Australian Gold Coast - The Final Day

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After limping our way out of New Zealand with two days of driving to get from Fiordland to Christchurch, we wanted to leave Australia on high note. We left the rainforest relatively early and headed for the Gold Coast. The drive was just over an hour to get just north of the insanely huge condominium complexes of Surfer's Paradise. The Gold Coast is a major league beach destination with amusement parks nearby. Surfer's Paradise is the moniker of the heart of the Gold Coast. From a distance it looks like a major city, but when you get closer the skyscrapers are all huge condo buildings, some towering 20, 30 even 40 stories high. There doesn't appear to be an office building among them. Fortunately, we were up the coast 4 kilometers in a nice Sheraton on a quiet and beautiful stretch of beach. We not only got upgraded to an oceanfront room at the Sheraton, but we were able to check in early which gave us immediate beach and pool time.

The beach of the Gold Coast stretches for miles. The gold sand is a bit grainy but not rough to walk on. The waves were coming in strong with a strong current and it wasn't recommended to go out above the waist. With Theo in tow, we heeded the signs and played in the waves for a bit before heading to the pool. After a couple hours, we decided to head into Surfer's Paradise to do some last day shopping and get some food. The shopping was a bit disappointing but Ivy managed to get a t-shirt.

We got back to the hotel and the kids hit the pool with Suzy until about 7:30 and we went back to the room to decompress and reflect on the 6-week adventure coming to an end. We had mixed emotions about the end of the journey - a combination of sadness, relief and generally odd thoughts about finally going home. Ivy was actually tearing up from the emotion of it all. This had been an amazing journey for us all. Suzy and I took a walk on the beach in the moonlight and reveled in the fact that we had pulled it off. It was a brave undertaking and we were proud of the accomplishment. Mostly, we didn't want this to be "it." We're ready to get home and start scheming for another adventure, hopefully in the not too distant future.

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Comments

[anonymous]

Great Blog!
Really enjoyed reading your entries! Sad one today the end of a fantastic vacation. Have a safe trip home!

[Chris Orsborn]

Thanks for taking us along on your trip!
It has been so fun reliving 2 great countries with you all the past 6 weeks. Thanks for sharing your adventures and photos. I hope your trip home goes (or went) well.