gold coast day 1

In late November we took this kids on the holiday of a lifetime, according to big brother, to Australia's Gold Coast.  It is the first time we've flown out of New Zealand with the boys and we really did have a wonderful time.  I wanted to blog some of the photos so that I have a record of it when I get the 2013 blog book printed out. I've hardly had photos printed in the past few years as I put my favourites on the blog and then get a whole book done.

The flight over was sweet. We scored free movies even though we had chosen not to pay the extra $25 per head for movies and a meal.  Being frugal and an allergy family, we took packed food with us where ever we went.  It made things safe and way less expensive.  Despite having all of the required insurance, we really didn't want little brother to have an anaphylactic reaction while we were away.

Arriving in Brisbane we took a shuttle to pick up our rental car. Hiring a Navman was totally worth the extra few dollars.  We were also grateful for the air conditioning as it was seriously hot.

On the way to our accommodation in Mermaid Beach we managed to fit in a wee shopping trip to Ikea.  It would've been nice to have more time to check out their room set ups and furniture but really we were on a mission... and we had no room for furniture.  We did buy...

1. Flexible chopping boards $3 (Aussie dollars)
2. Queen duvet cover $40
3. Set of three tins $5
4. Blanket throw $20
5. Christmas tea towels 2pack $6
6. Pastry/baking mat and knife $10
7. Food container set of 17  $7
8. Christmas scented tea lights $8
9. Single duvet cover $30

And we bought lunch too.  I loved that my meatballs came with a flag.

 The boys ate chicken nuggets and chips and jelly.  They loved it.

We made it to Turtle Beach Resort (totally recommend it) late afternoon and checked in to our two bedroom apartment.  Because we needed to be able to prepare most of our own food we decided to stay somewhere with a full kitchen.  Our online groceries arrived soon after dinner, delivered by two friendly Aussie blokes.  I don't like grocery shopping at the best of times, with all the label reading involved, and wasn't looking forward to spending ages in an Aussie supermarket trying to decipher their ingredients.  When I was looking at the resort's web site I noticed that they mentioned having groceries delivered.  Amazingly enough the Coles online supermarket lists ALL of the ingredients of every product (unlike in NZ).  It made it possible for me to do the groceries and pay for them in NZ before we left, it was awesome.

They don't have daylight savings on the Gold Coast so it was dark sometime around six.  We had a swim and watched a couple of big fruit bats flying between the palm trees by the pool.  A bit freaky but very cool.   It took a few days to adjust to the time difference and for the boys not to wake up at 3am! 

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