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Published: January 18th 2008
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Awww
He was so excited about this!! I wasn't!! Bikini packed, beach towel packed and sunglasses on- destination Surfer’s Paradise!!! We flew to Brisbane on Christmas Day about 3pm and got the train link to Surfer’s which took about 2 hours all in, so we arrived at the apartment around 6ish. We had pre booked a meal at the local Vietnamese restaurant for about 8, but we were both starving and went early. The food was fantastic and the bottle of wine was even better!! (I learned my lesson on the flight out here!! wait till you are on the ground before tanking into the wine!). After dinner, we walked down to Surfers which took us about an hour, but we were just happy taking in the scenery and enjoying the heat! We were told by some people that the centre was quite tacky but we thought it was pretty cool, with loads of great shops and nice restaurants. We had a jolly good night, and to be honest, we were both feeling a little homesick in the weeks leading up to Christmas, so it was good for us to get out of Melbourne for a bit.
The weather was amazing - it was just like Florida, hot and
An irish pub in town
there are lots of them humid. I think it was about 35 degrees. When we left Melbourne it had been raining a couple of days and didn’t reach much over 25 degrees. Surfer’s Paradise is on the coast and it is one of many beaches along a strip that make up the Gold Coast. We were lucky to get accommodation at such a late stage as lots of Aussies hit the Gold Coast as Christmas marks the start of the school summer holidays. Were we did get booked, was gorgeous. It was in Southport, just north of Surfer’s about 10 mins drive.
On Boxing Day, we headed to Surfer’s to check it out and get our bearings, some lunch, maybe a drink. First we needed to sort out a car. The transport system all along the Gold Coast is really good, but it’s expensive, so we worked out we would be better off getting a car especially to get to the theme parks. We jumped on the bus and headed into the centre. There were lots of places to hire cars, but we just went to the first one, intending to do round and get the best price. The guy only had one car
left for hire, which was really big and one of the most expensive ones. So, he offered us a Smart car for $49 a day, or we could have a Smart car with some colourful advertising on it for $39 a day - so we took the one with advertising - obviously!!!
I was really keen to get surfing again so we had a look round for a surf school and I booked into a 2 hour lesson for the next morning. Surfing was the best at Surfer’s, it was a little crazy as bed weather was starting to creep in, and the waves we high and the currents were all over the place. It made it slightly harder, but I enjoyed it and knew that I probably wouldn’t get to go the rest of the week.
Dreamworld was the first theme park we went to and it was great. On the drive there we could see “The Giant Drop” which put the fear of God in Ricky, but I was really excited. When we entered the park Ricky did his best to avoid The Giant Drop but only to visit the Aussie Big Brother house first. The
BB house was cool, as you can imagine, pretty much the same set up as the UK house, you know, communal showers, bedroom, living area, cool kitchen, pool, spa. Although, typical Aussie style, there was an outdoor gym and a massive recycling area. The picture of me is where the housemates exit when they have been evicted. It was all very exciting. What’s more exciting is that that was the last week that the public were able to go inside the house as the following it was being demolished and the new BB was being built. For anyone who knows me, they will know how much I loved BB in the UK, so looks like Aussie TV will take a turn for the better when the new BB starts (Oh, So You Think You Can Dance is starting in a couple of weeks too!!). Sorry, I realise you aren’t reading this blog to listen to me rant on about how much I miss UK TV programmes! It’s sad I know, but I do miss Eastenders and Hollyoaks.
The Giant Drop was great - I was so scared and Ricky was even worse. I think it is the highest drop
Our apartment
very modern and new I’ve ever been on!!! There are 6 big thrill rides, a water ride, a surf simulator thingy and a few good rollercoasters. My favourite was called “The Tower of Terror”. It was really fast and really scary!! The other good rides are the Water Log Flume and the Claw.
It poured down the full day at Dreamworld, but it was ok coz it was still hot and humid. The food was rubbish and although we were in the park from 10am until 6pm (we were the ones who run round at the minute trying to get on everything one last time before the park closes!!) and had a great time, I was happy to go home and get a nice hot shower and fresh dry clothes on!!
There were 2 things we really loved about the Gold Coast. Firstly, was the taxis, they are nothing like Melbournian taxis i.e. they are not all Indian, they know where they are going and they are polite! Secondly, the everywhere we ate was amazing. Good service, good fresh food and most places were busy and that’s always a good sign. I think Ricky would agree, we had the best seafood platter
Christmas Dinner
Merry Christmas!! ever at Trawler’s Restaurant on the Gold Coast Highway. Sushi Train was great although it’s a chain, the sushi was great and also had a few new and different things on the menu. Saigon Palace were we had Christmas dinner was also really good and not that expensive either.
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