Staying with friends at the Goldcoast
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2011
1
44
83
Trip End
Jul 14, 2011
Robina, Queensland, Australia
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Surfer's Paradise is the most developed part of the Goldcoast. The popular holiday destination is filled with skyscrapers, amusement parks, and plenty of entertainment. The real draw to the area is the magnificent white sand beach that literally stretches many kilometers in both directions. The water is blue and clear, the waves are perfect for surfing and bodyboarding, and the sand is so clean and fine that it squeaks when you walk on it! Robina is a suburb located slightly further South - closer to Burleigh Heads, which is where the beach is even nicer and more locals go!
Kerry and Richard showed us their nice neighborhood, which is surrounded by lakes and rivers that meander all the way to the ocean. We had great weather almost the entire time: warm sunshine, about 25 degrees in the shade. Our hosts showed us the Burleigh Heads national park, which is essentially a peninsula that goes into the ocean with some great views of the surrounding area. They showed us the amazing marina with all the yachts, a friends property with a dock going into the river, the beaches, and so much more.
On Sunday we all drove into "The Hinterland"! That's what the bush around the Goldcoast, more specifically Springbrook National Park, is known as. We did three wonderful hikes through rainforest area, eucalyptus trees, past huge iguanas (1m long), to spectacular vistas of the surrounding coast and national park area. We walked over, and under the magnificent 106m high waterfall, and explored a natural bridge formed by erosion. For lunch Kerry made some delicious tuna sandwiches, and egg sandwiches, so we had a picnic. For dessert we tried the Australian specialty Tim Tams - some delicious chocolate biscuits.
Kerry is a great cook, and she made us a three course Asian dinner a few nights ago. We had a chicken curry from the Padang region, a Lao ginger fish curry, a spicy Indonesian salad, and rice! Yesterday we had a BBQ at their house and had Greek lamb sausages, South African Broewors, Mediterranean vegetables, and Dani and I contributed a rocket potato salad (made with my mum's recipe! Tasted great!).
Dani and I spent one evening in Surfer's Paradise where we finally had a pizza again for the first time since December! We found a nice Italian restaurant that had a good deal on large pizzas. Very tasty. That evening Kerry and Richard went to dinner with their family because it was Kerry's sister's birthday. Later in the evening we met them again and they took us to Kerry's mom's place where we met the family and had cake and tea with them! It was amazing being incorporated into an Australian celebration like that - and the whole family was so nice to us and made us feel really welcome.
Yesterday Dani and I went to the beach and managed to meet up with our friend Tim (from Cairns) again! We relaxed at the white beach (around Burleigh Heads which is much better than Surfer's Paradise), swam and jumped around in the waves, and then had a nice steak and mushroom pie for lunch. Oh, and I had a fish taco, which is just the perfect beach food in my opinion!
Now it's almost time to move on unfortunately...we really had a wonderful time here, and Kerry and Richard were so nice to us. We shared evenings of showing pictures from our and Kerry's trips, and really enjoyed it all.
Comments
BBQ in Australien........ mit german potato salad..................ha ha ;-)
Have fun :-)
Na, das war doch eine super Zeit bei Euren Freunden und dann wieder mal an so einer tollen Location. Wie so oft auch mit prima Essen und selbst gemachtem Kartoffelsalat, das bringt's doch wirklich :-) .-) .-)
Ohhhhh man, wir sind so neidisch!!