The Gold Coast

We drove up to Southport, Queensland, on Monday, July 2nd from Port Macquarie, New South Wales.  We had a much better drive that day than we had on the Sydney to Port Macquarie route.  We only took one little expedition off of the main route that day and that was into Byron Bay.  Byron Bay was breathtakingly gorgeous, especially when viewed from the rolling hills overlooking the bay.  But, we could not take a very long expedition because we had to check into our apartment in Southport by 5:00, so we were on a mission.  We were cutting it pretty close considering we did not know the area at all or how the traffic would be once we hit the Gold Coast.  Luckily, we got to Southport at 4:45.  

Southport is about a 10 minute drive north of the "capital" of the Gold Coast, Surfer's Paradise.  Surfer's Paradise is a very active town with huge hotels, tons of tourist attractions,  a very lively nightlife, as well as a beautiful beach.  Southport is still touristy, but a little quieter.  That worked well for us as no nightlife is required when you have 2 young kids and no babysitter.  We got a nice 2 bedroom serviced apartment with waterfront views.  Not a beach view, as it was on an inter-coastal waterway, but it was still pleasant to look at.  

View from our balcony

Tuesday, we headed into one of the large theme parks on the Gold Coast, Warner Brothers Movie World.  The kids had never been to a theme park and all of their ride experience had been at carnivals.  So, this was extra exciting to them.  We all had a great day.  Carter said afterwards that it was "the best day of his life."  Both kids were willing to go on any ride, but they agreed that their favorite was the roller coaster.  A close second favorite of the day was watching a stunt car show.  

Posing with Wonder Woman and Hawk Girl

Carter and Aubrey with members of the Justice League

And here are the real superheroes!!!

Carter posing next to a vintage poster advertising Carter the Magician

Aubrey on the bumper cars

Carter is ready to rumble!

Aubrey after a hard day of playing, being a superhero, and eating chocolate ice cream.

After getting a taste of what it was like to see whales when we were on land at Port Macquarie, we decided to go ahead and book a whale watching cruise.  On Wednesday morning, we headed out to sea.  You know the saying, hindsight is 20/20.  I don't know what I was thinking; the kids and I all have problems with motion sickness.  That had somehow slipped my mind before we got on a 50 foot catamaran boat and headed out to open water to watch the whales migrating up the coast of Australia without taking any medicine .  The whales were amazingly active.  When we got back to shore, the "whale expert" said we saw over 25 whales.  When we first got out there, a couple of whales even breached.  Whales were popping up all over the place and getting fairly close to the boat.  It WOULD have been an amazing experience if I wasn't stuck in the cabin getting sick while also taking care of 2 kids were getting sick at the same time.  It even affected Sean at one point of the journey and he also lost his breakfast.  Our family used an impressive 10 throw up bags during the 2 1/2 hour trip.  I could have kissed the solid ground when we got back from that trip. 

Happier times on the boat (before we hit the big waves going out to sea).

View of the Gold Coast

A picture to show how close the whales were to the boat.

This is a picture Sean took towards the end of the trip when tons of whales were coming to the surface.  It is hard to see, but there are actually 5 different whales lined up in this picture.

The crew members also took pictures and e-mailed us the 3 best pictures of the day.  The two whales breaching and this whale tail are what they sent us.

We spent Wednesday afternoon recovering.  We first ate a large lunch once our stomachs had settled and then we took a nice, leisurely drive down the coast.  As usual, if we ever feel stressed out, we just need to head to a beach to let the cares roll off of us.  That night we went to our first Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant in Australia (in the US we call them Hibachi restaurants).  It was so good!  We thoroughly enjoyed it.  The day ended on a high note.

Thursday morning again hit another low point though.  Carter's ear infection from the previous week came back to haunt him in the opposite ear.  He woke up with his right ear hurting badly.  So, we spent the morning getting ahold of the doctor he saw the previous week to get a prescription faxed up to a pharmacy near us.  While Sean was out dealing with the pharmacy and picking up the medicine, the kids and I were stuck in the apartment.  Since Carter was really hurting, we had to do something to take his mind off the pain.  We began painting toenails and fingernails.  It started with Aubrey, but Carter got into it and ended up with red toenails.  I don't think Sean was very pleased when he got back.  But, Carter's pain went from 50% to 2% in his ear during the nail painting session.  I was going to show a picture on here of both kids' feet, but Carter got too embarrassed and asked me not to post it.

All along the eastern coast of Australia, there is a mountain range called the Great Dividing Range.  Along the Gold Coast they called the mountainous area the "Hinterland."  The Hinterland has its own tourist activities that are very different from the beachy activities.  These include many wineries and hiking trails.  Since Carter was feeling better in the afternoon and had some antibiotics started in him, we headed up to Tamborine Mountain in the Hinterland.  Once again, we were awed by the diverse beauty of Australia.  Tamborine Mountain was only a 40 minute drive from where we were staying.  In that 40 minute drive we went from one type of paradise to another.  

Cedar Falls Waterfall near Tamborine Mountain

Posing by a shallow rock pool between two falls

Friday morning we had to begin the journey back towards Sydney.  We decided to travel down the Great Dividing Range for the return trip to Sydney.  The trip lasted 2 days of about 6 hours of driving each day.  We visited a few more wineries and drove through an area of Australia that has a more serious winter than Sydney does due to the higher elevation.  The town of Armidale, where we spent Friday night, had a low of -4 degrees Celsius that night and snow was in the forecast for the area for the upcoming weekend.  It was during these 2 days of driving that we finally saw our first kangaroos out in the wild.  We saw them quickly as we drove past, but it was exciting for us.  Well, exciting for Sean, Aubrey, and I.  Carter missed it both times and was a little upset about it.  

The highlight of the trip back to Sydney for me was driving through Hunter Valley.  It is only about a 2 to 2 1/2 hour drive from Sydney.  I have never been to Napa Valley in California, but Hunter Valley is what I envision Napa Valley to be like.  There are almost 100 wineries in this area.  Seriously.  They are located one after another along small country roads.  We only stopped at a couple of the wineries on our way through on Saturday.  It is definitely on our list of places we would like to go back to!

We were relieved to be back home Saturday night.  It is always exciting to start out on a vacation, but I am usually ready to come back at the end.  We had undeniably spent too much time together in a very small car.  We were all ready to regain a little bit of our personal space.