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Published: February 8th 2013
We left New Zealand early on Sat 2nd Feb and took the 3hr flight to Coolangatta airport which is situated on the Gold Coast, Queensland, The Sunshine State... Strange arriving in Australia and not feeling jet lagged!
There had been a cyclone in Queensland a few days earlier and people further up the coast had died so it was a relief to find minmal damage around the Gold Coast although the sea and rivers were brown from the debris after the storm ... so the 'Muddy Coast' would have been a more appropiate name.
Rich was waiting to meet us and took us to his and Christine's fantastic house overlooking Surfers Paradise. They had spent some considerable time making the place right after the cyclone but there were still a few trees that had fallen down and a fence down ... but his labourer had now arrived ... And Rich is a hard task master!
Rich & Christine had another couple staying too - Robert and Erica and they made us extremely welcome.
The views from the decking were amazing and the picture constantly changed with the weather and light conditions. At night it was even more
impressive. Annie soon made herself comfortable in the jaccuzi and the bed overlooking the sea.
Cindy described her as 'the most glamourous backpacker ever!'.... my thoughts are more, 'I'm a celebrity' rather than being a backpacker!
I helped clearing the fallen trees. The ride on lawnmower was a challenge ... especially when I spent half an hour mowing the grass and realised that the blades were not down! Meanwhile the girls sat in the jaccuzi or lounged on the bed. They thought it was hilarious when I nearly rolled it down the hill.
We had previously opened an Australian bank account from the UK and I was relieved to find it all fine with little beaurocracy so we were up and running.
On Tues we hired a car for a week and during the course of the next few days we went out for a drive to Byron Bay which is a fab spot further down the coast, Tamborine Mountain and explored the beaches around surfers paradise.
We had a couple of BBQ's and some of our hosts' friends came over, Axel & Loui... they were amazed to hear of our travel plans. In fact
the reaction of most locals when we mentioned that we were driving to Perth was, 'what the f*** ! Are you mad?' As theres a massive void called the 'Nullabor' which is just a long long road with no townships, just trucker stops..infact there's a movie called Wolf Creek made about people going missing on this trail....it's 4 days of driving & nothing else!!
We spent a lovely week with Rich, Christine, Robert and Erica. Today I am celebrating my 50th Birthday in one of the most spectacular places in the world. Monday we will be on our road trip / campervan journey..ticking off over 5000 km from here to Perth in the next 4 weeks.
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Beer on the gold Coast
