Gold Coast Day 0

Circle in the sand round and round
Never ending love is what we found...
And you complete the heart of me
Our love is all we need...
                               -Belinda Carlisle

SG 50 shines in the Changi International Airport

New Zealand with its picturesque terrain was where we wanted to go first. For a while now, Tweety wanted to go to Australia, why? To buy a Boomerang. So we finally settled for the Fun Capital of the world, Gold Coast.
After looking at all the flights, we settled for Scoot, since it took us directly to the Coolangatta Airport. It was only later that we realized that we had the 'lacy frilly' flights operating direct to Brisbane, just 100 km from Gold Coast. Oh well, the only difficulty was the long queues at the Immigration counter. The officers' friendliness was touching.

We opted for a Ten-day Pass that allowed us to use the Shuttle to the Theme Parks and Public transport except the Tram. Alas, since we were to book the Shuttle a day in advance, we never got to use it, since we were never sure of what time we were actually gonna make it out of the House!

So the Shuttle dropped us to our pre-booked Apartments at Meriton, Broad Beach. At the pleasantly appointed Reception, we were welcomed and asked for our advanced payment. Happily, we offered the Credit card, and to our chagrin, payment was declined. A few more tries, and a cold sweat started forming, since we had just a few hundred dollars in hard cash. A left to get more cash at a near by ATM, and the kids patiently sat in the cold morning, asking what happened, not getting  a proper reply. About half an hour later, "hard luck", the card was blocked. In a new country, dealing with total strangers, my mind raced as to whom we would call for help. I wonder why the term 'Bank Transfer' never occurred to me. Then we fished out another card, broken right in the middle. Wonder of Wonders, the card worked. We went to our apartment. As if to make up for this morning mishap, we were upgraded to a 3 Bedroom apartment instead of the 2 BHK we booked, no extra cost.

Broad Beach - View from our spacious Balcony

The view from the Balcony was splendid. The rooms clean, the toilets shone. I wondered then, as to what the difference is, between a Hotel and an apartment, except for the lack of a restaurant, which were in plenty, just a few steps away from the apartment. When you stay for 11 days like we did, it pays to have a Kitchenette, a Dish washer, a Washing Machine and the like, and it felt so much more private than a Hotel! The kids were too happy not having to share their room with each other.

      We freshened up and left for breakfast at the nearby Mall. The restaurant was called Marigold. We had parathas, tea, sandwiches and omelettes, after which we shopped for some food stuff. The Public buses to Movie World had left for the day, which was a bit surprising, it being just midday.

    So we made our way to the Surfers Paradise, lively and bustling with surfers, tourists and shoppers. We bought a pair of shoes at Cotton On, watched the Sea Gulls on the beach (yeah gulls not girls).

Sea gull you fly...across the horizon..into the misty morning sun....(BAD COMPANY)

 It got dark as early as 5.30 pm, we passed by interesting places like Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not. But, believe it or not, the kids were not keen to go explore, so we called it a day after some more shopping at Lovisa.

Please wait, more family fun awaits on Day 1!