Gold Coast

Yesterday, I achieved half of one of my ‘big’ goals. My sweetie and I are on Australia’s Gold Coast for a week, and so I have a new stamp on my passport! I guess this means I’ll be writing a travel blog for the next week, whenever I can get Internet access to upload each post. More likely, I’ll upload all my posts after the event, once I arrive back at home.

It’s been 18 years since I was last on the Gold Coast, and things have changed a fair bit. Firstly, there’s an airport; we used to have to fly into Brisbane and hop on a bus or train south for an hour or so. There are new buildings and apartment resorts everywhere, but it’s the palm trees, greenery, and warm evenings that I’m loving so far.

Queensland do not observe daylight savings, so we are three hours behind New Zealand time. We were amazed at how quickly and early it got dark last night. The upside, I guess, is that the sun came up incredibly early this morning and, since our body clocks are running on NZT, we were awake and ready to go from around 6am (9am NZT). Of course, nothing is open here yet ... I knew there was a reason why we are not morning people!

Our apartment has a pool in the shape of Australia ... not quite as tacky as it sounds, and we’re keen to check out Tasmania (the spa pool) tonight. We are staying in Burleigh Heads, about a block away from the beach and five beaches away from all the action in Surfer’s Paradise. We have a couple of activities planned and are starting to make bookings, but need to wait until the office opens and work out buses, tickets etc.

So, Café Chick and her sweetie are on holiday!