A Quick Getaway to Gold Coast, Queensland

Friday, 3rd July 2015

We flew into Gold Coast via Jetstar and landed at the airport before noon. As we queued to picked up our rental car from Budget, the lady at the counter asked the hubs if we were there for the Gold Coast Airport Marathon. :D

We were pleasantly surprised to have been given a new red car, woohoo!!

We decided to stop by Burleigh Heads for some lunch as our tummies were beginning to grumble. Unsure where to go for food, we found ourselves outside the fish and chip shop.

Might as well!

Shared a single platter for $17. No biggie but good enough to keep our tummies happy. :)

Walked towards to beach after lunch for a quick look-see.

We were rather too chilled for words - instead of stopping by the expo to pick up our bibs, we headed straight to our accommodation to check-in, rest a bit before heading out again.

We found ourselves at the unofficial Main Beach parkrun because some friends said they'd turn up. *no names mentioned* While waiting for team McCleish to arrive, we chatted with Trish, a runner from Brisbane. She was there with her husband and running buddy, and they were doing the half marathon on Sunday.

The crowd began to build up and Tim (General Manager of parkrun Australia) kicked it off with an opening speech and introduced several people to the crowd. There were a couple of elite runners that day, but for the life of me, I don't remember their names.

SCTR represented!

The legs felt good. We were stoked to find ourselves mostly running on a track instead of a concrete pavement. Most of the run was on a track and it was pretty cool - I would say it's a light trail for beginners, with a little undulation every now and then. Every now and then, we'd catch a glimpse of the aquamarine sea beyond the trees on the route back to the start area.

The pictures I have don't do the route justice. I have to say that it's a pretty good parkrun route. In fact, I loved it!

If you're in Gold Coast for the weekends, do join their parkruns on Saturday mornings at 7 am.


After that, we rushed off to Surfers Paradise to meet up with our friends from Malaysia for dinner. We didn't expect it to be so difficult to find a parking spot!

*sigh* There is always a photobomber trying to be funny!

Bin and I were clearly under dressed for that rather breezy evening. :D

We were indecisive where to have dinner and eventually decided on Belly Busters. We took a while to decide what to order (we were pretty clueless) but after 15 minutes, we made our selections reluctantly. The whole stack of ribs was huge!

Saturday, 4th July 2015

First thing to do was to pick up our bibs at the expo. Bumped into Eugene and Steven (who were both doing the half marathon as well) and we bid them g'day after a while.

We headed off to Mount Tambourine to find one of the waterfalls that the hubs was determined to check out. Waterfalls, waterfalls, waterfalls. That's the only thing I kept hearing from him before and during our trip to Gold Coast!

Their claws are rather sharp. I had scratches on my arm and fingers!

Popped by The Polish Place to say hi to the Mccleish, who were there for coffee and bird feeding.

We were feeding sugar from sachets which isn't good for them, actually. :P

Next up, Cameron Falls. The picnic area was packed with people having barbies and picnics, and its parking area was full.

It was so nice to be out in the woods on a sunny day. It made us extremely glad to be away from Melbourne's gloomy skies!

Then we headed to Harbourtown to check out what the fuss was about. I wished we had delegated enough time for shopping - the place was huge!

Rushed back to freshen up at our hotel before walking to Surfer's Paradise to join the gang for dinner. The queue for Vapiano was horrendous at 6pm!

Photo credit: Foo

It was a loooong wait. By the time we sat down to eat, it was 7.15pm and it was disappointing that the food was not great. :( Thankfully the company was fabulous. :)

The food was sadly disappointing - lacking in taste.

Sunday, 5th July 2015

Read race recap in my earlier post.

Dinner was over at Onz, Foo and Jeanie's apartment at Breakfree Long Beach. Once again,we underestimated the lack of available (free) parking spots so we ended up parking somewhere with a 2 hour limit. My friends must be fed up of waiting for us by now - we were late for all our appointments with them! :(

As it was a potluck dinner, there was plenty of food to go around. Somehow my friends have tiny appetites so there was a lot of leftovers. I contributed a tray of brownies and a few bottles of apple cider.

Everyone was exhausted so we called it a night at about 10.30pm. Pretty early, but we were definitely quite knackered. Bin and I had to pack as we wanted to check out early the next day.

Monday, 6th July 2015

After hearing Isaac and Gavin mention 'Hinterland' to us for a couple of times, we finally realised what they were talking about - Springbrook National Park. We checked out at 8.30am and made our way there to find the Natural Bridge.

So cool ...

And it was breathtakingly amazing. I seriously recommend this place!!

There are several lookouts and waterfalls in the area but we could only visit a few. We had to cut our trip short because I had forgotten to pick up my contact lenses from Onz!

One of the lookout points near Canyon lookout.

Spotting the waterfall from afar, we thought we'd have enough time to run towards it and back. I was doubtful, as the information did mention that the 4km hike would take 3 hours for a return trip. I didn't think I'd be able to run like crazy!

We ran towards it for a while, and then turned back as we decided no way in hell we would back it back in time. So we headed the other direction instead.

Racing for time is something I don't like to do when I'm on the trails because I am such a clumsy oaf.

Indeed, I rolled my right ankle when my foot landed on a rock. I thought I'd yelp pretty loudly but nope, the hubs didn't hear me and continued running ahead.

If my stares shot daggers, he would have been stabbed in the back multiple times.

Anyway, I waited for 5 minutes before testing it and semi-hobbled/jog my way towards him. Once I reached him, however, we said it was time to turn back. So I hobbled-jog my way back to the car.

Well, we made our way safely back to Melbourne and boy, did we miss the sunshine in Gold Coast.

Looks like we will make our way back to Queensland to finish our exploration of Springbrook National Park for its trails and waterfalls!