Gold Coast, Australia Holiday time

 Mid week last week we arrived home from our holiday to the Gold Coast, Australia. We were away 8 nights in total as we stayed in Auckland before we flew to Australia.

We flew from Napier on a gorgeous sunny winter's day, and enjoyed a coffee before heading to the airport at our favourite spot, Ahuriri.

At Auckland you can either walk between the domestic and international terminals, or catch a shuttle. There's lots of construction work happening around the airports right now. It only takes about 10-15 minutes to walk, and there's a painted line on the footpaths to follow.

We opted to stay the night at the Novatel, which is literally a two minute walk to the International departures, as we had an early flight to Australia.  Of course, with a free afternoon once we arrived in Auckland, Hannah wanted to check out the Sylvia Park shopping mall, so we caught the train there for a few hours and the first shopping purchases of our trip were made, ha ha.

This trip we were flying into Coolangatta Gold Coast airport, so the flight was only 3 1/2 hours in duration. 

We can see land!

We arrived to a sunny morning in the Gold Coast, it was so good to see blue skies and sunshine after the wintry weather at home.

Once we arrived, we found a shuttle to take us down to Surfer's Paradise, where we stayed for the next week.  We chose to stay in an apartment at the Mantra Sun City, which is in a great location, only a few streets back from the main street of Surfers and has a tram stop right outside the gate. 

The weather was perfect the whole week, sunny blue skies and good temperatures, although the first few days were a bit cooler and windy due to storm system further south.

Each morning Glenn and I would head out on an early morning walk and find a spot to enjoy a coffee before heading back to get ready for the day. 

We didn't have any specific plans for this trip, no theme parks this time but we easily filled our days. Visits to Harbourtown outlet shops and the Pacific Fair shopping mall were first on the agenda for Hannah, lol.

Lots and lots of walking around, and most days we used the trams and buses, so easy to use. Purchase a card, top up and each ride is only 50 c.

We enjoyed delicious meals out for breakfast and dinner, so many great cafes and restaurants to choose from. 

On Friday 4th July, we went to Brisbane for the day - it took us a tram, bus, train, and then a bus to get there as trains were not running right into Brisbane due to line works.  

We enjoyed some refreshing drinks and a delicious lunch along the river side at South Bank, where there are parklands, lots of eateries, playgrounds for children, swimming areas and much more. 

It was beautiful day, very warm, I think we were all in bed early that night as we walked over 20,000 steps in the sunshine! 

One morning we did a hop on, hop off river cruise on the Nerang river, this was a two hour trip.  

An awesome way to see more of the Gold Coast, great views looking back to Surfers and also the beautiful homes and buildings along the river.

We went up the Sky Point Observation tower,  at the top of 77 floors, we got panoramic views for miles and miles!  It was bit gloomy this morning but one of the hottest days of our trip.

One of the many beach walks we did.  There is a beach restoration project underway at the moment along the coast line, due to erosion, and also after Cyclone Alfred back in March, aiming to replenish the sand, cleaning up debris and replacing walkways and steps that were damaged in the cyclone.  There's a photo of the sand dredging boat back at the start of this post. We could see this every day during our trip.

Hannah and I enjoyed a pedicure on our last full day - so needed after all the walking we'd done.

Although we were out and about most of the days, we did get to enjoy some relaxing time back at our apartment - I read two books and finished a stitching project. 

The night before our flight home to NZ, we got a notification that our flight had been cancelled! No need to panic though as our lovely travel agent back home was able to rebook for us, although it meant a very early morning start to get to the airport. 

A very cold and wet day greeted us in Christchurch - yes, that's right, we flew to the South Island before a few hours later we could get our flight to Napier.  

Diesel was so happy and excited to see us home, by the sounds of it, he'd had a great time with our friends. 

What a lovely holiday we had, especially spending time together with Hannah.  Lots of happy memories.

See you soon xx