Samstag, 18. April 2015

#71 Gold Coast Holiday (The famous Gold Coast, Sunrise at 6am, heaps of roller coasters, I got to touch a dolphin, Sea World – H2o was filmed there, Outback spectacular and heaps more!)



Hey guys, 

this post is really really long, I am going to warn you now right at the beginning, but it is worth to read it! It is all about my holiday at the Gold Coast, which was AMAZING!
So grab something to eat and let's start reading. :)
Yeah - Boarder NSW -  QLD

Mo, April 6th

We left home in Lisarow at around 8am and met the Bates Family at Maccas at 8.15. The Bates Family is: Katrina and Darren (Parents), Alysha, Emily and Zoe.

Brekkie at Maccas
 They are all very very nice, I think it s going to be a great holiday! We are going to spend the holiday with them, so that means we are staying at the same places and doing most of the things together :).

We had some stops on the way, where we had lunch or took some photos, which was really nice!
We stopped at Coffs Harbour to see the big Banana, which is like a sightseeing point there, and really good. We had lunch there as well :)
The BIG banana :)
Having lunch there :)
We arrived at Grafton, where we stayed overnight at around 5pm or so and relaxed a bit in our room, which was really really nice! They had an avocado tree there as well, I had never seen one before, so I found it exciting. :)

We went out for dinner to a club, which is so good (I love clubs), and I had really yummy garlic prawns with rice :)


Back at our room Robyn and me watched Revenge and then we all went back to bed.

Tue, April 7th
We left our hotel at around 9am and had breakfast at a little cafe in Grafton. I had a fruit salad with yoghurt, which was really yummy. In the morning Greg and Em went for a walk, I was too slow unfortunately, but I had a great time doing some yoga and taking some photos outside haha :) And Robyn, Alysha and me walked to cafe so we had our walk as well :)

On the way to our real destination – the GOLD COAST – we stopped at Byron Bay and walked ut to the light house and the most Eastern point of Australia :) Really cool!

We even saw some free wild dolphins, which was soooo cool!
Light house at Byron bay

Most eastern Point of Australial :)

:)














The typical aussie way :D


Our next stop was at Tweedheads/ Coolangatta, the boarder between NSW and QLD and took some photos there:) We could also see the Skyline of the Gold Coast really cool!
Beautiful view *-*

BOARDER!
Skyline :)
We arrived at around 2 or 3 pm at the place where we are stayign for the first 5 nights, called Diamond Cove Resort and it is at Mermaid beach – I love the names, it sounds so magic! :) *-*

The resort is really really nice, we have this nice pool and spa and our room are on the third floor, so we had to carry every thing up the stairs, pretty hard, haha, but good exercise ;)

After unpacking and making us comfortable, we went for a swim in the pool and then to the beach while the adults went shopping to buy some food. We decided to cook our own meals while we are staying here and then go out for dinner while we are staying at Sea world resort. :)

Sunset

We had to checkout the beach of course :)



We, April 8th
Today was a really really good day! We went for a walk to the beach in the morning at around 7.15am which was soo nice! We made a little sand castle and em and I got totally wet, but we were wearing our swimmers, so no problem!

Mermairds on the beach :)

*-*

Playing in the water :)

Gold Coast view - Wow!


Back at home I had a quick breakfast, because at 9am my friend Juli, who I met in Germany and became really good friends in a short time! She lives in Pottsville, well her hostfamily, which isn’t to far away and we actually managed to meet, which is awesome! When I saw I couldn’t believe it was actually her, we both started running and gave us a big hug! <3

It was , no it is so incredible how we talked and everything without any problem after not seeing each other for 9 months, which was so cool and this shows how really good friends we are! We talked about so much, and we couldn’t notice at all not having seen and talked to each other for this long time! We went for a long swim in the pool and then around midday, Greg and Robyn said they are going to the Shopping Centre called Pacific Fair and if we want to come as well, we said yes of course!
:)
It was a walk of about 10-15 min and the shopping centre looks sooo nice and big! We first met the Bates Family plus Em, who went earlier and Zoe got her ears pierced, so brave Zoe!
We stayed there for about 1.5 hours or so and looked around, went to the pandora store, because I keep thinking about getting a pandora bracelet, because I love them, they look sooo nice, but a bit expensive... 

Back at our resort we went back to the pool and then at around 3.30 we went to beach really quickly, only for 5 min or so, took some fantastic nice photos (well I really like them) and then ran back to the bus stop, so Jul could catch the bus back home.


