Blogs from Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Oceania
May 13th 2012
This is it! We're off on our long planned and awaited around Australia trip. Sunday 13th May 2012. Sue and I (Jim) have teamed up with our long time (very long time) friends - Alan and Jane Leckie and Wayne and Gaile Hartner on this adventure. Well there were some hiccups before we started as Wayne and Gaile returned to NZ to attend their brother-in-law's funeral. As this was their first caravanning experience we got Ryan and Erin (and Noah) to drive their Caravan for the first few days to Roma. Our first day was to Jondaryan (219km) - just west of Toowoomba where we stayed at the "Woolshed" Caravan Park. A very nice basic park with "Drive Through" sites. The day didn't start off well for us as - firstly we blew a fuse on ... read more
Day in Sydney and Gold Coast
Published: April 29th 2012Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Gold Coast » Bundall
April 29th 2012
I arrived into Sydney with a flight up to the Gold Coast early the next morning. I dropped my bags at the desk and decided to spend the day in town rather than sitting in the airport where I was going to spend the night. I got the train to Museum station, found my hostel where I will be staying upon my return to Sydney and went down to the Quay for lack of any better ideas. Weather was clear and the walk was not as far as I had expected and by lunch I was looking out at the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and surroundings. I arranged to meet Angus and Emily briefly as they were in town and met them at an anti police demo outside the parliament building having taken brief shelter in ... read more
Surfers Paradise
Published: April 23rd 2012Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Gold Coast » Surfers Paradise
April 22nd 2012
Arrived in Surfers Paradise on thursday morning, the weather was amazing so much better than Byron, so headed straight to the beach! Went to Main Beach had a couple of hours sun bathing but there is not a lot at this beach struggled to even find one shop to grab a drink and an ice cream from but it is very quiet and peaceful. Our hostel is great, feels very homely, and it gives us 2 hours of free wi-fi everyday which is awesome! Watched Superbad tonight, nice to just chill out and watch a film its been a while since we did that. There are a few theme parks around here, so on Friday we went to MovieWorld - a super hero themed theme park. They had a really cool 4D show for "Journey to ... read more
April 9th 2012
We have less than 10 weeks until we depart on the trip of a lifetime. Between packing up the house, school, work, the boys’ football and organising our trip, Team Free are extremely busy. We leave the Gold Coast on the 17th June and will arrive at Heathrow, London via Kuala Lumpur London on the 18th before turning around a few weeks later and spending the next 4 months ‘Overlanding’ back to KL before flying home. Having been in the planning stage for the last few years, it’s hard to fathom that we’re about to do it!!! It’s going to be great to catch up with Don, Emma, Andrew, Frances and many others in London from London Rowing Club. London is where we got engaged back in 1995. Jackson, Harrison and Hunter will undertake Term 3 ... read more
The End Of the Road
Published: March 28th 2012Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Gold Coast » Burleigh Heads
March 28th 2012
Final Entry - The End Of The Road Well, this is it! The last blog entry for our, almost two year, trek around Oz. After leaving Adelaide we travelled through the towns along the Murray River. We made visits to Mannum, Walkers Flat, Renmark, Blanchetown and Echuca. Once again the weather was kind to us and the “Mighty Murray” was great to see. The “PS Murray Princess” was in dock at Mannum and was a magic sight. PS standing for “Paddle Steamer”. We took a trip up the river at Echuca, where the Murray is significantly narrower and dirtier than at Renmark. Nevertheless we ticked yet another box. From Echuca we headed for Bendigo where we caught up with my sister Jean’s son Steven. He was recovering from a serious back injury after being thrown from ... read more
Day 3 - Wet n Wild
Published: March 28th 2012Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Gold Coast » Surfers Paradise
March 23rd 2012
The clock alarm rang at 7:30am. We were both still very tired, but at the same time we wanted to go to Wet n Wild. Wet n Wild is a water theme park located not far away from our hotel. It is one of the popular tourist theme parks in Gold Coast. Nicole and I drank hot chocolate on the balcony (where there was chairs) overlooking the beach view. The sea swells were loud, we could hear them from the balcony. It was a windy day and the sky was a little bit grey. After breakfast, we packed our towels, bathers, camera, phone and tickets into our drawstring bag that we were carrying around with us. The bus came, and it was a different bus driver. The bus driver was a middle age african man who ... read more
March 23rd 2012
Today was a day to see Gold Coast beaches and stuff. We didn't plan anything for this day. We went for a 1 minute walk down to the beach. The beach water was cold and there was lifeguards towers across the beaches. We didn't swim, so we only walked ankled high into the water. The sun was shining and it was nearly 25 degrees. It was around 12pm. We then went off to the same Mc Donald's as we did a couple of days ago opposite to the beach. We then walked back to the hotel and did nothing because go on our laptops and on the internet talking and webcaming to friends and family members :) Today wasn't an intresting day, it was just a day to relax and get our sleeping pattern fixed. :) ... read more
Day 6 - Dreamworld
Published: March 28th 2012Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Gold Coast » Surfers Paradise
March 23rd 2012
We woke up at 7am. We were going to Dream World today !! We were so excited because we both loved to go on scary rides, unlike some people :) The bus came. We hopped onto the bus (showing our tickets like always) and then sat on the two seats at the middle of the bus. This bus was really big. The bus was noisy and full of families with teenagers. By the time we got to Dream World it was around 9am. We got our tickets and headed off to find a locker to put our stuff inside it so it wouldn't get stolen. At Dreamworld, we went on the Wipeout, the Cyclone, the Giant Drop, the Claw, the Tower of Terror 2, the Buzzsaw, the Thunder River Rapids ride, the Reef Diver, the Rocky ... read more
Day 7 - Shopping & Sky Point
Published: March 28th 2012Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Gold Coast » Surfers Paradise
March 23rd 2012
Today we woke up at 11am! We weren't tired and we didn't have any breakfast. We got changed and asked the hotel reception how to catch a bus to Pacific Fair (shopping centre). We caught a bus to the shopping centre. The shopping centre had almost every single store that I shop with inside the shopping centre. We did some shopping mostly for clothes and jewellery. We didn't shop for shoes, because our luggage was to small to fit shoe boxes in it :( We had subway for lunch. Once we finished, we caught the bus back to the stop directly infront of our hotel. We carried our bags inside our room and dumped it on the floor. The sun was shining so we decided to go for a swim. We had a swim and then ... read more
March 22nd 2012
As I got off the Virgin Australia DJ 535 flight from Sydney to Gold Coast, I was really tired because I landed at Sydney 5:30pm, but I was also really excited aswell. My flight was a 'stopover', so it meant we had to stop in Sydney and hop on another plane to get to Gold Coast. Me and my friend, Nicole, both went and got our luggage at the luggage collection place. As we got our of the airport we felt a cold breeze blow onto us. Gold Coast was nearly dark when we got outside and hopped on the Gold Coast tourist shuttle bus to go to our hotel. Gold Coast was really bright at night. It was surrounded by Nightclubs, Bars, Resturants and Shopping stores. We checked in and dropped off our luggage and ... read more
