“X Marks the Spot” – but first you need to plant the “X”

The Date Idea: Hire a metal detector and comb the beach looking for hidden treasure.

THE IMPORTANT BIT: Plant your own treasure! Stupidly I didn’t realise the potential of this date idea, I think it’s often a short coming many have when taking out a date. Had I taken more thought with this date and buried treasure for Emma to find, it would have produced an amazing surprise! It’s quite a thrill to discover something cool.

The Con’s: Any more than 10 minutes of searching in the sand is boring if you don’t find anything. But once you’ve found something, and it doesn’t matter what it is, you may not want to stop!

The Pro’s: When you find something, it’s exhilarating, it’s infectious!

How to make your date fall in love
with this date idea!

When Burying Treasure For Girls:
- If you’re not sure what your partner will like, buy cheap accessories, like ear rings, rings, belts or bracelets / bangles.
- If the accessories have no metal components bury bottle caps with the treasure for the metal detector to pick up.

When Burying Treasure For Guys:
- Money Clips are cheap to find on ebay, or you can get creative and bury a 6 pack of beer, or something funny that’ll make him laugh or impress!

It’s easy to bury anything really, even delicate things that are packaged up in a box, even zip locked in an airtight plastic bag to avoid the sand and moisture. Make sure you add metal to the packaging so the detector can pick it up.

Decoys:
Use decoys to keep your date interested, and have want to search for more:
- Bottle Tops
- Coins

How To Hide Your Treasure So You Can Find It Later:
Plot out a section of beach. In the summer months I recommend areas of beach that are not too busy. If you’re hiding valuables, do so during the winter months as beaches are rarely used, and ensure that you bury your treasure at least 5 – 8 inches below the sand.

Bury treasure the morning of or the night before you take your date out.

Begin with a reference point, a landmark… maybe a sign post or bin nearby that will help you locate the area of beach when you return the following day.

Bury your main treasure first, make sure it’s not too close to the shore line as wet sand may give you a false reading, and you don’t want the tide to come wash your treasure away (if you haven’t buried it deep enough). Also the tide may wet your treasure.

Scatter a couple of coins 3 to 5 metres away (about 7-10 feet) from your treasure. I’d scatter them towards your marker. Only use 2 coins, you don’t want your partner finding coins all day.

Again, another 3 – 5 metres away, scatter some bottle caps even closer to your marker, so it’s easy to find these items as soon as you step onto the beach.

This will help you understand and locate the main treasure much easier. And will make it much more fun as your partner starts finding more valuable things as they move closer towards your buried treasure.

About the Metal Detectors:
I hired the metal detector from Aaron Zanussi at Metal Detector Hire Melbourne located in Melbourne, Australia. Aaron was awesome to deal with – he gave me lots of info about what to expect on the beach…Aaron mentioned that people usually hit the beaches in the summer months looking for lost rings and valuables, so in the winter time it’s rare to find anything fun – and in most cases bottle caps will be found, all true. Aaron thoroughly explained how to use the metal detector, it’s easy, a trained monkey can do it.

Aaron’s hire out of the metal detector will break the $30 Date Night budget. It’s $40, with a $100 deposit which is reasonable. I highly recommend this date idea; but only if you take time to bury treasure. You know your date will be thrilled when they find something. You’ll have a blast!

BEFORE THE DATE: Dialog Between Denis and Emma .

Denis - “ABC Dating, we’re up to O. I’m choosing to do orienteering, or rather Geocaching. Ya, I know it really should be G, but I’m bending the rules a little.”

Emma - “Really? Sounds geeky, isn’t geocaching on par to those who dress up in medieval clothes and role play?”

Denis - “LOL”

So I’m excited about this date idea, I’ve already downloaded geocaching app (by Groundspeak Inc) for the iphone – $12.99 and I’ve created a free profile. Go to geocaching.com to set up your profile and details on how to get the app on your phone.

I announced the geocaching date idea to Emma, clearly it didn’t sound like her thing, and it receives the welcoming (see right) most people give to date ideas they think will flop. Before any of our geek friends are offended it’s important that I point out Emma is a geek at heart. Don’t let her cutsie girlie appearance fool you – she’ll probably out-geek anyone reading this blog.