Selfie time!
Here some photos we took in 5 min, haha :)








It was a great fantastic day and I am sooo happy we could catch up!
It is really special to meet in Australia. We were talking about how we met for the first time about 1.5 years ago on a meeting in Munich – the star of a great friendship!

We (two families) then went back to the beach, went for a swim and played in the sand and stuff and stayed there pretty long, I was getting really cold, haha :P
Em adn her board :)

Em :)
Some photos at the beach 


Em in Action
Sunset with the skyline!


We had BBQ for dinner, which was sooo yummy!

Massive BBQ!!!
Thur, April 9th
I really wanted to go and see sunrise today, but my alarm didn’t go off and so I woke up 6.05, around 10mon too late, which was really, really disappointing... After being sad for a little bit I thought “Suck it up princess! Sunrise is every day you can go tomorrow!” And I was happy again – we had a big day in front of us. We left at around 9.20 to go to Dream world – which is Australia's biggest theme park I think. 

Entrance
There are many rides there, like roller coasters and stuff and we also went to the tiger show where they showed us three tigers and they jumped, really good!


Tiger *-*
We went with the Bates Family of course, and I went on some rides with them, one roller coaster, we did laser tag and different things. Line up was pretty long around 30-45 min but thats alright.
Here some photos:

Our first ride of the day - the plane ride

Kung Fu pana - love the movie!














It was a pretty hot day so it was perfect that we got access to White-Water-World as well, which is a waterpark with slides and stuff. We went on heaps of rides there as well, one of them was the wedgie, which was a drop. We lined up and thought it was for another ride (similar to the funnel web in Jambaroo), but it wasn’t! The Wedgie was a vertical drop, so you were standing int eh tube and then the floor dropped- really scary :O But yeah, too late so we had to do it, and the worst part was waiting for the floor to drop, the ride was pretty good, haha :)
We did some more rides until around 4.30pm and got changed and then headed back home.
But we didn’t go the same way back, but we went along the coast, so we drove trough Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and the next beach is Mermaid, where we are staying. This was really good!
 We saw the Q1 the really all building, the Surfers Sign and a nice sunset.

Back at home, we were quite tired, but after a little while us Kids made dinner – home made pizzas. :) IT was really fun we made 5 pizzas, meat lovers, cheese, ham and pineapple, and two supremes (I had some really good)! We did it all as a restaurant for the parents, called SEEZA (Sophi, Emily, Emily, Zoe, Alysha). I was so tired so I went to bed at around 9.20 or so :)

Pizza :)

Fr, April 10th
After missing sunrise yesterday I put my alarm on a really loud volume level to make sure I hear it at 5.30am. I did! Em, Robyn and me went down to the beach at 5.45am and sunrise was at 6.01. It was a bit cloudy so it took a bit longer until we could see the sun, but so beautiful!! Really really nice- sunrises are the best! It was so worth it to get up so early and I got some really nice photos :)


BEautiful - loving life!

WE can see the sun ..

it is rising..
and more and more :)
Doing some fun stuff :)
Back at our little apartment at around 6.45 we went back to bed, haha :) OR well, Em watched some Tv and I looked at the photos I took.

At around 8am we were all awake and had breakfast and watched a movie or I was reading a book. We left our apartment at around 11am to go for a drive to Robina where Greg showed us his old house where he used to live for about 5 years. From there we drove to Harbour town, a big shopping centre but outside, so that means many shops and it is outside not inside, but the speical thing was theat many of them were Outlet stores, so they all had special on. There was for example Cotton On, where we went first and Em and I got some things – I bought a pair of shorts and a 2 dollar top (yeah!), because I ripped my dress, hahaha, so embarrassing! :P
We went to many other shops there and stayed there until 4 or 5pm or so, really really long!
Shopping :)

On the way back home, we went though Surfers Paradise and stopped to get some Ice cream – really yummy – and walked around for one hour.
We went to the beach to the surfer Paradise sign – WOW!

Surfers Paradise - the famous surfers paradise

Hard Rock Cafe


There we also saw some of the really cool koalas!!
:)

It was pretty busy, yes I know Friday afternoon/night, but really really cool!
We had to park in a park house which was so expensive, but then they had this thing when you spend 15 dollars in woolworths, you get the first hour free – we had two mintues left when we ran to queue, and we got it in the last minute – so lucky haha :)

Back at the unit we met Jenny and her dad, who went to America last year on excahgne and she is a very very nice girl! It was so cool to talk to her because she already had the whole exchange experience :)
We went to Sizzlers for dinner, a buffet restaurant around the corner, which was really good!

