Day 2 6/8/06 - Australia

Surfers Paradise -> Broadbeach -> Lamington National Park -> Tamborine Mountain -> Main Beach -> Surfers Paradise

Highlight

• Had a very bad night's sleep, what's with the very firm bed?
• Our first stop was the Carrara markets, which is a permanent market with over 500 stalls that are opened every weekend. My impression, laid back market with a focus on haberdashery items.
• Not finding any food to our liking at Carrara (Qld, btw, has much cheaper food than Sydney), we headed to Pacific Fair, the huge shopping centre with everything, for an Oportos brunch. I like this shopping centre, it has great shops, and is laid out as a combination of shopping centre block and sprawned village.
• Off to Lamington National Park (cute name) where we went on 2 mini bush walks. The first, had great views over the hinterland in the first 20 minutes, then turned into some very repetitive zig-zagging up the mountain. The highlight though, Slokky jumping at the sight of a dead lizard. The second led to a view of the valley. The park was not very green but was a pleasant place to spend a morning.
• Afternoon tea at the picturesque Polish Place with great people and homely food. (see review)
• Slokky managed to first knock over the change when he was paying for our meal, and after that, leaving his wallet at The Polish Place... sigh!
• Made our way through some of the food and wine trail for the Gold Coast Hinterland. After Slokky didn't listen to me, the GPS and himself, we finally made it to the Witches Chase Cheese Company 10 minutes before they closed, for some surprisingly outstanding cheese and yoghurt. The place was pretty packed but the staff were very personable to everyone.
• We made our way to Car stalling continues, this time at a right hand turn, causing us to miss the turn and everyone behind us missing the turn. We got some really dirty looks.
• Slokky forgetting his phone twice and had to keep going back to get it, wasting valuable time.
• Slokky forgetting the camera after I specifically asked him to take it, so we had to spend an extra 1/2 hour going back to the hotel to get it.
• Dinner at Tedder Ave, where everyone is a "best restaurant".
• The stupid guy at Baskin Robins won't let us use our e-book voucher, because we ordered 2 large ice-cream and the coupon said "regular" ice-cream only. However, on their menu, they only had 1 scoop (small) or 2 scoop (large) options. At New Zealands Natural, a "regular" was considered 2 scoops, how do I know to interpret "regular" as large? Because I'd already started licking my ice-cream, we had to pay up. I tried to argue with the guy but he wouldn't budge. I wonder if I can write in somewhere to get him fired...
• After dinner, we went for a walk on Cavill Ave, the "heart" of the Gold Coast. There were lots of young and old people, all hanging out, having dinners or dessert at the many restaurants. The vibe was great.

Food

• Pure and Natural banana and strawberry smoothie ($4.20).
• Pure and Natural banana, mango and apricot smoothie ($4.20).
• Oportos regular bondi burger ($6).
• Afternoon tea at The Polish Place:
  • Polish Bigos with Sausage ($19)
  • Meat and Herb Pierogi ($19)
• Taste test cheese, dips and yoghurt at Witches Chase Cheese Company.
• Dinner at Domani's (review):
  • Grilled Moreton bay bugs, mixed leaf salad, chilli lime dressing ($36.50)
  • Seafood linguini ($36.50)
• Baskin Robbins ice cream with German Chocolate Cake (Swiss chocolate ice cream with coconut, walnut pieces, milk chocolate brownie bits and a caramel ribbon) and Espresso 'n' cream (A rich combination of extra strength lowfat Jamoca ice cream with chocolate flakes swirled together with creamy lowfat vanilla ice cream) ($5.80).
• Baskin Robbins ice cream with Jamoca Almond Fudge (Our own Jamoca ice cream with a chocolate fudge ribbon and roasted almonds) and Old Fashioned Butter Pecan (Butter Pecan ice cream with butter-roasted pecans) ($5.80).