A New Year and a New Life on the Gold Coast
From Bill and Michelle Around the World 2008-2009 in Southport, Australia on Dec 30 '08
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One of the great things about a small morning wedding is that it is all done by breakfast and you still have the rest of the day to go out and enjoy. And we took full advantage of the day by returning back to the hotel to change and leaving to go do our first activity as a married couple: zorbing. What is a zorb? Well, it’s a giant rubber ball that gets filled with a bit of water, and you jump inside it to roll down a hill. If you can make it standing the whole time running like your on a hamster wheel, you get a free ride. I didn’t even want to try so I sat on my ass, and we started rolling and I fell into Bill as I was screaming. And then it stopped as we had reached the bottom of the hill. Jim came running over to take a picture before we plopped ourselves out of the hole. Nick and Dan went next followed by Bill and Jim none of them made it very far before falling on each other. Kathy just decided to enjoy by watching us. My parents passed all together. We then headed over to the beach afterwards and enjoyed some sand and waves. A front with rain started moving in and the sun disappeared. A bit down the beach, there was another bride and groom getting their pictures taken. It had already seemed so long ago that it was us. They had a tough time dealing with the wind blowing the dress and as the sun faded and the clouds moved in we decided that we were very lucky to have gotten married where we did that morning. But I guess our new life sounds a lot like the life we had been living for the past five months.
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Now that the wedding has gone and past, it’s now time to get ready to ring in the New Year. We started off the day with my dad’s favorite part, breakfast grilled at the bbq by the pool. This morning we had pancakes made from a container that all you have to do is add water, shake, and then pour. And Kathy and my mom made fruit salad. We used this area quite a bit during our stay as it was the easiest way to cook and seat 8 people. It was nice to have home cooked meals again and not have to do any of the work.
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After breakfast, we all piled into our two rent a cars, but Bill’s brothers tried of all the parent chat opted for a “kid” car and “adult” car. And so, we headed through the winding roads up to Spring Brook National Park. We stopped at the first lookout we saw which was Purling Brook Falls where we took in the decent sized waterfall. And then, we headed over to the Best of All Lookout. It was a bit of walking to get back to this crowded lookout, and when we reached the lookout, there was a child sitting Indian style along the railing. Mother and father right there with their other three children right on the platform trying to lasso each other with a rope and the fifth child hanging around mommy as she couldn’t be more than a couple of months old. We all looked at each other and wondered why they didn’t get their son of the railing, but then I looked at Bill and said, “Don’t get any ideas, we’re not having 5 children.” He laughed as he wasn’t interested in that many either. The lookout itself looked out over the valley and if you looked careful enough, you could even see the Q1 tower.
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We stopped for lunch at a cute little restaurant that was right up my mom’s alley. It wasn’t the food that had her which was fairly good for overstuffed burgers, but it was the décor. The detail that even went into hand painting the coffee menu is colorful script to the mosaic in the bathroom area. But what my mom liked best turns out to be there best form of advertisement is what comes in each burger or sandwich. It’s a giant toothpick with loads of feathers at the top making it a very festive meal; most of these where taken by Dan to bring home as a toy to Mojo, my cat their caring for, can’t wait to hear how he likes them.
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After lunch, my parents decide to take a rest by the picnic area and relax on the grass while the rest of us take a hike through Twin Falls. It was here that we actually were able to walk behind two waterfalls as we followed the hiking trail. Bill tried to get a group shot of all of us using the self timer as we sat on top of a rock, but Kathy didn’t want to jump up, so as she made room for Bill to jump up, she moved herself out of the picture. But by that time the spray from the water was making everyone cold, well, the girls anyhow, so we moved onwards. We made it back to find my parents napping in the grass. My mom told us loudly how she enjoyed eavesdropping as she was relaxing, and we walked past to see the people she was probably eavesdropping on but she didn’t know they were still there.
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We headed back to our hotel to see if we could make reservations for dinner, but seeing how it was New Years Eve, we had no luck. So the dads went to get Thai food and brought it back, so we all ate in Bill and my living room area. It really is nice that Australia has so many apartment style accommodations.
As we were driving during the day, we kept hearing how there should be great firework shows at 9 and 12 tonight for New Years. So right before 9, we rush up to Kathy and Jim’s room as their on the top floor and see a few fireworks far away. We had thought there would be some closer, so we were holding out hope for midnight.
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Nick, Dan, Bill, and I walked down the beach to see if anything was going on since Nick thought one of the bars was having a beach party. There were a few people here and there, and a few apartments with music and some people, but nothing compared to what I thought Australia, the land of partiers and drinkers, would have for New Years. And so, for a while we just sat by the beach and the boys had a rock skipping competition.
This wasn’t very exciting, so we went into the one bar Nick had seen. We got some drinks and relaxed on the patio area. As we were getting drinks, it dawned on Nick what the beach party meant. All the bartenders where dressed in beachwear, but no actually beach party even though they’re right across the street. As it came time for a second round, I went with Bill to get it but we couldn’t get the bartenders attention. A drunk Australian cut to the side of Bill and got the bartender’s attention first, and kept talking to Bill that he invited us over to his table. However, at this point, it was only 2 minutes to 12 and we wanted to get outside to see the fireworks.
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We finally got drinks and made it out just in time to ring in the New Years; except there weren’t any fireworks in the sky or where there?
We left Dan and Nick at the bar, and went back to crash. It had been a long couple of days, but around 2 am the fire alarm went off. At first we had no idea what it was, but then we made our way outside with the rest of the complex to find out it was a false alarm. Jim stopped by to see if we’d seen Dan and Nick, but they hadn’t made it back yet. Kathy just wanted to make sure they weren’t responsible. But we found out in the morning someone did pull the alarm, I guess they were just wishing everyone a Happy New Year!
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We spent our last day on the Gold Coast taking my mom shopping while everyone else waited for the doctor to make a house call for Nick who had a rash that wasn’t going away. Shopping was pretty uneventful except for the parking structure. They have to most narrow parking areas, and the drive areas left for cars to endlessly circle the structure are blocked by cars that just gave up on getting into a parking space, or they’re dead end areas that aren’t marked and you figure it out when you have to back out. Bill finally found a spot but since the structure is so narrow, it was impossible for him to pull forwards into the spot. After taking 15 mins, to get almost stuck, he pulled back out and reversed into the spot. So it worked out, but parking in this lot for 45 mins cost $9.00 and half of that time was spent trying to park. I’m just glad I wasn’t the one parking.
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When we got back, we found out that somewhere along the line Nick got shingles. And his only complaint was that he always seems to get sick over Christmas Break. He’s such a trooper that most of the time you forget anything is wrong with him. But at least he isn’t as bad as his brother, and let the doctor come. We almost stayed to get Bill’s ear looked at since it was still bugging him, but went shopping instead.
We had our good-bye dinner to my parents at the Rivera based on the recommendation of our hotel. It’s hard to see them leave as it feels like we’re leaving all over again as it was nice to have a piece of home. And as Bill puts it for me, “It’s worse this time because you know what you’re getting yourself into, before, at least you weren’t sure what to expect.” And so we close one chapter to start a new one as we head off to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef…
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Michelle
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