Sa, April 11th

Today we got up at around 8 or 8.30am and had to pack everything up because our firve days at Mermaid beach are over. For the next 5 days we are going to stay at sea world resort, where we get unlimited access to Sea World, Movie World and Wet'n'Wild, which are Water-parks which have Dolphin shows and stuff, I hope thats going to be really cool :)
After packing everything in the car, which was soo full, we went to some markets where we looked around for about 3 hours. They had over 500 stalls apparently and are Australia'S biggest markets. :)
We drove through Surfers Paradise to the Sea World Resort and luckily our room was ready even though it wasn’t 2pm. We have one room with two double beds, so pretty small, but very nice, and we wont spend much time in there anyway. 

The resort looks really really nice!

Our room :)

We went down to pool after a while were Em and the Bates girl went for a swim and on some of the slides. Us adults (hahha) were sitting or lying on the chairs and reading or jut relaxing.



We went out for dinner to Fisherman Wharf, which was really good! I had oven baked barramundi with Rocket salad which was amazing!! The view over the wharf and Gold Coast building was fantastic! I even tried one of Gregs oysters, which was quite good, hahah :)

Yum dinner!
The light so nice!

Gregs new boat ;) 
He wishes :)

Su, April 12th

We got up at around 7.30 or 8 today and it took us a while until were ready and at 8.20 we went down to the Shop which is also the entry to sea world to watch the dolphin training session :) We weren't the only ones, haha, but it was really good! We saw some small jumps and took some photos :) 


So cute!

After this Darren, Emily, Alysha and me went on this really good roller coaster called storm – love it! We got the USB stick for 30 dollars and so we could put all the photos from all the rides on it, really good!
Family together having fun ;) Well i am having fun for sure :P
Then Em, Em, Alysha and me went on another ride, before heading to the entrance cafe where we met the other adults again, who had breakfast. I had an apple only still full from yesterday, haha :)

At 11.15 there was the dolphin show Affinity on, which was amazing! Really really good and it was so cool to see it in real after watching H20, haha, which was filmed there by the way (for all the H2o fans :))

WOW!

So much like H20 , haha :)

We walked down the path to the shark bay, penguin encounter and polar bar encounter, which were are really good!
the fish look really pretty don’t they?

Darren, Emily, Alysha and me went on a roller coaster called Storm, which was really funny :)
Selfie together :)
Roller coaster! :)

yeah!
So much fun!

We had lunch at the entrance while watching the jetski show, where four really good jetski stunt driver, did an amazing show :)

Em and I even got a photo with them :)

We then walked around a bit more and went on many different rides :) Em, Greg, Robyn and me went together on a ride called Viking, which is a log ride, so maximm four people sit in one log and you even get wet, really good :)
We bought some of the photos, and this one was one of them :) FOTO LOGRIDE

I also went on the log ride with the three kids – Em, Em and Alysha

Yeah!
With the parts of the bates family we went also on Jet rescue, the best ride of the day for me :)



The Penguins were soo cute and they looked so beautiful, Robyn and me we loved them! And one of them had a baby which the penguin was keeping warm under their legs – so cute!



Some more rides in the kids world :)






There was also another show the seal show, which was done in a play, where the seal and two other people where the police and looking for a man who stole some money, sooo funny! I loved it!
The seal show and jet rescue where the highlights if the day for me :)

For the way home, we took the sky rail, where we got a good view over the dolphins and whole sea world and then the monorail to the resort.
Sea World 2015
For dinner we went down to the lobby together with the bates family and had a nice evening there. I wasn’t feeling very good unfortunately so I went up to our room after dinner, while EM , Greg and Robyn went to a show at the pool, which they said wasn’t very good, so I didn’t miss a lot luckily :)

Mo, Apri13th
We had a bit of a sleep in today and got up a bit late and decided to try the buffet breakfast if it was still open. We were lucky we went down at 9.20 and the latest you can go in is 9.30am. We had a massive breakfast, really yummy, they had so many delicious things to try! I had cereal, some bacon and egg, heaps of fruit, very good!

We went to the Waterpark Wet'n'Wild after this at around 1pm which was super fun as well like all the other parks. Em and I did this one ride twice and we even convinced Greg and Robyn to go on it twice and we did it once more with Emily and Alysha, so 5 times in the end. :)
We then went on another really cool ride with Zoe and then on the black whole, which was a closed slide, and totally black but really good! Em enjoyed it as well!

