Florida Apartments Gold Coast Surfers Paradise

... whilst we are at Cedar Lakes (hurrah) so hopefully the blog will be bang up to date sometime soon. We can’t believe how bad internet access is. I suppose we are spoilt in the UK as there are lots of companies competing for business so prices are low and performance is good. Everywhere we have been so far we have had to pay for access (apart from the first park in Port Douglas) and it is very expensive and not particularly ...

... on sparkling Rose and Smirnoff vodka!! (normally unheard of on a travellers budget!!!) All decided to meet and had drinking games in our hostel, in the new place that we called Club 2!!!... our friends room! (so we wouldn't get blame for all the noise!! ha!) Didn't make it out into surfers, somehow ended up staying up till 5am in the hostel!! was funny though! Chilled and took body boards to beach.... waves were HUUUUUGE!! Hel's bikini was a little of a ...

... with the sharks (see previous blog entry). The second dive included penetrating the wreck. Unique experience. Mina along with the rest of the group, hopped on the bus and had a first stop at Brisbane. Brisbane is the capital city of Queensland -the state of sunshine! There, she watched a presentation on original Aussie opals (including the famous black opal, that is actually blue and very pretty) and walked around the city with her ...

... in a circular seating arrangement at the end of a
giant arm (or claw) and then the arm swings you up, round and all over
the show.... including hanging you upside down for a while.
Brilliant... although I have to admit when you're upside down and your
bum is no longer in the seat and your shoulders are pretty hard against
the harness you're not thinking about the adrenalin, more along the
lines of "gee I hope they do regular safety checks on this ...

... wine later it finally returned to normal! Had another stroll on the beach - gorgeous! Then all hit the sack. (or so we thought!) Yep you guessed it - another hot hot night where no sleep was had by Laurie & Joy.....Colm on the other hand slept and snored his head off much to the digust of us! Lazy Fecker! So 4am we hit the beach - our legs so weak could barely walk due to lack of sleep!! Nowhere else to go, we had to head back to the Sauna and check ourselves ...

... All those with kids born in the last ten years will know who "The Wiggles" are and of course this area of the theme Park is very sedate although I must admit I get a kick out of doing the Zingo Zango with my fingers (embarrasses Suzanne and the boys). The boys got to meet Henry the Octopus and a photo was duly taken. Next was the two water based rides "Rapid River" where all four of us got into a big round floating wheel that floats down a river ...

... Steve Irwin's. This was a pretty amazing zoo. We started off with the show in the crocoseum which involved lots of snakes, birds and the finale of the crocodiles. The croc show was definitely the best. The keepers get so close to the crocs and almost get them to bite their arm off! The Zoo had so much native wildlife, we cuddled a Koala, stoked the Wombats, fed the Kangaroo's. We also had our photo's taken holding a baby ...

... although very expensive - a bit like a theme park really. I got to have a cuddle with a very heavy koala and we enjoyed the shows in the crocoseum. It was by far the busiest place we have visited since our arrival in Australia - no doubt due to Steve Urwins tragic death. We spent two days in brisbane and couldn't wait to leave. We got our jabs for the trip home done and left as quick as possible. That is when it began to rain...........

... the way across and back again. Well, yes indeedy I could. Along the way I found the city beach (Streets Beach), the Goodwill bridge, and many many runners. Streets Beach is a man made beach in the middle of the city. Lifeguards and all! I also found the Nepalese Peace Pagoda. While I was trying to get far enough back from the thing to get a picture, a guy started sneezing...just like Lia...20 or so little sneezes instead of a really good one. I had the biggest grin on my face ...

... you eat at small market noodle stalls like I do when I travel.

I don't personally see the point in cooking when 'I am in China'.
Food is so so soooo cheap and it is delicious.

You will find out just like everyone who comes to China, the Chinese food we get at our Chinese Restaurants at home is nothing like what you will eat here. It is cooked different and tastes a lot different. In most cases better, in some 'not ...