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Published: November 11th 2022
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Normally a visit to the Gold Coast translates to visiting the many theme parks, swimming at the world famous beaches or shopping at the vast array of malls. This Gold Coast stopover, however, was primarily about visiting Kim’s nephew Adam, who has recently been diagnosed with another brain tumour, having spent the last three years undergoing chemo and radiation in order to successfully eliminate his initial brain tumour. We wanted to encourage and support him as he commences treatment this week. After visiting and staying overnight with Adam’s sister, Melissa, and her family, we travelled to Yarrabilba and spent the morning with Adam and his wife Trish. Phone messaging is no substitute for face to face catch up.
After visiting Adam, it was a short drive to Tamborine Mountain, which lies just west of and above the Gold Coast. After calling in at Thunderbird Park, to hopefully do some Thunder Egg fossicking, the rain set in, and we had to cancel our plans. We then drove to Curtis Falls, however, the weather wasn’t promising enough to walk one kilometre to the falls. Lunch was a safer option, so we located a nice café, and settled in for a hot coffee
and tasty lunch. Tamborine Mountain is in reality, a large mountain range with extensive rainforest covering (part of the Great Dividing Range), and there are many natural attractions to visit, and many Leura type shops to allure the traveler.
The Big4 Gold Coast has a great water park and pool, and I needed to test out the three storey high water slides. They were amazingly good for a caravan park, with dark sections and sharp turns on the slides. After exhausting myself on the flights of stairs, a quiet swim in the resort style pool completed a good water park session.
A must do option for the Gold Coast is to visit the Surf Factory Outlets at Ashmore, and this was our destination the next day. With so many leading brands having outlets at this location, such as Billlabong, Surf Dive n Ski, Roxy, Unit and Quiksilver, most offering up to 60% off everything, it was a great place to do some early Xmas shopping.
From there we drove to Tallebudgera Creek to do a walk up Burleigh Headland. It was again a well constructed Queensland pathway up the headland, through the coastal vegetation, before opening up
to an incredible vista looking down the coast to the famous surfing destination, Snapper Rocks, then north towards Burleigh Beach and the skyscrapers of Surfers Paradise. On our 4 km walk up and around the headland, we encountered a three metre long python, slithering his way beside the path, among the rocks. It has been many years since we visited the Gold Coast, and thus, we drove the slow route back to Big4, driving the coast road through Surfers Paradise, craning our necks to see the many skyscrapers that now dot the landscape, then driving on to The Spit, past Sea World, out to the breakwall. That night a Blood Moon was due, and the clouds parted at just the right time to capture a photo of the eclipse.
The last morning of our Gold Coast stay at Big4 Caravan Park, involved rising early to watch Sam Mac from Sunrise read out the weather, and invite a family from the park to choose a plastic yellow duck from the swimming pool (one of 250, each with a number), to potentially win one million dollars. Unfortunately the duck chosen did not match the number in the envelope, however, the family
still won $5,000, so not a bad morning’s work for them. Breakfast was on Sunrise, so I chose waffles with maple syrup. A good way to finish up our Gold Coast stay.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Adam as he undergoes further radiation and chemotherapy.
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