Wedding Daze

Phew! We’ve been overcooked the last couple of days.

We woke up on Saturday morning to a cloudy but hot day. We had to pack for our move to our new accommodation. There seemed to be a little more than we came with!

We headed out to the hills to check in - the place is very picturesque, a huge area of trees and bushes as well as a equestrian centre and a few golf holes.

We were a bit late leaving for the wedding - and Kevan’s GPS took us on a tiki tour, so it was fortunate that Rosalie was very late arriving. The venue was not air-conditioned and it was a 34 degree day, so we struggled a bit.

The wedding went off really well and Rosalie looked lovely. They had arranged 3 acts to entertain us; an American lady who had the most glorious voice, Pete’s own band, which included his son, and an NXS cover band, so we danced a bit, although the heat made it challenging!

Today’s been hot as well. We went up Tambourine Mountain for lunch with the family - the place had amazing views of Surfers and the Coast. A thunderstorm rolled in on the horizon and we saw great sheets of lightning - it was pretty spectacular.


Off to dinner at the resort’s bistro shortly, then an early night I think!

The days in between

We’ve had a quiet few days since we last blogged. They’ve followed a pattern of: leisurely breakfast, wander down to Pacific Fair, shop a little, have lunch, wander back, have a nap, pre-dinner drinks and nibbles, then find a nice restaurant for dinner.

Allan has needed to go to Pac Fair for free internet access (he needs to keep an eye on his business emails) so I’ve had to shop to keep him company on his trips - a tough life!


We’ve had some lovely dinners and generally taken a stroll after eating to walk it off. It is very pleasant out in the late evening - cool enough to be comfortable.


We finally took possession of our rental car today - bit of a fraught process getting it delivered. We check out of here tomorrow and head out to the next accommodation - about 20 minutes out of town. The forecast for the wedding is 34 degrees and raining - could be sticky!

We met Rosalie’s fiancé, Pete today, and spent time with Lynne and Kevan and the boys, as well as Gordon and Suzanne. Good to catch up with everyone.

Irish Experience

28 degrees today (Tuesday) - we are so thankful for the aircon in our apartment. There are units in the lounge and the bedroom, and we forget, until we leave the hotel, that it’s a scorcher outside. We walked back to Pacific Fair this morning - it’s only a 15 minute walk, but in the heat, it can be a challenge.

Our highlight for today was dinner and a show at the casino - it was an Irish Dancing show and really well done. The meal was Italian, and one of our best so far. It was just $20 extra on the show price, but $58 each on the menu prices, so we felt we’d got a bargain, especially since it was so nice.

It was lovely to walk back over the river at 9.30 pm and still be warm - and not too hot!

Taking it easy

We had a major sleep last night, but we were wide awake at 5 am. Managed to doze a little more, and with an afternoon Nana nap, we’ve almost overcome our sleep deficit.

Took it fairly quietly today, wandered down to Pacific Fair by the scenic route. Browsed a few shops, but not Myers yet - will need a full day for that! The river is very pretty, and there’s lots of greenery. Really felt the heat on the way back, although it had clouded over a bit.

I swam in one of the three pools here this afternoon - refreshing and relaxing, and my first swim of the summer. Haven’t been to the beach yet, but it’s pretty breezy so the pool might be the best bet in the meantime.

We found a little French Café for dinner. Although I went out craving steak (after all, we’ve been here two days!), I had a snapper crumble - very tasty. We were next door to a Tepanyaki restaurant, so we watched the show put on by the chefs there, from afar. Might have to try that restaurant later in our stay. The food is uniformly excellent, but more expensive than I remember from last time we were here.

Believe it or not, the kitchen utensil toilet key made another appearance tonight - I’m wondering if there is one toilet between six restaurants? Tonight’s choice was a block away from last night’s, so either it’s a Broadbeach thing, or they really do share toilets!

Gold Coast Entertainment

Well, here we are in sunny Gold Coast - a very long, but entertaining day getting here and getting settled.

The alarm went off at 2.55 am (aaaagh!). You might ask ‘why so early?’ As loyal AB fans, we felt we had to watch at least the first half of the rugby test! So, self inflicted sleep deprivation. We caught a taxi at half time and managed to watch the last 20 minutes at the airport after check in and before customs. The flight was a little bumpy but we both watched movies so the time passed quickly enough.

It was too early to check in to the apartment (Queensland is 3 hours behind NZ so we landed at 7 am local time). It was nearly 9.30 am when we got to the Phoenician to drop our bags. They promised to put priority on getting it ready, and they phoned at 11am to say we could come in, so that was great. We have lovely views of the river and hills, it’s very sunny and spacious, so we’re set. The hotel is brilliantly located, minutes walk from everything, including dozens of restaurants (therein lies a story - to come!)


We’d wandered over to the Oasis Shopping Centre while we waited for our room - do NOT ask me how it happened but we got roped in to attending a (sort of) time share presentation at midday - only 90 minutes of your time and you’re guaranteed to win a LCD TV, a holiday or $2000 cash - yeah right! It was actually not a bad concept and we could have been interested if we had been contemplating a big overseas holiday. Our friendly little salesgirl called the manager in to help close the deal - what an oaf! He did not like our questions and got quite aggressive. I (Sue) was smoking - it’s not like me to get mad with strangers, but I wasn’t letting him get away with not answering valid, due diligence type questions. In the end, he commented that we were probably quite interested until he sat down to talk to us, and I emphatically agreed with him! We laughed about it afterwards - but we have won a week in a resort (mostly in GC) for only a $199 booking fee. Maybe we’ll take it, maybe we wont! Can’t believe we let ourselves be conned in to giving up 2 hours of hour first day here!

We went to a lovely restaurant across the road for dinner - I love the al fresco dining you can do in in these warmer climates. I noticed a whole lot of people walking through the restaurant (one at a time) and onto the street carrying kitchen implements. They seem to go around the corner and then come back. I was puzzled to the point of wanting to flag down the waiter to ask why - it was so bizarre! Fortunately, the penny dropped (before I embarrassed myself) when I realised that all the men carried a whisk, and the women a ladle - the toilet keys were attached to the devices, presumably so people wouldn’t put the keys in their pocket and take them home! Mind you, I was further perplexed when I then saw men with the ladle and ladies with the whisk - best not ask!!

So, a lot of laughs on our first day on Oz.

Back to the apartment for the Australian Idol final - doesn’t screen in NZ until Friday, so I won’t say who won, but off to bed at 9.30 pm, after a 21 and a half hour day.

Tired but happy to be here at last!