After our lovely meal last night at the RSL Club, we didn’t need much breakfast this morning so it was up and away before 10.00am after deciding on which route we would take up the coast. A stop was necessary first at the bottle shop as we’d said we would bring beer and wine for tonight at Lorraine and Paul’s.
Our routeing decision had been to miss out the coast road up to Tweed Heads as we’d seen enough beaches on that stretch already. Not only that, but the weather was dull and overcast, and, true to form, we’d only been on the road for about 20 minutes when the rain started. Beaches in the rain are not the most uplifting sights on holiday! Petrol was required for us to continue beyond Tweed Heads and would you believe it? – all the fuel stations going into the town are on the opposite side of the road and there’s a centre barrier on most of the roads too! We eventually found a Shell station on a roundabout, still on the opposite side but at least we could get back on our heading with very little hassle.
Then we followed the coast road driving within sight of the beaches on the Gold Coast – well, that was the idea, except that for most of that stretch, the road ISN’T right along the beach, it’s separated by the “absolute beach” hotels and apartments who’ve got their own stretch of beach attached to the premises! So we got glimpses of sand and waves, but unless we stopped and parked, that was it! Then we found a short length of coast road that looked promising so turned down to it….and about 50m further on – the road stopped completely ! It was so frustrating but we kept on going to Broad Beach where there was an Art and Craft market on and a surfing and kayaking competition. Could we park?? Could we h***. There were cars abandoned everywhere and we drove for 2+kms before having to stop for me to use the facilities, by which time it had started to rain again – so we gave up and drove on to Surfer’s Paradise.
This is on a par with Benidorm in the height of the summer season, only more manic! It had obviously just stopped raining as everywhere and everyone was wet, so for once, we hadn’t brought the rain with us – it had preceded us! Parking there was also a trial but we persevered and found a multi-storey at some horrendous cost. The ticket machine had run out of tickets so the attendant said “just remember what time you came in and pay when you exit” – very trusting folk these Aussies! We took photos of the beach, which was not as heaving as we’d hoped – I still haven’t seen any worthwhile surfing - then hunger pangs drove us to seek sustenance. In a tourist eating directory, we’d found the absolute perfect place to have a snack but when we got there, it was closed. Tom was not amused!!
So we backtracked to the centre and had lovely coffees and – yes – more stickies in a quiet café a few streets away from the heaving masses! Then we joined said heaving masses and had a wander round the shops, if you can’t beat them, join them as the saying goes. I did get some bargains of postcards, so did my bit towards helping their economy (!!), but nothing else tempted us. Tom did find a hat shop, and insisted on trying them on,
but he didn’t find one to buy. I suspect he’s buttering me up for a really expensive Akubra.
Back in the car and out to the pay desk, we told the attendant we’d arrived at 12.30 (which we had), it was now 2.30 but he said, “oh, 1 hour, that’ll be $7”. We did argue, only a little, but he said we were honest Poms so that was that. As we were only about 10kms from Lorraine’s by then, we drove up the Spit to waste some time as we weren’t due there till 4o’clock. It had stopped raining, so we went for a walk out to the little lighthouse at the end of the spit of land that sticks out into the sea. It was a bit breezy! But very invigorating. You get a good view of the skyline of Surfers Paradise. All the high-rises just crammed in together.
There were kids learning to surf, sailboats going in and out, people body boarding and some show-offs on jetskis, doing some very fancy moves – Tom got some pretty good action shots.
Up to this point, I thought that he was being almost nice to be with. Then ---“ Just sit there, my love and I can get a nice picture of you with the sea in the background” WHY DO I ALWAYS FALL FOR IT? I couldn’t understand why he took so long to take the picture. I know now!!!!
Having added a little bit to our paces for the day (nowhere near 10,000) we got back in the car and navigated our way to Lorraine and Paul’s house. It’s lovely – AND they have a pool! Once we’d got settled, Tom asked why the clock showed the time as 3.15. THEN we found out that Queensland doesn’t do Daylight Saving so are an hour behind NSW! (This explains the CP attendant’s only charging us for an hour as we’d actually arrived at 11.30). And we’d arrived an hour earlier than we’d said, so much for Tom’s delaying tactics! This time difference palaver is all very confusing. We’ll only be in Queensland for 4 days, then we’ll leap forward an hour again!
For those of you who don’t know, Lorraine worked with Tom at Roydon for just over 3 years before coming out to Oz when Paul, her partner, got a good job opportunity. They’ve been here for just over 2 years and have settled in and are waiting for residency to be confirmed. She hasn’t changed a bit and is still as lively and lovely as she ever was. They made us so very welcome and we had a huge bbq meal and lots of drinks before falling into bed at 9.30pm (10.30 by our body clocks!)
