Also, my husband and I were moving into our new house and bond cleaning the rental, which was surprisingly hard work. Lastly, we went for a few days to the Gold Coast at the end of the school holidays. And now we're both back to term and nearly at the end of week two. Time flies when you're having fun!
Winter continues here. Sometimes I wake up and it's negative three. But there's never any condensation on the windows or anything because it's too dry. Other days, I wake up and it's eight degrees. But the daytime temperatures have far and away been lovely. Today it should get to 23. Sometimes we get a beautiful 25, and you feel like you do in summertime in the South Island of New Zealand. And with August around the corner, I know things are going to continue to warm up. By the end of August, I predict we will be getting 28s again.
So winter has been overall delightful. Touch wood, I haven't fallen sick at all, although I do wake up snuffly when it plummets to the negatives.
Our Gold Coast holiday was the best, even though it was short. It started with some meetings for Michael, so I walked at White Rock Conservation Park in Logan while he did that. Walking in the bush was enjoyable, but I was certainly ready to see a bit of coastline as well. Later at the Gold Coast, we went for a fantastic excursion to Mt. Tamborine, where we walked to a couple of beautiful water falls. Then we had a huge meal at the Bavarian Grill Haus opposite the rotary. It was a great feed, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Also, the Pilsner was rather good.
Later in the day, we went to Broadbeach, which was relaxing. We watched all the people on holiday from New Zealand taking a dip in the waves and enjoying themselves. The next day, we nipped over the border into New South Wales and went to Tweed Heads, where we enjoyed Greenmount, Snapper Rocks, and Rainbow Bay. When we drove a kilometer up the road, we were back in Queensland, and we relaxed in the sunshine on Kirra Beach.
We also went shopping in Pacific Fair, a large and glamourous mall on the Gold Coast. Michael helped me pick out a leather jacket. On Sunday, we took a trip out to Paradise Point and went for a walk along the beach. The millionaires live in enormous mansions in complexes on the islands attached to Paradise Point. You have to cross bridges to get to them, and there's a little man at the gate recording everyone who passes through. It was fascinating. I was joking to Michael that someone might accuse us of devaluing their house when we parked our Suzuki Alto in front of it so we could take a walk.
After all of that, Michael stayed on in Brisbane for a couple of days for a conference and I drove Peyton home to Chinchilla. It was a wonderful time away, and I have to admit I came away from it planning our next excursion to the coast.
But home has its attractions too, and there's something comforting about the simplicity of Chinchilla - the roos in the park enjoying their feed and the galahs in the gum trees - the downs stretching away into the distance, flat and baking.
I've included some photos of our travels. They're not fantastic quality, but they should be enough to convince you Australia's got to be the most beautiful place in the world...