was no dodgy shack but instead a full blown mansion. The kitchen was stocked with so much cutlery and plates we could be hear two weeks before we needed to wash anything. Not only that but there was a mini-coffee machine and milk frother with freshly ground coffee beans.

The fridge was a giant double door fridge, not like our little quaint fridge back home, Stocked inside was fruit juice, milk, brie cheese and crackers and ‘quince paste’, this place sure is fancy. In the cupboards there was muesli and fruit cups, tea pots with quality teas and so much more. Moving onto the living room, there were multiple comfy couches in front of a ready stocked fireplace. The dining room had multiple seating options with ceiling mounted smart TV, and one of those cool seats hanging from the roof like you see bond villains sitting in.

The deck had a ready to go barbecue overlooking the beautiful lake in front of us, no more than a stones throw away. There were steps from the deck down to the water where a little jetty and two sunbed chairs setup to admire the view in complete privacy. Finally the bathrooms had giant showers and stocked with eco-friendly soaps and shampoos, and a giant spa bath adjacent to a floor length window to really feel immersed in nature while getting your soak on.

The place was beyond what we were expecting, which made the short stay sting a little more, but on the bright side, forced us to enjoy every second and be in the moment. Realising it was getting dark and we had no food (other than a bag of Twisties we received as a wedding present), we decided to head out through the highway from hell and pick something up. We settled on Thai food as that always is enough for two meals and would enable us to stay all day exploring the walking trail and lake the next day. Noosa was so close, it took the same amount of time getting out of the driveway as it did to get into the city.

After getting food we realised there was a beautiful hamper with locally sourced food and alcohol in it. We thought the venue had gone above and beyond but then we realised the hamper was actually from my oldest friend, who due to COVID-19 wasn’t able to attend, had secretly organised a hamper to be delivered to our room. It was a lovely touch that we weren’t expecting and was very moving and a heart touching gesture. We decided to go through our wedding advice and gift cards as well and was overwhelmed with well wishes, kind words and hilarious messages. We are so fortunate to have kind friends in our lives.

We were so exhausted we were struggling to keep our eyes open, we soon went to bed. I slept for over 10 hours of deep sleep, it is so insanely quiet that there is nothing to disturb you but relaxing bird songs. For breakfast I made myself a mocha with the coffee machine and local hazelnut chocolate bar I melted in, with a bowl of lemon myrtle and macadamia yoghurt, all provided by the resort. After breakfast we went on the foreshore walking trail which was full of fascinating information about the local flora and fauna. We even spotted a kangaroo that seemed confused by us, it had a silly expression on its face that reminded us of our Luna.

We stopped by reception to say hello, and noticed a library of books and movies available. Tanya found an autobiography by a woman she had quoted for an assignment at uni that looked intriguing, but worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to make any sort of dent in the short time we had. Overhearing us, the very kind hotel manager said to keep it as a gift if we don’t finish it which was extremely generous. Getting back to our cottage, we had some time to relax and organised where we would go out for dinner, at an interesting looking restaurant called Whisky Boy.

We arrived early as we were starving after our walk earlier in the day. We ordered two eye fillets, one with double cooked chips and the other with smoked garlic potato puree with corn and manchego cheese croquettes. To top it off a Macallan whisky on the rocks. It took a little while to come as they only had one cook working, but good things come to those who wait. It was so tender and delicious.

I also grabbed some chocolate dipped donuts with whisky ice cream to take away. When we got home I began to start the fire place for the first time since we arrived. I managed to get it going on the first try, beginners luck! It was well needed too as it was beginning to get a bit chilly.

The next day we decided to visit the Eumundi Markets, and although we were concerned about COVID-19, we decided to stop living in a bubble as we had for the last five months and start enjoying life. When we arrived we were shocked by the number of people walking around in large groups and no one was observing social distancing (despite signs every 10 meters reminding people).

The markets were quite disappointing, we were expecting bespoke, handcrafted and unique items, but instead it was full of franchises and general items you see everywhere as well as stalls that are on the market circuit and have seen them all before. We did grab some coconut ice cream for Tanya, lunch for ourselves and some barbecue food to make for ourselves for dinner.

When we arrived back to the cottage, I decided to take the canoe out for a spin, we were lucky that our private access to the lake was protected by a slight reef, but paddling out further was difficult in such a large vessel in strong winds. After working up an appetite, we fired up the barbecue to a tasty dinner. Something about cooking for yourself makes it taste that much better.

The next morning it was a bit of a rush as always to checkout, but as sad as it was leaving, it was just the start of our second honeymoon chapter, so it wasn’t to heartbreaking. We bid farewell to Gooloowaa and vowed to return someday soon.