Surprise Hannah! Welcome to the Red Centre!

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On the 22^nd of May I was up till the early hours of the morning deciding whether or not I should book flights and hotel to Ayers Rock for a surprise trip for Hannah’s birthday. Flights were expensive, really expensive and accommodation options very limited and equally as expensive as the flights, and for such a short amount of time was it really worth the money? Eventually I thought to hell with it, I’ll book it. I’d already secretly emailed Hannah’s manager and requested a couple of days holiday over her birthday, so she had absolutely no idea I was planning anything. In fact to stop her getting suspicious I told her I had planned dinner, technically it was true, I’d also booked us on the Sound of Silence Tour on her birthday, along with a number of other activities while we were there.

On the 13^th of June, the day before Hannah’s birthday I started dropping small hints about the trip and that evening, told her she didn’t have to go to work for the rest of the week and to pack her bags because we are catching a flight tomorrow morning. But she didn’t believe me at all, it actually took quite a bit of convincing before she started coming round to the idea. I had made a pack which contained all the vouchers for the activities and hotels for the trip and information about Ayers Rock and the surrounding area then gave it to her to look after but she was not allowed to open it until I gave her permission.

The next morning we were up really early and set off to Melbourne airport to catch our flight. Hannah still had no idea where we were going and I refused to tell her anything. I had already printed our boarding passes off and checked in online so until we actually turned up at the gate she would have no idea. At the airport I checked the departure boards then we headed to a café to grab a quick breakfast. It was here I decided to give Hannah her boarding pass and she was excited to see that our flight was to Sydney. She was straight on the phone to her parents to tell them what I had planned and started posting things on Facebook about her surprise trip to Sydney. But she had no idea that Sydney was not our final destination and it took all of my restraining powers to not mention we had a connecting flight to Ayers Rock.

We arrived into Sydney after an hour long flight, most of which was spent sleeping, otherwise I may have accidently spilled the surprise. There wasn’t much time between flights and Hannah could tell I was in a hurry to get off the plane and head to our next departure gate. As we entered Sydney airport I told her that I may have lied to her on where we were going, which just confused her more and resulted in a hell of a lot more questions. I quickly checked the departure board again and whisked Hannah off to the next gate. I passed her a second boarding pass on the way, for a flight to Ayres Rock, she couldn’t believe it! My plan worked perfectly and she had was blown away to be going to Ayers Rock, somewhere she’d wanted to visit for a long time. She was quickly on the phone again to her parents and re-posted her Facebook status. We boarded the 3 hour flight into Ayers Rock Airport and I gave her permission to go through the holiday pack I had created for her.

Once we arrived into Ayers Rock airport in the Red Center of Australia it was time to pick up our hire car. I had ordered a small manual car with unlimited km’s to travel around the Red Center but they had already given away all their small cars. Instead we were upgraded to a bright red Ford XR 6 for no extra charge which was fantastic, today was full of surprises. We found the car and drove to the Yulara Resort and checked into our hotel at Desert Gardens and we were fortunately offered an upgrade to our room which we took straight away, we could see Ayers Rock from our balcony. The hotel and resort itself was quite basic but being in the dessert in the middle of nowhere it was to be expected. We took the rest of the afternoon quite easy, had a few drinks at the bar to celebrate the holiday and got involved in some of the free activities and shows within the resort.

Later in the afternoon I told Hannah to get ready because we were heading off to have dinner somewhere. We met in reception where there was a coach waiting to pick us up for the Sounds of Silence tour. We jumped on the bus and were driven to an amazing viewing spot where we watched beautiful sunset over Ayers Rock. I grabbed a couple of glasses of champagne handed one to Hannah and asked her to marry me! She was shocked and was not expecting it at all, but I was glad she said yes, what a huge day it had been for both of us. Shortly after we were escorted down a path to where our tables were all set for a buffet dinner under the stars with another amazing view of Ayers Rock. Dinner was great, there was a huge variety and it was all really tasty. Finally for dessert I had preordered a chocolate mud cake for Hannah with a birthday message written on it. The table sung happy birthday she blew out the candles and we all enjoyed some chocolate cake with our buffet dessert.

After dinner we were given a brief star gazing tour of the beautiful clear skies around Ayers Rock and they had also setup a number of telescopes for us to use. One in particular was focused on Saturn and so powerful were the telescopes we could see the rings of Saturn. Eventually we jumped back aboard the bus and were taken back to Yulara Resort. It had been a huge day for Hannah and I full of surprises and a proposal, all on her birthday. This morning she got out of bed half thinking she had to go to work, she would fall asleep away at Ayers Rock, now engaged to me, awesome day.

Accommodation:
Desert Gardens Hotel

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Photos

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Amazing Ayers Rock.

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Beautiful landscapes around Ayers Rock.

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Outback landscapes of Uluru.

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Sun setting over Ayers Rock.