Day 244 - Tuesday 29 August - Golf and the Gold Coast Strip

Day 244

Tuesday

29 August 2017 –

Bonogin – Mudgeeraba – Currumbin – Burleigh Heads – Surfers Paradise

After a slightly later evening, I didn’t wake until 7am with Paul stirring a little after. We both read our books, before I decided it was time to get out at 8.15am. After having a shower and breakfast, we gathered our things and took off for the Boomerang Farm Golf Course in Mudgeeraba.

The course was on a farm with a rustic style club house. Once Paul had paid for his 9 holes, we jumped onto the course and began our morning stroll. The course was very open, with the holes crossing over each other. It was a little confusing trying to work out where you were hitting to and then walking between holes. The greens had also been recently cored and sanded so putting was somewhat hit and miss. Paul’s round reflected the poor condition and he wasn’t happy with his result, when we finally finished, but it was still a lovely morning spent in the sun.

We returned to the van just as the hay truck arrived to drop off the feed for the horses. We chatted to Scott who was getting busy around the house and yard. We packed up our lunch, said goodbye and then took off for Currumbin. We found a quiet park along the Currumbin Creek where we could have lunch looking out over the water and watch the Stand Up Paddle boarders drift by.

I checked out the pelican sculptures lovingly wrapped in scarves and beanies before we drove a little further around the creek to Currumbin Beach where we parked and took off for a walk.  We made it to Elephant Rock where the morning shows often broadcast on ANZAC Day. We climbed the hill to the lookout on the top to check out the view and then we made our way back passing the bronze statue of the female bather.

We continued our journey on to Burleigh Heads where we parked again and followed the path into the national park. We opted to stay at the base of the headland and follow it around for the 1.2km. Above us a young girl was standing on a rock, arms out stretched like in the Titanic.

At one stage I stopped to take a photo only to have my sunglasses take a dive so I had to duck under the fence on the sandy slope, hope I wouldn’t slip, retrieve the sunnies and scoot back under the fence. Thankfully I managed.

We returned to the car via the roadside and then continued further north to Surfers Paradise. We parked in a multi storey and then got out amongst the high-rise buildings. We navigated to the beach side and walked along the strip checking out the people on the beach and the art that was around. You could see that this was most definitely tourist central.

We wandered about, completing a loop before heading towards the Q1 building and its sky deck. With our Dreamworld ticket we also received entry to the 77^th floor viewing area. After flashing our passes, we entered the lift lobby before taking the very fast lift to near the top floor. When the door opened, we were inundated with Chinese tourists pushing their way into the box we were tyring to get out of, as you can imagine Paul was super impressed and let them know it.

Once out on the floor, we moved about taking in the views of the Gold Coast from the large glass windows. It certainly provided a terrific perspective of the metropolis from this point.  We stopped at the café for a drink before completing our 360° panorama view where we could make out the Robina shops and roughly where Bonogin was. Paul even suspected he saw a Bull shark cruising in the canals.

After making it all the way around, we returned to the ground floor and made our way back to the car. We struggled to find the pay machine, walking around in circles until we found it and then we joined the traffic making their way home for 4.45pm.

We chatted to Scott in between his horsey chores and then Kirsty came home and we stood around chatting again as it got cold and dark and she worked on her stallion Leuwin who is suffering with arthritis and a hoof abscess. We decided to have a quite evening retreating to our own quarters for dinner. I then went through the photos and computer bits before finally thinking about getting to bed.

Day 243 - Monday 28 August - Hanging in Bonogin

Day 243

Monday

28 August 2017 –

Bonogin – Robina

I was awake at 6.30am and happy to read as Paul continued to snooze, probably still sleeping off the beers he had yesterday. I heard Kirtsy leave at 8am and it was shortly after that I managed to drag myself out, with Paul not far behind me. We sat about eating breakfast as I tried to load things on the net, but it wasn’t happening.

We had an overflowing toilet, so our first priority was to get that out and into the car. We sorted out a shopping list and made our way to the nearest place in Mudgeeraba to empty the toilet contents and when it was complete we made our way to Robina Town Centre.

