Blog 3: Pickles in a bag part 2, will we never learn?

This morning we picked up my friend Joanne from the outskirts of Brisbane and she acted as out tour guide all day. Having not seen her for 20 years, the day has gone in a blur of catching up and laughter.

We headed down to the iconic Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, stopping on the way at a big shopping mall for some well-earned retail therapy (what3words: voting.storm.gear) and we picked up those essentials we had forgotten, such as sun screen and sunglasses!

We carried on to the hotel, where we have a corner suite, (what3words: wake.occurs.vouch) looking over the sea and the river with a wrap around balcony – very swanky! Free drinks on arrival, (blagged by Joanne - she has not lost her touch!) and lots of suggestions from the check in team as to what to do while we are here. Great choice!

We opted for a walk on the beach to watch the surfers, but just as we left the hotel, the heavens opened and although it did not dampen our spirits, there was only one surfer out – the waves were pretty high, and he was clearly having a lesson, so fell off - a lot. It made me smile – perhaps I can have a go after all…I cannot be any worse than I was at paddleboarding...

There is a benefit to coming to a tourist hotspot out of season, you get to see what drew the crowds in the first place, but without the crowds themselves.

This place is a cross between Blackpool and Niagara Falls - there are shops selling touristy tat, but it is actually quite beautiful, and just walking on the beach was a delight.

Emily was in her element as she found a store selling a myriad of ‘pickles in a bag’.

Anyone who read our blogs last year will remember her excitement of finding them in Canada – well this year she was no less excited, and no less disappointed when they (again) turned out to be minging!

We stopped in at the Steampunk bar, (what3words: tens.took.studio) which was pretty cool, and they had an offer on with a free beer if you ordered wings…. We got the order slightly wrong though, as we thought we were picking the type of beer to have free, turned out the free beer was one kind, and the additional choices we made resulted in additional beers…… ah well, when in Oz…..

We found a lovely ice cream shop, so it would be rude not to, but it was a little odd for us to be eating ice cream in shorts, while the Ozzies have their winter jumpers on!

One thing that strikes me here is that it is either light or dark – one minute it is daylight, next it is night time, there does not seem to be much of a dusk. It is hardly surprising that the birds were singing so loud and so frantically, they have to cram a lot in to such a short time.

The Ocean and the beach looked beautiful as the sun was going down, the light looked completely artificial, but Em got some lovely moody pics.

By this point it was 6.30, and although we were pretty goosed, it was just too early to call it a night, so we called in at Finn McCools (what3words: elite.glow.newly) pub and got roped into a pub quiz for a couple of hours. Drink of choice was a Dead Man’s finger (don’t ask, but it was tasty) and we was robbed at the quiz! The prizes were vouchers to spend at the bar, so we were ok with a local regular team winning – even though we knew we scored more points!

It sounds as if we have not done much today - we have, but what we have done most of is laugh, and that is always a good day in my book.

Back at the hotel, we are having a fairly early night to get up for the sunrise and walk along the beach in the morning with a coffee to watch the pre-work surfers getting their fix, then off on our next adventures - who knows where we will end up :)