Gold Coast
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2006
1
24
228
Trip End
Jul 15, 2008
Miami,
Australia
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
This is Boxing Day, a national holiday in Australia. No one we asked could tell us the origins of Boxing Day, only that it meant you didn't have to go to work the day after Christmas. We are sadly leaving Jeff and Shane's house after three nights. They are headed on a camping trip to the north themselves. And we're going to another Gold Coast town, Miami, not too far away. Remember Ben and Mary whom we met in Auckland, NZ? Turns out they live in Miami and also know Jeff and Shane. Small world. In fact Ben had contacted Jeff and asked him to have us give him a call. We did, and headed off to spend Boxing Day with Ben and Mary. [GPS 28 04.312S 153 26.649E]
Ben has a varied vita which includes being a professional chef and having owned several restaurants in various parts of Australia. Now he owns a fair sized apartment building built on a steep hillside looking like something you'd see in San Francisco, CA. This is also where he and Mary met and now live together. On the opposite side of the hill is the beach. During our stay he would magically and effortlessly produce exotic dishes from fresh ingredients with such speed and skill the platter would be in front of us before we could say, "is there anything we can do to help?" Coincidently, one of these treats was Oysters Kilpatrick, basically like Jeff's and with some fresh garlic. We passed an excellent fun evening with Ben and Mary. We're glad we could get together with them again and wished we had longer to stay. But we've got to move on.