We found a park at the massive shopping centre and then began our wander of the malls. We knew what we were after, but with no idea of direction it was a bit of a treasure hunt for the required stores, much to Paul’s disdain, I however just enjoyed wandering and checking out what stores they had on offer.

It didn’t take us long to find everything that we needed and we began the trip back to then van. Once in, I unpacked the things we had bought and then set about sorting out my hard drives, one had died, so I needed to transfer everything to the new drive, a long process.

I phoned Mum to see how she was getting on back home. Sounds like she and the dog are both happy the weather has improved and they can get outside. She let me know Dad is traveling ok and will be in the UK for Wednesday.

When I finished getting the gossip, I came in and made my lunch. John stopped by inviting us to their place for a cuppa this afternoon. We stopped in with Scott to annoy him and ensure he was out of bed, he wasn’t. We then all sat together outside briefly chatting before I figure we should head out for a walk rather than spending the beautiful day sitting around.

We opted to walk up Bonogin Road to the small café, about 2km and then walk back. Instead of returning to the house via the road, we walked up the street and down through Kirsty’s parents property, stopping to say hi to Anthony before returning to the van.

We did a quick change before returning up top for afternoon tea. Nancy and John put on a lovely spread of cake and cheese and crackers that we ate as we drank our tea and chatted. Scott joined us briefly then beat a hasty exit. Anthony also joined us and we spent the next 2 hours sharing stories.

By the time 5.30pm came about it was time to head back to the van, dress in some warmer clothes and get the salad prepared. We then joined Kirsty and Scott out the back to have our dinner and continue to chat.

For a change 8.30pm came about and we called it a night, happy to retreat to our van. I continued working on the photos and blog while Paul made his escape to bed.

Day 242 - Sunday 27 August - Beers to cure the alcohol fog

Day 242

Sunday

27 August 2017 –

Bonogin – Burleigh

Oh, maybe Margarita and Mexican Madness last night wasn’t the best idea! I woke a little foggy this morning and feeling quite dehydrated and I wasn’t the pissy one, so the others would be feeling worse. I read my book for while as the fog slowly lifted. Paul seemed to be managing ok considering his big day yesterday and at 8.30am he was happy to get out.

I had a shower, which helped to wake me up somewhat and once there was food in my belly the world was beginning to right again. We both sat down to the devices to do our homework that had been neglected of late.

I felt like I needed to walk in the fresh air, so we did a quick trek to the creek and back, chatting to a couple with a dog. When we returned, we continued with the work and then John and Anthony turned up to fix the horse float, so Paul stepped out to give them a hand as they chatted.

Scott eventually surfaced looking a little worse for wear and stating he couldn’t remember going to bed. Kirsty wasn’t overly impressed with him, so he was trying to stay out of her way for a bit.

We sat in the shade of the annex chatting, while the boys had a hair of the dog in the hope it would help set them straight. We discussed heading out as planned and then Scott returned to the house to face the music and sort out a plan.

At 1pm we were finally ready to make a move, our initial plans had been thwarted due to the big night last night and instead we just made our way to Balter Brewing where Paul could try the beers. This brewery is owned by a group of surfers including Mick Fanning, though they weren’t around today, in fact the place was dead due to the Mayweather v McGregor Fight.

We ordered our drinks and some food from the food truck then sat about chatting, as has become the norm. Paul and Scott were both underwhelmed by the beers and the general atmosphere and by the time they were done we were ready to move on and revisit Burleigh Brewing.

This place was a little more happening, with more of a crowd and a live musician. We reacquainted ourselves with John the bar manager, ordered and found a place to sit outside, enjoy the tunes and company. The boys were well into it now and were continually back with new beers. Both of them are social butterflies and were constantly dragging new people into conversations. In the end I had to drag them away and say it was time to head home.

We stopped in at Mudgeereba shops and then finally we were home and annoying Kirsty who was still feeling a little seedy. We chatted inside for a while but then decided it was best for us to make an exit and get our own dinner and hang out. 