WHAT IT GEOCACHING
Use a GPS device to find something small like a box or container, this is called a cache (see pics). Inside you should find a log book and possibly a novelty item. You sign into the log book, and can take the novelty item IF you replace it with something else of equal or greater value.

DEVICES
Hardcore enthusiasts will use a standalone GPS and plot the cache location via coordinates. This is perfect for the bush – if they want to log their find they’ll then go to geocaching.com and add the details to their profile.

I on the other hand am going urban – using my iphone via an app (android phones have an app too) that tells me where caches are located in my city, google maps guides me. Easy? Not so, even tho you know where the cache may be located you still have to find its secret spot, usually not in plain view. The iphone lets me log what I’ve found and can give me tips, hints and even spoilers if it’s getting hard to locate a cache.

GET INTERACTIVE
Some caches include travelling items… items that may have a mission. You can get involved and help the item get to its mission by finding out where its next home should be and get it there. Of course everything you do can be logged at geocaching.com, or you can play anonymously and just search.

Sound like fun? I think so… I’ve downloaded the app, I’ve set up my free profile and I can see there are caches less than 200 metres from my house… now Melbourne if you could only stop raining so I can set this date night up…

Ok, ready? Let’s Go!

Melbourne has finally turned on the weather today… a beautiful 28 degrees Celsius, perfect for urban Geocaching. With coffee in hand we started looking for the first cache, we worked our way to ACDC lane, named after one of Australia’s rock band pride and joy – AC/DC. The iPhone app said that the cache was easy to find, but we had no idea what we were searching for, 20 minutes later we used the cheats via the app and found the cache.

Second cache found us only a couple of blocks away… this was different type of cache all together, called a nano cache and it’s super tiny! Inside is a rolled up piece of paper in which you log yourself in and then put it back. (see very top pics)

We missed a few other caches because there were too many people around and we didn’t want to expose the caches, or look like baffled fools staring at pipes and walls. And one cache in particular was simply too hard to find. We spent 25 minutes looking around but no prize

It’s been an awesome day, trotting around the city checking out the lane ways, graffiti art and playing secret squirrel in the warm summer sun. After the purchase of the Geocaching app, I still had $17 left in the budget to blow. Enough money for a fine lunch Laurent Bakery – cnr The Causeway and Little Collins Street.

We loved this date idea so much that we’ll be making our own $30 Date Night caches for Melburnians to find. I’ll keep you updated.

Ideally, I would have liked it if we got up earlier and searched the city around 8am. All CBD’s are super quiet on weekends at that time but Emma enforces a strict no getting out of bed before 11am policy on weekends. If you’re trekking through the city geocaching take a camera, you’ll grab some beautiful shots amongst buildings and artwork. Have breakfast afterwards, use that time to enter in your finds and photos to share.

Guys, get into it! It’s a lot of fun exploring your city… there are millions of caches all over the world, and highly likely that you’ve got some in your city. Some caches will include interesting facts/history about the location and surrounding of the cache.

We picked a gorgeous sunny day (Hello to summer down here in Australia!) and headed to the local pool where we spent a lazy morning getting some sun, splashing in the water, reading, chatting and eating. We took our underwater camera and snapped some fun shots in the pool…. What could possibly be bad about that?

I don’t have much else to say about it, apart from mentioning that if we can have a great time on the ‘Worst Dates Ever’, there’s nothing stopping anyone else from having an absolute ball on the best of the best dates available on our website!

Mind you… we still have ‘Borrow a Kid’ and ‘Nudist Beach’ to go…. I could be eating my words very soon!

Disclaimer: Swimming at the Y fell into the bottom 5 after we had to remove going for a jog as Den has sustained a pretty serious leg injury that is preventing him from jogging. THAT said, Den and I used to meet for weekly jogs back in the day before we even got together. We would get up early and jog 5km around our local lake together. Tough work (especially if you’re a bit of a nuffy when it comes to jogging like I am), but there is still fun to be had. We made it a competition – Who could get the hottest body by Summertime. Gives you something to work towards. Plus, an excuse to strip down at the end and “assess” each other’s physiques!