We also went on a racing slide where you have mats twice and some other rides. We had a great day! Our last two rides were with Greg and Robyn the Slide form the beginning and one which is like a river and you get a round flootie and you just sit or lay on it and it goes around. Nice and relaxing.
Selfie at the end :)

We were so full from vreakfast that we didn’t have lunch at all and after the waterpark and sun and running around Greg and Robyn were really tired so we decided to not go out but get room service. Tehy all got a toasted sandwiches with chips and I got a kids spaghetti bolognese, so we all had a kids meal, hahah :P It was my first ever room service, really cool :)



Robyn I watched Revenge at night of course, which was so good again and we ate some eater bunny chocolate :)

Tue, April 14th
We went to Movie World today. It was really good, I loved it! Even though I didn’t know any of the characters, haha but we all enjoyed it and had a fabulous day!
Movie world!
We went on a laser tag ride at first, which was pretty funny, but it would have been better if I have had won ;) Robyn won, Em came second, I third and Greg fourth, bur well..


We also went to this Show where they had two cars and made different tricks, so that the ties smoke and stuff, really cool actually :)
Em really wanted to do Junior driving school so we got our licences and went for a drive in the little cars, haha :)
We stayed in Junior Movie World for a bit and Em went on a roller coaster – yeah Em, so proud of you! She really liked to we went on it again later :) And we even sat in the front!
It was so much fun and we <3 it!
After lunch we met the Bates so I could go on some rides as well and we went on the Batwing twice, which is a 60m drop and just AWESOME! Really cool!
We also went on the superman Escape a really fast and a bit scary but great roller coaster! I think it was 100km/h or so really cool :)

For dinner we were first going to go to Surfers and to the night markets, but then we found out that they weren't on and so we decided to go to Buffet dinner which is every night at our resort and tonight was BBQ special. I first thought on no, we chose the worst one, bbq is going to be only sausages and stuff, but no way! I was so wrong!
They had everything! They had fresh prawns and coconut buttered prawns (so good), rice, pasta, so many different salads, it was really good! And then the dessert bar – omg, so good! Different cake slices, chocolate lava cake, lollie bar ice cream – too much, I couldn’t even try half of it haha :) 
I took some photos of the buffet:

PRAWNS!! So many!
Entree, hahahah, so much food! Too much! 
Dessert!
Dessertbar
Family photo :)

After dinner we sat down at the lobby for a while, greg and Robyn had a beer and some wine and EM and I made some new friends two girls and we were doing handstands and stuff until 11pm, hahah, really good!

We, April 15th

We had a bit of a sleep in today, well until 8am or so, not really a sleep in haha. Robyn had bought a little surprise for me and Em and it was to pat a Dolphin and get a photo taken – so cool! We went to the training session again at 9am and then 10 kids, who all had this special wristband had to stay behind and we could pat the dolphin “Jingks” and we got a photo taken. It was unbelievable to touch them and it was just amazing! Thank you so much for this fantastic experience!
:)

It was amazing!
After this great start we went back to the resort and had some breakfast and did some packing then, because we have to leave already tomorrow unfortunately, and all our suitcases were very messy! At midday we finished and went to Aussie Paradise Country for a few hours. This is a park or more like zoo where they have all the Aussie Animals and it is a real farm I think but they made it open for public. IT is owned by the same people that own Seaworld, Wet'n'Wild and Movie world so we got it for free and decided to go for a couple of hours, which we didn’t regret at all! No, we were so glad we went, because it was really good!
When we arrived the sheep shearing show had just started and we saw how the shear the sheep – the whole sheep really interesting!
We then had about 50 min to look around beofre the next show started. We went to the koalas, wh icare so cute and I took my koala selfie of curse, haha :)

<3
Another animal which cant miss is the kangaroo of course and I got my selfie as well, haha :) The kangaroos were so nice and we could pat them and yeah, really cool!
Kangaroo Selfie :)


We then went to the Aussie Farmyard, where they had little piglets, goats and sheep, so cute! We could feed them :P 

Piglets...

Goats...


and birds :)


The next show was about making Damper and Bush Tea, which was really yummy (both) and really interesting, they gave us samples to try, best part hahah ;)
The last show was about the Kelpie dogs and their work with the sheep and they also showed us how to use a whip and make the loud sound.

So yep, we all really enjoyed Paradise Country!