I got busy with photos, Paul’s reviews and the blog. We heard from Nigel who runs the beer FB page and we are going to be amping up our involvement, so watch this space. It seems this is starting to really gather momentum so who knows where it will finish up, go figure!

Day 241 - Saturday 26 August - Beers, Margaritas, Mexican and Madness

Day 241

Saturday

26 August 2017 –

Bonogin – Capalaba

I managed to sleep in to just after 7 and then read my book before we finally made a move and began our day.  We put the washing through and proceeded to be a bit lazy. We finally met “Uncle Anthony”, Kirsty’s uncle who is up from Melbourne helping out on the property for a few weeks.  He seems like a really nice bloke.

We chatted to Kirsty and Scott, as they spent the morning sorting the horses before heading on to Kirra to collect Paul’s car and at 11am, we were finally ready to head on to Brisbane, well that was the plan, but didn’t quite turn out that way.

We had been invited to check out Bacchus Brewing by the owner and brewer, so we were heading to the venue 20min south east of the capital. It took us about an hour to drive to the venue in an industrial estate and then make ourselves known. Paul was set up with a tasting paddle and began his work, before Ross came out and joined us and that is when it got messy.

Bacchus is an award-winning brewery; they are the only brewery to win GABS twice in Melbourne, along with a win in Sydney and NZ.  It soon became apparent, after trying the entry-level beers and getting into the specialities and heavier beers that they were on to something.

They make beers labelled; snickers, jam donut, salted caramel, peanut brittle and it really was just that. The aromas of the beers were just incredible and apparently the taste was just as marvellous. Paul’s face as he tried these beers was priceless and they just kept coming. By the time he had tried 23 beers, he was ready to be poured into the car. We figured we better eat a couple of the pizzas to soak up the alcohol, before making our move, it was now 3pm. We weren’t getting to Brisbane.

I took the keys, set the GPS and began our drive towards home. We made a stop at BCF for chemical loo stuff and then went the round about way to find a shop to pick up our required ingredients for our Margarita and Mexican night we had promised Scott and Kirsty.

With fuel added to the car, I was finally on the home stretch with a sleeping husband. We arrived home just after 5pm and were met by Scott. I grabbed the bags of things we needed and commandeered the kitchen, starting on the guacamole dip as Scott got the margaritas happening. It was great to be hanging out and cooking and pretending to be adults.

I continued with the chilli con queso dip and the tacos, Scott checked on his slow cooked paw paw pork, Kirsty helped cut up some of the bits for the taco and it slowly came together. We sat outside with the candlelight and the fire crackling, enjoying the feast, drinks and great company. It was a fabulous evening.

Of course the drinks kept flowing, the music was on and we were singing with gusto. Kirsty called it first, how she was able to ignore us and our singing was beyond me, but we didn’t continue on for too much longer and at 11am we were finally crawling into bed.

Day 240 - Friday 25 August - DREAM WORLD

Day 240

Friday

25 August 2017 –  Began my new novel “The Sunshine Sisters” by Jane Green. I am expecting this one to be a very easy read but with a tangle of relationships.

Dream World

With the usual routine out of the way, we said goodbye to Scott just after 9.30am and made our way to Dream World. We passed Movie World along the way, which had my heart doing palpitations as we spied the roller coasters they had on offer. Soon after the very large spire of Dream World came into view and my hands began sweating.

We pulled into the half empty car park, dodged the large contingent of Asian tourists milling about at the entrance and made our way inside. We put our gear into a locker, had our photo taken at the sign and then began our wander around the park.

Our first stop was the Peter Brock exhibition, of which Paul grumbled around it, complaining about his death ruining a great bike road in Perth. We walked past the cars, not really taking in what we were looking at. I have little to no interest in racing cars and they just looked like regular Holdens with a few extra decals.

As we exited the museum we found ourselves at the foot of the Hot Wheels roller coaster, so we followed the corkscrew path up the outside of the building and straight to the entry of the ride. Buckled in, there was no turning back and we took off being thrown about side to side and upside down as we completed a couple of loops before heading back to the start. With one down, I was now feeling a little less anxious and was ready to tackle the other rides on offer.