Dominique Portet's Famous Rose

The Local Produce Plate at Dominique Portet

The Pentanque Pitch

Gorgeous Winery!

…all for under $30! Great date night in Melbourne’s Yarra Valley… go find your own local winery reigon and seek out some cellar door specials! Enjoy!

Rate the Date

Romance Factor: 5/5 – Gorgeous wine region drive, beautiful views, great food and great wine
Cheese Factor: 1/5
Fun Factor: 3/5

Overall: Wonderful date for a lazy Sunday. Opportunity for great conversation and connection. Just lovely.

THE GOOD!

It’s hot, damn hot. And sooooo so so good on a freezing cold night. You get to splash around in the outdoors, under the stars with plenty of greenery around you. It’s perfect for winter… when it gets dark at 6pm. The twilight sessions start from 6pm and finishes at about 8.45pm – TUE to THU.

There are 3 different pools at different temperatures… the hottest is scorching – enough to prune you in seconds – the next pool down is only 1 degree difference, you’d expect that it wouldn’t change much but the difference in temperature is remarkable – And the largest of the pools are a comfy 39 degrees Celsius.

Honestly, spas are sort of “meh” to me. I mean we got a spa where we live so it’s not like it’s a new thing but the mineral spas were different… giving you a glowy feeling once you get back to your car, hmmm… maybe it was the lack of chlorine.

THE BAD…

The Mineral Springs are just so far away from the city!!! And to make it for a night session midweek is lunacy! We were stuck in traffic for hours, and so we parked our butts in Frankston for dinner just to let the traffic die down. Quietly, I tried the mineral springs date on Emma the week before and FAILED!!! I ruined that date because we left late, I was hoping to hit the springs after the traffic. This time round, we left 2 hours earlier and slapped ourselves with intense traffic for miles and miles!!! How do people commute to and from work in traffic each day – its CRAZY!!!

THE UGLY

There is no ugly – It’s too dark. The twilight session brings typically a younger crowd. The pools are lit up around the perimeter and the steam from the baths going up into the cold night is enough to blanket any unnecessary visual disturbances within your blissful field of vision 

In a sense, even tho it’s a public pool it’s easy to find your own little personal space with yourself and your partner.

THE RECOMMENDATION

If you live in the area – lucky you! Do this for date night. If you live in the city – don’t bother trying to get there for the twilight sessions during the week just because its $15 each. Spend the dough to make it part of a day trip and go a t a time where the traffic won’t do your nut in!!!

Last Wednesday, Melbourne had put on a particularly hot, dry summer day. 33 degrees (91.4f) of sweltering sun. It was the perfect weather for a Fish and Chip picnic. I jumped on the internet to search for user reviews of the best Fish & Chips to be found in Melbourne. Luckily, there was a great one just a 15 minute walk from our apartment (Kiwi Fish & Chips East Melbourne… yum!) that has gorgeous gardens nearby for the picnic. We picked up our takeaway and a couple bottles of beer and headed to a little gazebo in the park to relax nearby and kick off our shoes. Just as the last chip was being devoured, the weather turned nasty, cold and windy.

We watched the rain come in across over the city and for a few moments thought it had missed us. Unfortunately, seconds later we were drenched. Bucketing down. And we were ages away from home. At first, I thought “great – two dates in one!”… someone has recently posted the idea of dancing in the rain on the $30 Date Night site… it sounds romantic in theory, and all I could think of was that kiss from the Notebook (I’m full of silly idealistic notions like that) so rather than complaining about my hair or being cold, I giggled like a schoolgirl and grabbed Den’s hand. Unfortunately, being the practical man that he is, he was having none of it and whinged like a banshee the entire way back across the park. Kind of killed any romantic vibe that might have been going on. He was cold and wet and didn’t think twice about complaining about HIS hair.

So instead of embracing the moment we dashed for cover and hailed a taxi, got home and jumped into the spa downstairs to warm up. Which was rather nice in itself anyway… and definitely a hell of a lot warmer…

So it got me thinking I can’t be the only one suffering at the hands of practicality, can I? Any other romantics out there with a way-too-practical-partner? The kind of partner that don’t like to buy flowers because “they just die after two days” or the kind that doesn’t like to spend a morning lying in bed for hours because “there’s a whole day out there – we should GO OUT AND GRAB IT WITH BOTH HANDS!” (woo… just try and stop me.) The last time I had the house set up with candles and romantic music, waiting for Den’s arrival, he walked in the door and asked “why is it so dark in here?”, flipped on all the lights and switched on the telly…

I’m picturing sheep, cows, goats… farmers in overalls and straw hats sitting on bales of hay. Where you bought egg’s that still had poo on them and the milk still came in glass bottles with foil tops… this is exactly what a girl likes (minus the poo and milking of cows etc… but ponies… IF there is a pony, my brownie points will go through the roof!)

Let’s go googling… ahh Google, the eternal knowledge base – where were you when I was a teenager? Google gave me the answer within seconds – Abbotsford, 2 suburbs away from the CBD… easy! Now the hard part… get the girl out of bed!!! (its 10am on Sat by the way… and disturbing her sleep at this point is regarded as a cardinal sin!)

The Market… well, it definitely looked like a farmers’ market, but posh version to what I had in my mind. There were chickens, and sheep, and you could even milk a cow, either at 10am or 4pm (we arrived there by 11.30 and were gone by 1pm.) But there were no straw hats and the eggs were clean.

It was at a children’s farmer which was a lot of fun to see… kids chasing small animals and feeding them. I even saw one little cutie, she would have been not much older than 2 years old, she crawled under one of the farmer’s stall, sat herself down under the table and started to steal the stock that the farmer had placed there… her keen nose soon found CHOCOLATE!!! YUM!

Posh… what I mean is that the farmers have got creative with their labelling, things are definitely polished and refined as opposed to a piece of cardboard with “$2 per/kg apples” written with a thick sharpie.

Rhubarb and Cream tart… believe it or not, I’ve never had this before… ever! It’s something that I associated American TV with, something like the Beverly Hill Billies, bless those crazy hillbillies. Anyhoo, I’m proud to say that less than 3 days ago I was a virgin to the rhubarb and now a big fan of the tart.

My overall opinion about the Farmers’ Market – a definite date do!

Take your thirty bucks and go try some of the foods on offer, like buffalo sausages (don’t think Australia’s got any buffalos but hey why not try it?). Take some extra cash if you want to stock up for some groceries but your $30 should be on the experience. Go on kids, get out there and start Date Night! Or day… whatever… just get out there and have some fun!

Last night I took Emma for hit on the driving range as our date… it didn’t pan out so well! We got 100 balls and lined ourselves up amongst what looked like professionals with their white gloves and Ping golf clubs, I could see this was making Ems nervous.

I once heard that GOLF is known by some as an acronym standing for Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden. Whether that’s true or not, last night I should have taken it seriously. Emma’s form was shocking, but that’s to be expected – we’re not golfers!

I couldn’t help but laugh for the entire time we were at the driving range… Emma would swing and miss, then swing again and just tip the ball to watch it roll off the plastic grass and onto the driving range. With each swing of the golf stick Emma’s eyes got redder! She was pissed, and it was my fault!

She didn’t say it was my fault, but I could feel it… I was uncomfortable, uncomfortable enough to laugh myself silly – I’m sure it didn’t help.

Now I’m no golfer either, actually my first real hit was only 5 days ago… and I do my fair share of shitty shots. Not to mention that I almost tossed my club into the guy on the left of me last night… too funny (it wouldn’t have been if I actually let go). I felt out of place giving Emma tips, like I’ve got any golfing skills to pass on. We’re coming to last of the balls, and I thought, fuck it… I’ll tell her what I see, “try getting some rotation in your hips, you look stiff and uncomfortable, and stop being focused on having to hit a good shot!” Emma swung and crack, this ball went straight out onto the driving range.

Emma turns her head back to me and draws the hair from her face… the red eyes were gone, she had a huge smile on her face, and bleated out “that felt awesome!”

OMG, like… thank you!!!!!!!!!! There will be no tears tonight. Emma went for another swing… she had rotation in her hips and was looking relaxed, the ball was moving! Great another good shot! Now we’re not talking Tiger Woods, it’s getting 50 yards or so, but trust me that’s much better than before. Em’s now giggling and relaxed.

Whack… another great hit! And another smile on her face… 3 more balls to go, “they’re all yours babe, go for it, whack away!” Em’s ripped through the last of the balls with relaxed shoulders and a happy face. I was saved!

“Do you want to get another 100 balls?” Emma said. A quick check of the phrase and how it was used… hmmm… “do I want?” If she has phrased it with “let’s get” I would have said yes… but I’m thinking she may possibly still be pissed with me… for most of the time on the driving range I was public enemy #1. Golf cost us $21 for balls and clubs… she’s happy now so let’s not push it, her swing can turn to shit any second, so I thought… quit while we’re ahead, while she’s happy. The remainder $9 can get us coffee and cake in Acland Street – lets bounce!

In the End it all worked out, but damn that was close! I must admit, this date night was for me – I was thinking about myself as that’s the 3rd day this week I’ve been at a driving range (and I’ve been loving it). Not to mention, Emma was already in a pissed mood before we even left for golf.

I don’t think date night has to always be about your partner… I don’t think there is anything wrong with being a little selfish at times and make your partner do something outside the norm. Be careful if you push your partners comfort circles, you need to be prepared for the consequences and they are not always a success! Remember the key to this is that its ok if you SOMETIMES are a little selfish – not ALL THE TIME!

Also, don’t repeat the same date night twice! Today Em’s already told me that she would go back to the driving range for another hit with me… that’s great, and I’m sure we will, but not on a Wednesday night.

Date night this week was conveniently and accidentally moved to Sunday. Emma and I decided to go for a bit of a day trip, which we hardly ever do. I love day trips, but Emma loves to sleep in more!!! The day trip was unplanned, with a loose idea of driving to the yarra valley for some lunch at which ever winery we pull into… along the way we passed a Hedge Maze Hedgend – Healesville (Melbourne). At that moment, my thoughts on a hedge maze were that it was only fun for kids and maybe those really soppy romantic couples – YUK! I guess this is expected from me. I’ve never been in a hedge maze before, so it seems fitting to try something new and different, no matter how cheesy it seems (to be honest, Hedge Maze was looking pretty cheesy to me at this point).

Feeling like a dick, I walked to the counter and asked for 2 tickets… yay, $15 each for a maze and mini golf! Within budget and technically it sorts me out for 2 date nights, but there’s no chance Emma would give that up!

We entered the hedge maze… and the first thing we hear is a girl calling out for mum! And no reply from mum… Emma and I had a little chuckle to ourselves “at least the maze is doing its job.” Soon the girl became more distressed, screaming out for mum and still no response. Ok, so no laughing matter anymore, we set out to find the child. Poor thing, by the time we found her she had worked herself up and the tears were flowing.

I could only imagine how she felt, all alone in a massive hedge maze. The idea of STRANGER DANGER would have been the furthest thing from her mind… I’m sure for that girl at that moment finding other people was a blessing, she even hugged us when we found her.

We promised the girl that we’d find mum… and it didn’t take long before she had pulled herself together and was chatting away to us. We worked our way through the maze and finally caught up to mum… Em’ and Den 1 / Maze 0.

Emma and I worked our way back to the start of the maze and began looking for clues to solve the maze’s riddle. It didn’t take long before Emma and I realised how lost we actually were, and how alone we were too… Em’s and Den 1 / Maze 8.

Hmmm… lost… and alone… A-LONE…

We couldn’t resist!!! The sun was shining, it was warm (and its spring time in Melbourne), the chances of getting caught were pretty high! Lucky for us, the ground was covered in gravel, so you could hear if people are walking towards you.

There is definitely some sex appeal about being caught. It’s so cheeky , soooooo 16 year-old-ish! Remember the days of meeting girls behind bike sheds or basketball courts, hoping not to be caught by the teachers… for me it was behind the back fence for a pash, hoping that mum and dad won’t catch me.

We’ll it was the same feeling. Getting frisky while people were walking by no more than a few foot steps away and nothing but a thick hedge separating you has got MASSIVE appeal! It’s so so cheeky! So wrong, yet so much fun!

Hedge Maze Date = highly recommended. If you got the balls.

A round of mini-golf was next… Emma won… not much else worth mentioning here. Story end…