golden Gold Coast

On Thursday morning, November 15th, we headed towards the Gold Coast. We stopped at various beaches, such as Paradise Point, and enjoyed being by the sea again. We had lunch at Len Fox Park. A little highlight was the huge group of pelicans that could be seen directly on the beach among the tourists.

We continued to Southport. Here, we first discovered a great playground with a pedal train and a huge trampoline. After we dared to try it, a few other adults followed our example. :)
However, the reason for this stop was the GC Waterpark. A huge water playground. When we wanted to sign up for an hour of water fun, we were told that we would have to wait half an hour for the next round, which made us doubt. The employee then convinced us with a 50% voucher, so we only had to pay 20$ for both of us. Then followed 50 minutes of sports... after 10 minutes we were already completely exhausted. The great thing was that there were only 8 people in total, and only 2 teenagers among them. :) There were water slides, a swing, a trampoline, and various balance and slide attractions.

Totally exhausted but satisfied, we went to Surfers Paradise Resort hostel. Where we could sleep in our car for $40 and got a typical hostel breakfast. We spent the evening in the center of Surfers Paradise, after a good meal and a bottle of wine transferred into a plastic bottle, we sniffed into some clubs and enjoyed the party people.

The next morning at breakfast, we met a Canadian who was spending his 2nd day in Australia. ;)
The first stop of the day was the Skypoint Observation Tower. In the 77th floor, you can enjoy a 360° view of Surfers Paradise, the surrounding area, and the vast ocean. A great experience, except that Krissi had to wait 45 minutes for a coffee.

We continued south over Miami and Burleigh Head Lookout. So far that we crossed the border from Queensland to New South Wales. When we arrived at Boyds Bay Holiday Park, we were surprised that everything was already closed, even though it was a few minutes before 7 p.m. and everywhere it said that the reception was open until 7 p.m. Eventually, we realized that the time difference was probably the reason, in NSW it was already an hour later than in QLD. When we asked the owners if they would still let us check-in despite this, and they said no, we found a place for wild camping. It was a super restless night, apparently because we were standing between two roads that were busy all night long. In addition, we were standing under a tree with bats, which not only made a lot of noise but also produced a lot of dirt on our car.

We wanted to spend the weekend in Coolangatta and the surrounding area, as our next destination was Springbrook National Park and we didn't want to drive our car up numerous mountains again without repairs. So we stayed there over the weekend to get the car repaired on Monday.
Saturday was a typical beach day with a walk to Snapper Rocks, Point Danger, swimming in the huge waves, watching the numerous surfers, and sunbathing, sunbathing, sunbathing. The sunbathing was punished with sunburn in the evening, since then we have been diligently applying sunscreen every morning. :D

In the evening, there was a heavy thunderstorm, so we were trapped in a toilet block for a while with another family. :D
We spent the following nights on a quiet side street near the beach.

Despite the rain and strong winds, we drove a bit further south to Fingal Head on Sunday. We were promised numerous dolphins at the lighthouse, which, by the way, is super tiny. After delicious homemade burgers and a walk on the beach, we tried our luck. When Kenny was about to give up, we caught a few brief glimpses. However, the sea was very stormy and the sky was cloudy, which made observation difficult. We were quickly driven towards the car by the onset of rain.

Monday morning, November 19th, started with the search for an auto repair shop. After a 'preliminary examination', we scheduled a service appointment for Tuesday, which was supposed to take the whole day. We spent the rest of the day at a quiet beach in Fingal - Jack Bayliss Park & Beach - very idyllic compared to the touristy Tweed Heads.

In the late afternoon, we went to the lighthouse again to look for dolphins. On this day, we only caught a few glimpses of their fins again.

Tuesday morning meant getting up early because we could drop off our car for repairs at 8 a.m., which was supposed to take the whole day.

So we started walking towards the beach. However, we didn't get that far. Our path was accompanied by an arm of the sea. We took a break on a jetty in Faux Park and asked a local for tips on the area. After saying goodbye, we spotted a dolphin in the water, which fortunately came very close to the shore in our direction. So we set out to chase the dolphins. However, under a bridge, he unfortunately eluded us.
On recommendation, we hiked up a mountain to Tom Beatson Lookout to enjoy the view. Unfortunately, the viewpoints were somewhat overgrown, but we still got some good views of the airport, the sea, and the hinterland. Due to Krissi's headache, we spent half of the day here. And believe it or not, Kenny is slowly turning into a bookworm, and with English books at that. On the way downhill, we discovered that this mountain seems to be a gathering spot for nocturnal meetings of homosexual people. :D

On our way back, on recommendation, we stopped at Scales and had fish and chips for lunch.
On the way back, we saw dolphins again at the same spot. Children were swimming in the water, and at first, they thought there were sharks in the water and started screaming. This time there were two dolphins, and they came even closer. We could even watch them hunting for fish. :) We wouldn't have noticed that in the car.

After a short refreshment in the water, we received a call that we could pick up our car again. At first, everything seemed to work fine, and we happily drove to the car wash to give our baby the finishing touch. However, we then noticed starting problems...

Unfortunately, they were still there this morning, so instead of going back to the national park as planned, we returned to the workshop. As you know, the demonstration effect, starting in the workshop worked without any problems. Nevertheless, we agreed that they should take another look at the problem. The suspicion lies with the freshly changed fuel filter. So today, we spend our day at the shopping center in Tweed Heads and wait..