Our routeing decision had been to miss out the coast road up to Tweed Heads as we’d seen enough beaches on that stretch already. Not only that, but the weather was dull and overcast, and, true to form, we’d only been on the road for about 20 minutes when the rain started. Beaches in the rain are not the most uplifting sights on holiday! Petrol was required for us to continue beyond Tweed Heads and would you believe it? – all the fuel stations going into the town are on the opposite side of the road and there’s a centre barrier on most of the roads too! We eventually found a Shell station on a roundabout, still on the opposite side but at least we could get back on our heading with very little hassle.
Then we followed the coast road driving within sight of the beaches on the Gold Coast – well, that was the idea, except that for most of that stretch, the road ISN’T right along the beach, it’s separated by the “absolute beach” hotels and apartments who’ve got their own stretch of beach attached to the premises! So we got glimpses of sand and waves, but unless we stopped and parked, that was it! Then we found a short length of coast road that looked promising so turned down to it….and about 50m further on – the road stopped completely ! It was so frustrating but we kept on going to Broad Beach where there was an Art and Craft market on and a surfing and kayaking competition. Could we park?? Could we h***. There were cars abandoned everywhere and we drove for 2+kms before having to stop for me to use the facilities, by which time it had started to rain again – so we gave up and drove on to Surfer’s Paradise.
This is on a par with Benidorm in the height of the summer season, only more manic! It had obviously just stopped raining as everywhere and everyone was wet, so for once, we hadn’t brought the rain with us – it had preceded us! Parking there was also a trial but we persevered and found a multi-storey at some horrendous cost. The ticket machine had run out of tickets so the attendant said “just remember what time you came in and pay when you exit” – very trusting folk these Aussies! We took photos of the beach, which was not as heaving as we’d hoped – I still haven’t seen any worthwhile surfing - then hunger pangs drove us to seek sustenance. In a tourist eating directory, we’d found the absolute perfect place to have a snack but when we got there, it was closed. Tom was not amused!! So we backtracked to the centre and had lovely coffees and – yes – more stickies in a quiet café a few streets away from the heaving masses! Then we joined said heaving masses and had a wander round the shops, if you can’t beat them, join them as the saying goes. I did get some bargains of postcards, so did my bit towards helping their economy (!!), but nothing else tempted us. Tom did find a hat shop, and insisted on trying them on, but he didn’t find one to buy. I suspect he’s buttering me up for a really expensive Akubra.Back in the car and out to the pay desk, we told the attendant we’d arrived at 12.30 (which we had), it was now 2.30 but he said, “oh, 1 hour, that’ll be $7”. We did argue, only a little, but he said we were honest Poms so that was that. As we were only about 10kms from Lorraine’s by then, we drove up the Spit to waste some time as we weren’t due there till 4o’clock. It had stopped raining, so we went for a walk out to the little lighthouse at the end of the spit of land that sticks out into the sea. It was a bit breezy! But very invigorating. You get a good view of the skyline of Surfers Paradise. All the high-rises just crammed in together.
There were kids learning to surf, sailboats going in and out, people body boarding and some show-offs on jetskis, doing some very fancy moves – Tom got some pretty good action shots. Up to this point, I thought that he was being almost nice to be with. Then ---“ Just sit there, my love and I can get a nice picture of you with the sea in the background” WHY DO I ALWAYS FALL FOR IT? I couldn’t understand why he took so long to take the picture. I know now!!!!Having added a little bit to our paces for the day (nowhere near 10,000) we got back in the car and navigated our way to Lorraine and Paul’s house. It’s lovely – AND they have a pool! Once we’d got settled, Tom asked why the clock showed the time as 3.15. THEN we found out that Queensland doesn’t do Daylight Saving so are an hour behind NSW! (This explains the CP attendant’s only charging us for an hour as we’d actually arrived at 11.30). And we’d arrived an hour earlier than we’d said, so much for Tom’s delaying tactics! This time difference palaver is all very confusing. We’ll only be in Queensland for 4 days, then we’ll leap forward an hour again!
For those of you who don’t know, Lorraine worked with Tom at Roydon for just over 3 years before coming out to Oz when Paul, her partner, got a good job opportunity. They’ve been here for just over 2 years and have settled in and are waiting for residency to be confirmed. She hasn’t changed a bit and is still as lively and lovely as she ever was. They made us so very welcome and we had a huge bbq meal and lots of drinks before falling into bed at 9.30pm (10.30 by our body clocks!)
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