February 20, 2011
We’re chilling at “Gold Coast” at “Surfers Paradise” beach! Gold Coast is a coastal town just south of Brisbane with crystal clear water and beautiful wide white sandy beaches. It also has enormous high rises all along the beach; so high and so many that by late afternoon, the beach is completely shaded. It’s quite a site! I will definitely post pics of it! It is a vacation destination for Australian’s with money and I think that’s how it got its name. This is our first experience of actually “swimming” in the ocean in Australia. You can only swim inside the flagged areas that are patrolled by lifeguards, and the flagged areas are very small and scattered. The ocean has strong tides that seem to change frequently throughout the day and a swimmer can easily be swept out to sea. The life guards are diligent about using their megaphones and keeping swimmers within the flags.
Our original plan was to just pass through and take a look, but since Eliot and Julian wanted to go to a theme park close by, we decided to hang out for a few nights and make the most of our time. We ended up with a two bedroom condo on the beach with the most magnificent views and ocean breezes. We slept with the sliders open and listened to the Pacific all night. Nick got us up at 5:00am to watch the sun rise and that was beautiful as usual! The further south we get, the higher the cost of beds. Hostels at this point are $30 a bed, so $150 for the five of us, and we got this place for $150 a night. It was first quoted at $190 but I was able to bargain them down to $150 if we took it for two nights. That was the third time I’ve been able to bargain and get a room for a lesser amount.
The three nights before getting here, we stayed in Brisbane. Brisbane is the capitol and the third most populated city in Australia. It is along the coast and about 8 hours north of Sydney. It turned out to be a great city to walk and explore. I found the most beautiful tropical gardens near the hostel and spent a few hours walking it one afternoon and counted at least 30 water dragons. At first, I was a bit nervous to walk past one, as the first one I spotted was about three feet long and sunning itself in the middle of the sidewalk. I got my courage up and walked past, practicing what I knew about deep breathing and blending in with my surroundings and he never flinched. After that, it got easier to walk past them. While I was there, I met an amazing woman named “Moss” that had 10 month old twin girls with her. It turned out that she had a doula and had natural childbirth. I loved listening to her story! The next day Eliot and the kids went to the gardens with one purpose in mind…………to let Eliot catch a water dragon! Much to my dismay, they went and yes, he caught one!
While traveling in Australia I became friends with a Birth Advocate/Author, Sarah Buckley on facebook and discovered she lived in Brisbane. I contacted her when I got here and she invited me to pizza night with the family and I accepted. I took a bus to the hospital her husband works at, here in Brisbane, and rode home with him, and she brought me back at the end of the night. It was fabulous! Sarah Buckley is a trained GP/family physician with qualifications in GP-obstetrics and family planning. Her work critiques current practices in pregnancy, birth, and parenting from the widest possible perspectives, including scientific, anthropological, cross-cultural, psychological, and personal. She is the author of: “Gentle Birth Gentle Mothering”. What a treat for me to be able to hang out with her!
Tonight we will barbeque kangaroo meat! Sounds morbid, I know, but it’s one of the “must do’s” on the kids list so we’re doing it! A cool thing about Australia is that they have public “barbecue’s” everywhere and they’re very simple to operate. They have a large flat stainless steel surface and you simply push a button to get it hot. Here though, it’s called “Barbie” to everyone! So, we’re having a Barbie tonight!