Stars turn out for Daydream Island Resort’s lavish opening party
Two years since the devastation of Cyclone Debbie, Daydream Island Resort is back and, hosting one of the year’s most star-studded and glamorous opening parties.
Confidential
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DAYDREAM Island is back with a bang.
To celebrate Daydream Island Resort’s recent reopening — two years after it was ravaged by Cyclone Debbie — a contingent of 150 celebrities, media, local politicians and tourism luminaries from Cairns to Melbourne came together for one of Queensland’s best parties of the year on Saturday.
After a sun-soaked day, resort ambassadors Lincoln Lewis, Phoebe Burgess and Kate Waterhouse, as well as guest performer Ricki-Lee Coulter, led the way on the orange carpet, dressed in the theme of resort chic.
While most guests left the island yesterday, the Burgess family are taking a much-needed break. Phoebe, dressed in Lee Mathews, brought her two children Poppy, 2, and Billy, six months, for a week-long stay, with husband, South Sydney Rabbitohs captain Sam Burgess, set to join them.
“It’s really important for everyone to take those mental breaks and spend time as a family,” Phoebe said.
Phoebe made fast friends with Waterhouse, who turned heads in Toni Maticevski, and her husband Luke Ricketson, who also brought daughters Grace, 3, and Sophia, 5.
Hit 105 breakfast host Abby Coleman and her husband Scott Burdon enjoyed a date night, their first night away from their baby boy Koa, seven months.
Guests enjoyed a sit down dinner before heading outside, where, sandwiched between a luxury pool and the waterfront, they sipped cocktails, grazed at a dessert bar, and danced along to a performance by Ricki-Lee.
After a day of jet skiing, Ricki-Lee, who has been busy hosting the new Australia’s Got Talent, was second guessing the low back on her dress thanks to some new tan lines.
“I’ve had so much going on, I’ve really enjoyed coming up here,” she said.
Fireworks then erupted over the water with Kylie Minogue’s On A Night Like This blaring from the stage as a kangaroo hopped along the beach in the foreground.
Next was the underwater observatory, which features a gin bar serving Husk Distillers’ popular Ink Gin and an underwater viewing window to the resort’s Living Reef.
Lewis pointed out a content looking crayfish and explained he’d actually rescued it on a recent dive trip off the island.
It wasn’t the Brisbane actor’s only wildlife run-in. Earlier a brazen cockatoo had flown into his hotel room.
Others were a little perplexed with a different animal encounter, realising the underwater viewing window extends into the toilets as well.
With revellers shuffling to their hotel rooms in the early hours, Sunday’s buffet breakfast was marked by a few sore heads, one guest spotted making a dash in the same outfit as the night before.
At the airport, guests ran into a group of Brisbane Lions players as well as Brisbane cricketer Chris Lynn, who had all happened to be capping off a weekend in the Whitsundays as well.
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