Ideally located at central of Gold Coast, Wyndham Surfers Paradise Resort was a lovely place to stay. Only 5 minutes walk to Surfers Paradise Beach. The Sky Point, located just opposite, a walking distance. Besides the Resort, there was a chinese restaurant. Opposite the building, you could see the groceries shop, ice cream cafe and Alfresco Italian Restaurant.
We had our itinerary prepared by Sammi Low, a lovely and helpful lady of PNL Travel an expert of Australia tour. She arranged all our admission tickets and booking at O'Reilly Rainforest Resort.
We took Air Asia being a cheaper choice and direct flight, departed Kuala Lumpur on 24 May 2012 at 2125 hours arriving on 25 May 2012 at 0725 hrs. Picked up our car from Avis Car Rental at the airport and off we went to for breakfast at Point Danger. After we checked into our resort, we had a good rest for the day. Dinner was at Alfresco Italian Restaurant which I would rate it 8/10.
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| Point Danger |
26 May 2012, the very next morning, we left our resort early to go for Tweed Endeavour Cruise located at Pioneer Park Kennedy Drive Tweed Heads. We need to arrive at pier 15 minutes before cruise depart at 0900 hours. GPS was set to Maritime Museum Park Kennedy Drive Tweed Heads. We enjoyed the cruise, went for yabbies' and crab catching, not forgetting fishing on boat as well. It was such a wonderful morning enjoying ourselves. Lunch was served with fresh seafood cooked on board.
After the cruise, we proceeded to Currumbin
Wildlife Sanctuary where we could cuddle the koalas, feed the kangaroos,
watch the sheep shearing and my two sons enjoyed themselves on the giant flying
fox.
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| Catching Yabbies |
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| Adventurous |
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| Koala |
27 May 2012, we drove an hour drive south of Gold Coast, approximately 90km, perfect for a day trip to Byron Bay for its Sunday market, had lunch at Fish Head Restaurant, famous for its fish and chips and visited Byron Bay beach and its beautiful Cape Byron lighthouse which was built in 1901. Cape Bryon is the most easterly point of the Australian mainland.
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| Light House at Byron |
28 May 2012, we went up to Sky Point first thing in the morning, spectacular 360 degree view from the observation deck located on the 77th Floor. We spent about 2 hours there before we drove to Dream World, Australia biggest themed park for family fun, thrill rides, entertainment and shows.
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| View from SkyPoint |
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| Exciting rides at Dream World |
29 May 2012, we drove to O'Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat situated at Lamington National Park.. The 69 km journey approximately took us 1 hour 20 mins. En-route, we stopped at Mount Tamborine Skywalk, explored its beautiful rainforest canopies and also had wine tasting at Mount Nathan Winery, where we bought two bottles of wine, had lunch at a North Indian cuisine at Mount Tamborine. Till now, we still miss the food at that restaurant but I couldn’t recall its name.
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| Great wines here at Mount Nathan Winery |
We were worried as we went into a forest but no sign of the resort and it was deeper into the rainforest. We were served afternoon tea upon arrival with some pastries and scones. We checked into our Mountain View Room which inclusive of breakfast. Later after dinner, we went for guided glow worm tour. The next day we encountered lots of colorful birds there and you may go for guided early morning walk.
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| Birds everywhere! |
The next morning, birds flew to our balcony and my kids were
busy feeding the birds. We also we encountered
the beautiful sights of plenty colourful birds near the reception area. You may also go for guided early morning walk
on the walking trails, enjoying the breath-taking views and fresh mountain air.
30 May 2012, as we only booked a night, we left O Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat with a heavy heart and hope to return one day with longer stay. After checking out, we did not travel back to Gold Coast; instead we drove to Brisbane, exploring this capital city of Queensland which took us about an hour drive there. We tried out the Wasdee Thai Restaurant at Surfers Paradise Blvd for dinner that night, I rated it 5/10.
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| Brisbane |
31 May 2012, on our last day we went to Sea World, a marine mammal park, oceanarium and theme park enjoying the various shows and having a great time there. On the way back to our resort, we dropped by Harbour town for groceries shopping to cook our own dinner.
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| Enjoying various shows at Sea World |
1 June 2012, our flight home via Air Asia departed Gold Coast at 0900 hours. Overall, a great self-drive experienced exploring Gold Coast and enjoying ourselves tremendously over the 8 days 7 nights there! Gold Coast is indeed a recommended place for family fun.
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| The places we explored |
On another notes, the fuel here was AUD1.519 for unleaded 91.
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