We made it to the Auckland airport with very little time to spare, thankfully having prepaid for extra baggage... We flew on Jetstar - their baggage limits were rather lean! The flight was about three hours - it went very smoothly and I even managed to sleep for maybe an hour. Once we arrived at the Gold Coast airport, we and our bags were sniffed by a little beagle and briefly searched before we were given the green light to enter the country!
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| International Arrivals - Gold Coast! |
John found Danny, got us flat whites, we loaded up Danny's big van and drove a short 15 minutes to his lovely home. The first two nights were spent there. It had been at least 11 years since I last saw Danny and Rosie in England. And it was great to meet their 8 year old daughter Molly. Sofia and Molly hit it off right away, which was an added bonus! We acclimatized easily over those two days then moved into our hotel in Burleigh Heads, where we'll be for the next 2 weeks. We can hear the roar of the waves from our room and there are great views from the balcony.
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| Burleigh Heads Beach |
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| Burleigh beach |
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| View from our hotel |
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| Sofia in the 'spa' pool! |
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| John in the pool - it is rather cold!! |
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| Jake doing his usual juggling practice! |
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| Our beach - across the street from the hotle |
From first impressions, Australia reminds me more of North America than New Zealand did. We've been here such a short time, but it seems to me I'd be trying to compare apples with oranges. The two countries are very different and both amazing in their own way, so I won't even bother going down that road. Thus far, we've seen a lot of beach and ocean! And surfing is a passion for many here. Danny is, of course, a great surfer so he loaded up his boards on Saturday morning and we all went to Coolangatta to a great surf beach.
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| Enroute to surf beach in Coolangatta |
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| Danny, Rosie & Molly |
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| Molly & Danny |
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| Sofia in motion |
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| Molly 'surfing'! |
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| Lessons from Danny... |
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| Sofia on board... |
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| Riding into the waves... |
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| Sofia taking a spill... |
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| Jake's turn! |
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| Molly & Sofia |
After a walk by the ocean today, followed by the boys watching Arsenal vs Norwich Canaries (and Sofia and I going down to the pool), we spent the afternoon at the local beach. We boogie boarded and built sand castles! Tomorrow the plan is to hit Seaworld, just one of the many theme parks around...
We hope everyone is well! Will be in touch...
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