Christmas in the Gold Coast!
Trip Start
Apr 25, 2011
1
20
23
Trip End
Apr 09, 2012
Where I stayed
With Martin & Averil
Mudgeeraba, Queensland, Australia
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
really excited about going to the Gold Coast for Christmas and embarking on my
next adventure in Queensland Outback over January and February. Then I had two
more adventures, New Zealand for two weeks and the Cook Islands, Rarotonga for
three weeks! So many amazing things to come.
It was good to see Martin and Averil again. Averil came to pick me up from
the airport, laughing at the weight of all my luggage... Initially, my suitcase
weighed 26kg!!! After some jiggling around, I got it down to 20kg, put some
more back in and it hit 22.7kg, 0.3kg to spare! My hand luggage on the other
hand probably weighed about 12kg, which I carried on my shoulder, urghhh!! I've
now purchased a little suitcase on wheels which I can take on board (yes,
another peice of luggage/baggage!) I just have my fingers crossed that they
don't weigh it before I fly to Townsville...
They live about 15 minutes from the airport in what I'd stay was quite an
English house. Wooden beams, open brick walls, English looking furniture. It's
really nice to be in a homely feeling home, especially over Christmas. My
favourite room is the cinema room; they have luxury cinema style seating, a
HUGE screen, amazing surround sound, automatically closing curtains, it's
great!
Yesterday Averil and I went shopping, picking up a few bits for the station
that I'll need. I brought a travel sized iPod docking station (as I use my iPod
sooo much) and if I'm going to be in the house alone quite a lot, or cooking in
the kitchen, a docking station will come in handy a fair bit. The guy at Dick
Smith's was strangely helpful, he gave me a free pack of batteries (it can run
on mains or battery) and also a free extended two year warranty! Pretty
awesome. I also picked up some $20 jeans from Target, some socks, my mini
suitcase and some Women's Weekly cookbooks which were only $4.33 each!! RRP of
$12. Those and the Donna Hay cookbooks are my absolute favourite. Goregous
recipies, amazing photos and easy to follow steps.
It's raining quite a lot here :-( I've just done some washing, hung it out,
and now it's pouring it down, great! I just hope it doesn't rain on Christmas
day, although I think I'll spend most of the day inside.
Will leave it there for now and update Christmas day evening/boxing day :-)
I've had a fantastic Aussie Christmas! Yesterday started off with a bloody Mary, eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and spending the day visiting Mart and Av's family. We spent most of the day chilling out at Martin's son's house, Matt with his 3 gorgeous children. We drank lots, ate, chatted and played with the kids. It was lovely spending Christmas with a big family and being part of it.
We were all so tired by 8.30pm when we got home that we ended up in bed!
Today, Boxing Day, I need to pack and get organised. We're then travelling up to Brisbane (Mart/Av are taking me, how nice!!) to see their friend's boat, have a look around and then I fly up to Townsville for my next adventure :-)
Happy Christmas to you all.
Laura xx
