Gold Coasting!

CREDIT -: Travel With Divya

 

It was my first trip to Australia and yet another anniversary. The trip had been planned (like several trips of ours) over a weekend…I realised , one very boring Friday that I’d like to jump off a plane! Australia seemed the safest option and with an anniversary coming up…it seemed poetic! Take a leap (off a plane!) to celebrate another leap! My husband thought it was just an evil way to try and push him off a plane but Coldplay (his favourite band!) had a concert during the time we hoped to be there and it was the day before I wanted to jump off the plane…so what the heck!

We made a decision to leave for Aussie land on Friday, made bookings on Saturday and Sunday and on Sunday evening realised that we’d have to apply for a visa! After all we were leaving in 5 days, right!??!

We went to the VFS Office as it opened on a Monday, submitted our papers and asked when we might be approved…”10-14 days Madam,”I was told…” It has to go to Delhi!”

But we didn’t have that kind of time…and so decided to ring up everyone I knew to help me make my anniversary dream come true! Take a small leap (14000 odd feet), to celebrate our leap!

The Australians have a sense of humour and I think mine must have been the oddest reason to want to go to Australia they had ever read! So despite sending in our forms only on Monday , our visa was home-delivered to us on Wednesday! Guess they wanted us to leap off that plane too! (well maybe just me! ;))

And so we arrived to Gold Coast via Brisbane Airport! Brisbane Airport is about 90 mms/ 55 miles from Gold Coast. The airport is very basic and there is no point in arriving for your Return flight too early as often Check in points are closed and there are very few places to just sit and relax! Any way after a long flight in; we decided to head towards our hotel. There are Hotel shuttles which take you to Gold Coast, which we took as ours was so rushed we’d had no time to confirm anything more than just basic bookings! The next visit we were more prepared and had a car meet us! It takes a little over an hour to get to the Gold Coast!

The first time we went to the Gold Coast( i.e. The Anniversary!); we stayed at the Surfer’s Paradise Marriott Resort and Spa. This hotel came highly recommended. It was young, fun and in the heart of the action at Surfer’s Paradise!

All the areas in the Gold Coast have fun names- Surfer’s Paradise, Mermaid Beach, Nobby Beach, Runaway Bay, Rainbow Bay…! 🙂 You get the hint! It’s fun, it’s a young college town and it’s full of life!

Surfers Paradise has the beach, some wonderful shopping areas and some incredible cafes and some wonderful hotels as well!

I recommend the Q 1 Resort and Spa for a fabulous living experience and a view of the Gold Coast worth dying for!

The next time we came we stayed at the Palazzo Versace. This does not have a beach attached but they have created a small beach patch near their swimming pool…;)! A couple of feet of sand and a beach ball or two and a small mini beach takes shape!

The hotel is a tad too gold and a bit gaudy but with the Versace stamp everywhere you are surrounded in luxury!

What is most beautiful about the hotel is the positioning. Beautifully placed on a marina you can take some fabulous boats from the marina and explore the Gold coast via the ocean or sit at the Marina Mirage shopping center and grab a cup of coffee and chocolate at Max Brenner or pick up some doggie accessories at Posh Pets 😉 like we did!

Must do’s and Must Sees!!!!

• Must do-: The Jet ski safari…It may not sound like anything worth doing …I mean everyone has ridden a jet ski…what’s the big deal?! I mean I totally thought so! But an afternoon plan of ours had fallen thru and this seemed like something we could do…!

Crazy, wild and incredible fun…we went to smaller islands, snorkeled a bit and hit waves at speeds that were do fast 2 Aussie’s fell of their skis

I was super proud that I didn’t and totally exhausted after this ‘lame’ afternoon! IT WAS SO WORTH IT!

• Warner Bros Movie World-: Both os us are Movie Film buffs and we loooved Movie World. With a Superman ride which is supposed to be the fastest in the Southern Hemisphere and a straight free Batman Drop which still haunts my husband it was easily the best half day we spent! I say half-day because if you go on a day that’s little less crowded you can just do your favourites and move to one of the other incredible theme parks all in the same area… My next favourite park was DreamWorld which also had some crazy thrill rides!!! Again you must understand that for me, Theme parks are all about the thrills and roller coasters so the scarier the better!!! There is also Sea World with dolphins, sharks and polar bears, Wet n Wild World, and White Water World! But I preferred the ACTUAL Ocean to water rides….I mean what’s the point of the glorious sea otherwise! 😉
• Zorbing-: Quite literally being put into a huge ,plastic ball and being thrown down a hill! Hilarious , funny and absolutely super! So we were first pushed through the mouth and aditya and I I faced each other. Aditya started with some wise words of wisdom on how I should try and focus on one side or close my eyes and in between his lecture(barely had Word 2 finished) we were pushed with a high force of water down a hill! Limbs everywhere , lots of laughter and a definite MUST DO!
• Currumbin Wild life Sanctuary -: We were not sure what to expect here and expected it to be more like a zoo….but the massing feeling of feeding kangaroos, watching joeys poptheir head out of pouches and pop back in and cuddling koalas was so incredible…we lost track of time! Here the animals are up close and touchable so whether its a greedy ostrich, a hungry kangaroo or a very sleepy koala , you get to interact with them in their own environment! ABSOLUTELY STUNNING! Remember kangaroos eat anything they can see…so keep the paper out of their way and your handbag well out of sight…unless you want a half eaten passport or well chewed coin purse! 😉
• Have a drink at the Q1 Bar

For adventure junkies like me there’s also the Green Challenge. Climb rope ladders, swing from trees, climb up, rappel down…it’s a wild set of challenges which will work up quite a sweat!

The Gold Coast is absolutely fabulous for families and kids! It was wonderful for us (mostly because I’m still quite a kid!)! There’s lots to do, lots to see and lots to be entertained with!

It’s light, fun and one of the only places in the world where you can actually cuddle a koala…and that makes it WORTH IT!!

Did I sky dive? Did Aditya survive…? More on that next week…! 😉

Price Factor-: $200 to $500 per night approximately in the summer! For theme park tickets look at MyFun to get online deals and discounts!

Best times to travel-: I recommend August – February. We went the first time in end March (Anniversary time) and the weather was tricky! Rain cancelled lots of plans and storms on neighboring islands made the weather quite unpredictable and muggy! The next time we went in October and it was brilliant!

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