Em and I went for a swim in the pool back at the resort for a little bit before having a shower and getting ready for the best event of the whole holiday (as I can say afterwards): 

We got dressed really nice and left at about 6pm. The theme or the title of the outback spectacular was “High Country Legends” so it was all pretty much about legends of the snowy mountains. 
It is a show which goes for about 2 hours with a three course dinner, which was delicious by the way :P We had pumpkin soup for entree, steak for main meal with cooked peas and carrots and corn and apple pie with salted caramel sauce as dessert, really really yummy
Thats how it looked like from the inside :) 
Before the show we could take some photos with the horses :)

Dinner was great, but the show was excellent! It was so good, I can't even describe it in words, how good it was! The whole show was based on horses and dogs, it was really really good, fantastic! I tried to describe it, but it sounded really bad, so I deleted it again, because it is impossible for me to write about it.
IT was the most amazing and wonderful show I have ever been and when they played “I still call Australia home” in the end and had 6 people holding an Aussie flag and riding their horses I couldn’t hold my tears back and was crying because it was so beautiful! 
I am so thankful to my family that we went there even though it was very expensive, but it was so worth it – every single cent! Robyn and me we were both blown away and both had tears in our eyes even half an our later!

The timing had a special meaning as well, because it was our last night here at the Gold Coast, and I only have two more week sand one day left here in Australia and it was a or maybe the highlight of the holiday and my whole stay!

I loved it! I have tears in my eyes again just writing about it now, because it was so wonderful!

We bought some photos of course again, here some impressions for you

It was an amazing show!

I loved the part with the white horse!

Thu, April 16th
We got up at around 7.30am today, because we had to pack the last things and take them to car. We had breakfast and left at around 9am. Now, we are heading home, but we are going inland, which means not at the coast again like we did on the way up here but in the country and we are staying overnight in Tamsworth, which is a known for its Golden Guitar.

We had lunch in a little town close to the boarder but in NSW and we arrived at our Hotel in Tamsworth at around 6pm. So as you have maybe noticed it is quite a long drive and I took some photos of the countryside on the way to show you how it looks like. :)
Big Apple

After settling in Greg and Darren went out to get some take away for dinner – pizza for the kids and Chinese for us – yum!! It was so good! I had sate chicken :)

Today is Thursday, which means that I only have two more weeks left! NOOOOOOOO :'(( I am actually soo sad, and could cry for ages!

Fr, April 17th

We got up at around 7.30am and got room service for Breakfast – well greg, Robyn and Em. I had Cereal with milk and orange, yumm, haha :) I like my fruit :P After this we had a realxed morning and left our hotel at around 10.15am. Our first stop was the Famous Golden Guitar in Tamworth. This is a big guitar on the side to the road with a museum and tourist information centre and a shop.


We had a look in the shop, which was really nice and I found this amazing cookbook about aussie cakes. I took some photos, so now I can hopefully do them.
Tamworth is known for the Country Music festival every year.

We arrived at home at around 5pm. Everybody was happy to be home again, haha :) Home is always nice!
On the way home I got a message from Mikki inviting me to an Aussie dinner tonight. It was a bit of a surprise but Greg and Robyn let me go which was really nice! And we had a great time making jokes in the car since then, hahah – you know what I mean ;)

At home we talked a bit to our neighbours and EM and I went over there for a little play and jump on their trampoline, but I really wanted to unpack all my stuff before going away again, so I went inside after while and managed to unpack and get ready in time . :)
Greg drove me over to Makaylas at around 6pm and when we drove into their house entrance and opened the car door Makayla and Ebony jumped out of the trees and hugged me – it was soo cute! I love you girls! <3 I really couldn’t see them because it was dark and it was the most nice thing ever – I really have found the best friends here!

Mikki, Hannah and two other friends of them cooked for their parents and Ebony and me and it was like in a really great restaurant! We had a three course dinner and the theme was Aussie – extra for me – soo cute! <3 

Here is a photo of the menu

THE MENU!
white bread and Dukka

chicken burger!!

Dessert: Pavlova and Anzac Slice :D
IT was really yummy, a great restaurant! And they even prepared a dance at the beginning! They all dressed up so cool! Eb and I talked a lot and I showed her heaps of photos, which was really nice! I really missed my two besties! <3

Photo with the waitress :)
After dinner we talked for a bit and we took some polaroid photos of course :) 
Best friends <3

No 2 :)

It was a great night!

Makayla drove me home at around 9pm and back at home I finished watching a movie with Greg, Robyn and Em before going to bed at about 10.30pm. 

Holiday was great!

So guys, this has been a very very very very long post I know, and I hope you made it to the end – If you did WELL DONE!
But I couldn’t make it shorter because the holiday has been just s amazing, we have done so many great things as you now know :)
Thank you again Greg Robyn and Em! :*

Now, it is not long anymore until I am back home in Germany (positive side)
and have to leave Australia, my second home (negative side)...

But I will always see it from the positive side and enjoy my last two weeks here!!

Bye, see ya soon! :*


Sophi

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