We did a walk of the perimeter, passing through Tiger Island, where two white and two orange tigers were lazing about with their keepers on watch. Once tiger was in a cage longingly gazing out from his window, you could just imagine his thoughts “get me outta here”

We continued on to the Corroboree Park, where there were Australian animals on show, cassowary, koalas, tree kangaroos and a variety of bird life, one bird was being chased down by a keeper with a net. It received a smack on the head for its troubles, as the metal loop came crashing down on top of it and the netting captured it. If it wasn’t injured before it probably had a good headache now.

We continued to walk through the zoo stopping to check out the dingoes who were sitting up on an old car in their cage, the perfect photo opportunity, if only I had my big camera with me and not in the locker.

We passed the giant drop ride, one I was definitely not doing and then moved on to the Moto M coaster. Once again we were straight on to the ride, one in which you sit on motorbikes as it whizzes you around the circuit. This one was a lot of fun, but was over way too fast, so we jumped straight back on when we were back.

We passed through the photo shop opting to pick up a $25 photo pass rather than buy the individual prints at $17 a piece. All of our photos were loaded on to the card and off we went.

We returned to the locker briefly and then went back to the Kung Fu Panda area to get our plastic season pass cards and then having lunch. We sat in a restaurant that overlooked the Tiger Island and watched the big cats do very little. The sky came over quite grey and it had turned a little cool and then it began to spit. Thankfully, any serious rain stayed away and by the time we had finished lunch we were able to continue in sunshine.

Our next stop was the Shrek area and another roller coaster. This one was not particularly challenging and probably a good cross over for the younger kids, none the less we still enjoyed it.

After having our photos put on our account, we returned to the Hot Wheels ride. We walked up the inside of the tower this time, arriving just as they shut the gates for the current ride. We would have to wait for it to return, but it didn’t go and all the riders were asked to get out; there was a technical difficulty with a gate that wouldn’t close properly. We were told it wouldn’t be a long wait, but after about 20min we were told to go and come back, Paul was mightily impressed.

We picked up our photo from our morning ride and then headed through the Gold Rush area.  Paul was keen to go on the Buzz Saw ride, but I had drawn the line at this one and was happy to sit and watch him instead. Of course he chose the front seat for the extra thrill and was yahooing the whole way round.

Once he was back with me, we added the photos and then ventured back through the park to the zoo to check out the animals we had breezed past the first time around. The wombat was out sunning himself as were the large kangaroos with one keeping us entertained with his X rated antics.

We returned to the Moto XP ride, but had a wait before being able to jump on. We had been lucky that the park was quiet today and the queues were no existent. We would have had no patience for standing in lines for an hour to experience a barely 1min ride.

After completing the ride, we collected my camera from the locker and returned to Tiger Island for the 3.30pm show. The keepers were doing some behaviour work with the four, nearly two-year old females. It was interesting to observe.

At the end of the show, we returned to the locker, grabbed our things and then made for the gate, passing through the Lego shop with amazing lego statues and to the car for the journey home.

We arrived just after 5pm and Scott was off to his gig in Kirra. We took time to unwind for a while before Kirsty arrived home from work. She gave us some things to give to Scott and the address of the venue and then we made our way to the Kirra Sports Club where we met Scott.

We found a table, ordered our dinner and then sat back to enjoy the entertainment. It was quite an entertaining venue, with the locals giving us plenty of laughs along the way.

We sang along to Scott’s songs and chatted to him between sets. Unfortunately, he was basically singing to us, and the odd one or two that ventured through to the bar.

Scott finished his set at 10am and began packing away his gear. We hung around and then gave him a lift back with us rather than risk him driving after a few drinks.

I was so glad to be back in bed for 11pm,stuffed after our big day out. 

Paul's feature in the online magazine "The Crafty Pint" can be found at the following link

 https://craftypint.com/news/1609/Beer_Nuts_Paul_Cooke

He's almost famous!