Whale Watching in Paradise

---

We checked back into the Chifley for the night before picking up our rental car and heading south to the Gold Coast. Before leaving Brisbane, we took a walking tour around the botanical gardens. We saw many water dragons and all sorts of birds including a dozen Ibis birds roosting in a tree! It was a beautiful spot - right outside the QUT campus.

Luckily, getting on the motorway was easy and after a hot chocolate and java stop we were off to Gold Coast. 45 minutes later, we rounded a bend and found a wall of high-rises growing out of the ocean! We soon found the Courtyard Marriott and checked in. We got very lucky and landed a room on the 26th floor. What a view of the town and the ocean! We spent the afternoon wandering through the town - the beach seems to go on forever both north and south! We returned to our room and watched the sun set from our balcony. That night we indulged in a seafood buffet dinner at the hotel. What a decadent evening!

Our last full day of holiday and we decided to go searching for Humpback Whales. We booked in with a whale watching tour, and got lucky - the boat was only about 20% full! The day (again) was beautiful - bright skies and flat seas. After only about 10 minutes of boating south along the coast, we came upon a trio of Humpback Whales. They were big and black and fast-moving. We followed them north for about an hour, and marvelled at them coming to the surface and blowing, arching and slapping their tails every 4.5 minutes or so. Eventually, they had had enough of us and decided to disappear.

After a light dinner in the evening, we indulged in the best and biggest ice cream we had on this vacation! What a way to end the holiday 😊

We are amazed at how quickly this year is passing. At times, school days seem to drag on forever, but in general, our adventure is half over! We’ve started to realize that there are a lot more things that we “need” to do before we leave… the next six months are going to be busy if we do it right!

---

Photos

Sunset from the 26th
Sarah ponders the mysteries of life from the 26th floor of the Courtyard Marriott.

Early in the a.m.
A view of Surfer's Beach early in the morning

Humpback whales
This pod of 3 humpbacks surfaced for 1 minute approx. every 4.5 minutes. We watched them for about 45 minutes.

Surfer's Skyline
A composite of 6 or 7 photos

Surfer's Paradise
Surfer's skyline from our whale watching boat.

Humpback whales
This pod of 3 humpbacks surfaced for 1 minute approx. every 4.5 minutes. We watched them for about 45 minutes.