Goodbye Asia, Hello Oceania, Gold Coast, Australia (Feb 5 - 14)

We left Hua Hin, Thailand at 3:00 AM on Feb 4 heading to Bangkok to catch our flight to Malaysia and then on to Australia. We did not intend to leave that early. Unfortunately, some Thais decided to express their disagreement with the elections held two days earlier by blocking the highway so we had to take a series of backroads thus the longer-than-normal time needed for our journey. It all worked out in the end and gratefully we made our flight on time.

We arrived at the Gold Coast airport early in the morning of Feb 5 and checked in, through an Airbnb arrangement, with an Aussie family (Sean & Kim & kids) in their home in the community of Tugun. Tugun was a good place to be based as it was approximately midway between numerous beaches to the north (the most famous being Surfers Paradise) as well as another famous beach to the south at Byron Bay.

Sean & Kim & girls who we stayed with on the Gold Coast

In our travels so far, we have seen many beautiful beaches, however the beaches here are even more amazing. It seems like you can go to the ocean anywhere along the Gold or Sunshine Coast of Australia and find fine white sandy beaches for as far as the eye can see. While the beaches we've seen previously have had relatively calm waters, the waves all along the coast here were more suitable for  surfers and boogie boarders. We were able to spend a couple of days playing in the water with boogie boards and watching the surfers. The water temperature on one of those days out was 24 C!

Beach at Byron Bay

Beach at Surfers Paradise

Waiting for the next good wave

Catching a wave that brought me right to the shore

One day we visited a local wildlife park (Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary) where we were able to see the Lorikeet feeding, a twice-daily event where dozens of wild lorikeets flock to the park to feed on honey water (how do they know when it is exactly 8 am or 4 pm?). We also saw tasmanian devils, wallabies, many koalas, pelicans, cockatoos, dingoes, wombats, freshwater and saltwater crocodiles, cassowaries, emus and of course lots of kangaroos. A number of these animals were included in shows or you could hold or pet them. We were amazed that we could be in such close proximity, especially to the kangaroos, koalas and snakes. One of the shows also demonstrated sheep shearing.

Feeding wild lorikeets

Pelicans waiting for feeding time

Ibis - one of these stole Olive's fish & chips lunch when she turned her head for 5 seconds

Kangaroos trying to read my brochure!

A saltwater crocodile named "Brutus"

Tree kangaroo

The Gold Coast has numerous national parks each offering well designed walking and hiking trails (hand rails, good signage, paved trails and stairs), lookouts, lighthouses, waterfalls and ocean views. We visited several of these parks and were delighted to spot colorful birds and butterflies, see wild wallabies, encounter a snake that was at least 6' long, dodge numerous lizards, and hike through tropical rain forests.

Narrowly missed driving over this snake

Now I can say that I have seen the "best of all lookout"!

The lookout was pretty nice

For the last 2 days in the GC, we moved to another Airbnb and stayed with a young couple named Samantha and John. Fortunately both places had cable TV so I was able to catch a number of Olympic events including the women's hockey game between Canada and the US. Clearly Australian TV has not broadcast ice hockey games before as they constantly cut out for commercials while the play was going on and the announcer certainly was not familiar with the rules or the players.

With Samantha, John and Franji, our 2nd house stay on the GC

Other memorable items from our time in Australia so far ... renting a car and figuring out again how to drive on the left side of the road (steering wheel on the right side of the vehicle) and not activate the wipers when I meant to activate the signal light, also remembering again who has the right of way at the round-abouts which are so prevalent here. We have enjoyed the wide variety of melodious birds and we have really enjoyed our visits with the Aussie families that we were able to stay with.

Next on our plans, flying to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef.