Hi Wendy

I thought I would send you a quick email regarding our Aussie trip. 

Firstly, Coolangatta Airport was fantastic to fly in and out of!!  The times were perfect flying in and out and we could hit the ground running due to not having to get up at "stupid o'clock".  Also the short drive and being the only international flight in and out meant customs was a breeze both ways.  Not sure why we needed a Declaration Form as nobody asked us for it unless it's just a computer thing that you are registered for or Cindy keeping an eye on us.

The car was great and was a diesel so we used $66.00 and we did a lot of driving!

Mt Tambourine was tricky to get to but we loved our day there.  Treetop Walk was great and Thunderbird Park was good fun - just up Matthew's alley as the two of us went to the mine and dug for fossils while Anthony and Luke played minigolf.

TopGolf which is beside Movie World was great fun!  The kids and I are not golfers but we really enjoyed it.  We got a $300 package which gave us two hours of golf and we could order anything from the drinks and food menu (alcoholic included so I thought a pina colada at 1.00pm was perfect timing)!!  We still had $15 left at the end so managed to squeeze in ice creams.  Anthony said that it was a really good deal as he has done this before in America.

We thought we would give Wet n Wild a go and went before opening.  Luckily we hadn't bought tickets online.  The line for tickets already purchased was really long but the line for tickets to buy onsite went all the way through the carpark and down to the Outback Adventure Park.  I looked up reviews on Tripadvisor and they were all terrible.  We turned around and went to Whitewater World beside Dreamworld - no queues and had a blast.  We were talking to a guy at the resort and he had been to Seaworld.  They lined up for 2 hours at the rides and a lot of rides were closed.  We drove past and the carpark had been made bigger - they need to cap the numbers I think as there were so many people.

The resort was fantastic.  They have black out curtains which made a massive difference.  Everywhere we have stayed before hasn't had black out curtains and we have always woken up really early.  The beds were so comfortable and the size of the apartment was absolutely fine for what we needed.  Our bathroom was really long so we had a basin each and plenty of bench space.  A TV in all of the bedrooms (a treat for us) and the balcony was amazing.  A cuppa in the morning and a G&T at night.  It is all soundproof so you don't hear anything.  We were on the 16th floor.  It was great to be able to walk to dinner and Anthony and I could both drink and not worry about driving home.  We would definitely stay there again and highly recommend it.

They are setting up for the V8's at the moment so the traffic was a bit busy at times and a few detours but nothing to stress about.  We just tacked on a bit longer to get to our destinations.

Coming home has been a shock.  It's like another world here.  A very expensive and Covid scare mongering world and we are miles behind everyone.  I usually get to a point on holiday where I'm looking forward to getting home.  I didn't have that feeling this time.  I didn't have a chance to look at Vietnam but will sit down with Anthony and do that.

Thanks very much for organising everything.  We all had an amazing holiday and it was just fantastic to be travelling again.  

K (Oct 2022)