Gold Coast Holiday

As our  2nd. son was enjoying Italy we had the delightful week of entertaining the three grandchildren at Coolangatta. Along with our Eldest Son, daughter in law and their 5 children.
What a lot of noise when all the cousins are together. Keeping them apart was the hardest and their age ranged from 16yrs to 4yrs. with the twins.

Beach Volley Ball Stadium.

We had two rooms opposite the beach volley stadium used for the Commonwealth Games. They were pulling it down the week we were there, and still had a long way to go. Unfortunately the entire area which used to be a park was blocked off with a railing fence. Getting down to the beach was  a long walk to find an entrance.

View out of our window



What we could see of the Beach.

Our room view although great was not as good as our sons  2 rooms away, as we were on the end corner of the building, but his looked down  straight on to the beach.

The best part for the kids at the beach was the boogie board riding and catching the waves in.

Looking down the beach at Coolangatta

We had a day at the Carrara Markets and of course we visited our favourite hat man and most of us ended up with a new hat, while the girls also ended up with a new outfit. We had lunch there and took lots of photos of the kids, lined up in size. I am sure they thought our eldest had 8 children and we were there for the trip, helping.

One  hat stand out of many

The complex had a day on the lagoon with canoes, surf skis, stand up paddle boards and a windsurfer. Plus a Catamaran which they took 4 at a time on.

While we were there, Anzac Day was celebrated and we passed this memorial covered in flowers.

The highlight for me was a trip to Currumbin Bird Sanctuary. I wanted the kids to see the bird feeding.

Map of the Park

I have just finished scrapbooking the same time 35 years ago when we took our 5 children and it was good for the grandchildren to experience it. Now of course it is much bigger with an Australian animal zoo and petting kangaroos and koalas. Very popular with the Chinese and Japanese people.

Wallabies

Tasmanian Devil undergoing a breeding programme to save them.

While the family watched the snake show I watched the Sheep shearing. Snakes are really, really not my thing. While waiting saw an interesting video on how Ugg boots were made. Did you know that now you can get them dotted in Swarovski Crystals and made with a denim look and buckles?

These Rams weren't sheared.

Sheep Shearing

We saw another show about flying birds. Owls, Cockatoos, Birds of prey, all trained to fly around the audience while the presenters did a talk. We had a picnic lunch in the park and walked around some of the animals. They have a train that runs around the park and we took it to get back to the entrance where the birds were being fed at 4pm. By this time our legs were getting very tired. At least mine were.

Train was very popular as lots of walking to see everything.

One of the grandsons declared feeding the birds the 2nd best thing ever, boogie boarding of course won out. As much as I would like to show some fabulous shots of the kids, I don't like putting them on public blogs.

Plenty of birds around for an hour.

Now we have to return  the kids home for start of  school, then we can have a holiday.
 Hope you all had a good week.

Lunch at the picnic area.

Till Next Time.