Gold Coast - Day 4: 25th Apr

Today is F&E, and also the eve of Australia's public holiday - ANZAC day. Honestly we do not know what ANZAC means for the locals but we gathered that it's a day where the Australians and New Zealanders celebrate together. We have planned for an outing to the Surfers beach and slept late into the morning (only woke up at near 9am).

The beach is only 3mins walk from our hotel so it was very convenient. The sand were soft and nice to walk on, the scene was fantastic. It was a place where one can just unwind and hang around for the whole day.






Ethan was contented with just playing his sand toys at the beach and refused to get into water and play with the waves






Mummy have anemia so the hot sun made me suffered a few sessions of black-outs the whole morning. I had to retire back into the hotel by 1pm and Caden requested to stay behind with Uncle Brian and Auntie Winnie to continue playing with Aidan and Eillot in the afternoon. They came back at abt 3pm and both kids were fast asleep after their shower.

My ah lou also suffered from a bad tummy upset on this day and we retired early at night as well after our trip out to Jupiters Casino (where Brian wants to try out his luck) for our dinner.

Gold Coast - Day 3: 24th Apr

Included in our tour package was Paradise Country Farm and shopping trip at Harbour Town. We were picked up at abt 9am from our hotel to the Farm and was sent to location via a tram ride. This first farm animal we were introduced was the Koala bear and they are really so cute and cuddly in real life. My ah lou got to hug the Koala during the photo shoot and he told us that the Koala's paws are very sharp so it was quite painful for the person who hugs the koala.



We then went on to feed the kangaroos and the kids had a great time chasing for hungry kangaroos and feeding them with the food that the counter lady has kindly offered. Caden and Aidan had the chance to ride the Camel (AUD $10 per child) and they were so happy doing the ride. Ethan was crying away throughout the whole experience that his brother got as he was too young to be placed alone on the Camel doing the ride. The children also had a chance to see how the sheep dog chased the sheep and milk the cow at the farm.


This is Kangaroo's fav food!


Let's pat pat the cow first before we start milking!









For the parents (least Winnie and myself) we were so bored at this country farm and couldn't wait to be sent off to the Harbourtown. Ethan got himself a Chelsea adidas soccer ball at AUD $10 during the short shopping trip allocated to us (cos the bus pick up time was arranged 2 hours after the drop-off).

see the kind of nonsense our boy gave us even on the bus ride



Ethan quickly hop onto this ride when he saw it at Harbourtown shopping centre


At night, we tried some Thai food and chinese guo-tie for dinner. Generally, our dinner was all below AUD $40 per meal per family.

Gold Coast - Day 2 : 23rd Apr

We have arranged to visit the Sea World on the 2nd day of the trip. It was a Friday so the crowd was quite manageable - as compared to the Tokyo Disneyland on a Thursday. We haven't read much about Sea World so we went there and the 2 fathers started analysing the Park Map and decide the itinerary for the day. We went for a few shows and fish feeding sessions and the scorching hot sun made us fairly tired by early afternoon. The good thing about Autumn's weather now is that it's not too cold as yet and the humidity level is low. So most of us don't perspire at all despite the sun.





Pelicans, Penguins and Stingrays - the whole Sea World reminded us of the movie NEMO




Ethan and Caden had lots of fun playing the rides at Sea World and Ethan was able to take most of the rides as long as there's an accompanying adult.







PaPa also had a go at the ti-kum ti-kum stall and won himself a big monkey soft toy as he got in 2 balls out of the 3 throws paid (AUD$5).



Ethan fell asleep in the stroller by 3pm and the father and son continued their quest at the Bert and Ernie's big dive





Caden attempted this big bounce ride while Aidan shy away as he had a bad experience during the Genting trip last year



At night, we went for Japanese food at this place call Sushi Gallery along Surfers lane and also had our ice-cream taken at Baskin Robbins since it was also Uncle Brian's birthday on this day.

Gold Coast Trip - Day 1: 21st & 22nd Apr

We decided to join Brian and Winnie to Gold Coast for a trip together with our kids and the planning started in March. We got most of the logistics confirmed within a short period of time and embarked on the 9 day 7 nights journey together to Australia.

It is Ethan's first trip out via a plane ride so we have been fairly concerned with how he could take the 7.5 hours flight. Thankfully, the flights have been arranged at night so the kids were very tired by the time the plane took off.

Ethan checking out the Kris player once he was settled on his seat


We arrived the Brisbane International airport early morning at 615am. By then both my ah lou and myself were almost half dead when we touched down cos we didn't manage to have a decent nap on the plane as the whole journey was so disruptive. SQ served us dinner at 11pm and the whole meal only ended near 1am, then lights were only shut at 2am and for only 2 over hours, lights came on again for breakfast meals! We were then sent to our hotel at Holiday Inn and reached there at abt 9am. It was still too early for us to check-in so we had to lon-bang our baggages with the concierge and went around looking for light breakfast and coffee to perk us up. Ethan and Caden were being kept occupied with the company of Aidan and Eillot so it wasn't too difficult on this first day.

standing outside the airport waiting for bus transfer


seated quietly in the bus, as we were ferried to our hotel


breakfast and coffee at Gloria Jeans


After breakfast, we checked out the supermarket nearby our hotel - Coles and passed our time there till noon, thereafter we got to check into our rooms and took a good nap before we leave in the evening to Pacific Fair Shopping centre for a leisure night out and shopping. The boys got themselves a set of Bionicles toy which kept them occupied for the whole trip.