Day at the Gold Coast.

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Today was Father's Day in Australia, so I got up at 05:55 and waited for Dad and Sophie to get up at 06:10. When they woke up, I gave Dad his Father's Day card and he did a little treasure hunt to find his present which was some vouchers for certain things, like a BBQ and me washing his car.

We then had to get ready to go to the Gold Coast for a practise run of the World Championships Triathlon Course. We were ready by 06:45 when Nicola phoned to say that she was downstairs. We set off - Dad and I in one car, Sophie and Nicola in another - and we got down to the Gold Coast (Southport) by 07:00.

Sophie and I were ready to leave before Dad and Nicola, so we set off in the direction of Surfers Paradise - Sophie was running, I was cycling - and ran/cycled past a new pier, some mangrove plantations, through a park, over a bridge, then along the boardwalk at Surfer's Paradise. We turned around after an hour and headed back the way that we had come. We had to add an extra little loop onto the end of the run because it wasn't quite two hours, but we got back to the car at 2:01, so the two hours had been done. In the end we had done 20.9kms.

We set out the chairs on a bit of grass by the car and waited for Dad and Nicola to get back. They got back from their ride and then set out again for their run. Nicola was back before the end of the run and then Dad came back a bit after her. We got all the stuff that we needed and then walked to the swimming area by the pier. Dad, Sophie and Nicola got into their wetsuits and went for a swim. They also met some of the other competitors from the GBR team.

Once the swim was done, we headed back to the cars and Nicola went home. Dad, Sophie and I went to McDonalds for lunch and then we drove back. On the way back, we stopped at a David Jones store off the motorway and Sophie and I each got a pair of shoes. Sophie got some flat black sandals to replace the ones that broke and got thrown away and I got.... wait for it.... a pair of Crocs! I know, SHOCK. I HATE crocs, but the ones that I got are actually really nice. They are not like normal crocs and they don't look like crocs at all.

When we got back, I helped Sophie make the dessert and then started the BBQ. We had baked potatoes, corn on the cob, lamb, sausages and kangaroo. It was delicious. Then we had the sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce for pudding which was AMAZING.

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