We have always loved staying in the Hunter Valley - it must have something to do with the millions of rows of grape vines set in the gorgeous undulating landscape. And our favourite place to stay is Harrigan's, which offers very comfortable accommodation and an Irish pub!
Adjacent to Harrigan's is the beautiful Hunter Valley Gardens where we, again, spent several hours meandering through the various themed gardens. This time, however, we arrived to discover a new exhibition running throughout the gardens over the month of April called Mega Creatures. Only Penny could accidentally find dinosaurs... again...
Brachiosaurus
Triceratops
Pterodactyl
and a stack of other giant creatures including spiders, caterpillars, bees and wasps,
dragons and woolly mammoths
The garden themes are many and varied, from Italian to Chinese to French, etc., but the most impressive is the Oriental (Japanese) Garden, with its stunning layout and colours.
From the Hunter Valley we drove north on the New England Highway to Glen Innes for a night and the next morning discovered the Australian Standing Stones. These 38 stones are the official national Celtic monument, celebrating Celtic contribution to Australian culture, as many Europeans who settled in Glen Innes from 1838 were of Celtic origin.
On the road north we called in on Jim's sister Margot and husband Breck, who own cattle properties on the river at Grafton. The recent floods reached their front steps but fortunately went no higher. And the remnants of the floods are still evident everywhere, with some fields still under water and many damaged roads. We took a car ferry from Southgate across the Clarence River to Ulmarra and headed to the Pacific Highway and the Gold Coast.
Our apartment at Broadbeach afforded us wonderful views, and we were within walking distance of Kurrawa beach, the Oasis, Pacific Fair and The Star (formerly Jupiters) Casino - all very familiar to us.
Inside the Star Casino (formerly Jupiters)
What wasn't familiar was a fancy new light rail system. The spacious modern trams run smoothly up and down the Gold Coast Highway from Broadbeach South to Helensvale. So, following some retail therapy at Pacific Fair, we boarded a tram for Surfers Paradise so that Jim could relive his wayward youth...
We alighted at Cavill Avenue and walked up to the beach, which was closed due to choppy seas but still looked amazing. Then we enjoyed a casual wander back down the Avenue, past cafes and restaurants, stopping for ice-cream and coffee before walking back to the tram stop. What a fabulous way to travel!
The next morning we drove up to Tamborine Mountain in the Gold Coast hinterland, a popular destination for tourists and locals alike. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great so after a rather inclement walk through the main tourist area, and lunch at a café we knew, we headed back to Broadbeach via Coolangatta.
Mooloolaba was our next stop and we spent three nights there. We took long walks along the beachside tracks, drove past Penny's parents' homes at Maroochydore and Jim' parents' unit at Alexandra Headland, and spent a couple of hours marvelling at the sheer size of the Sunshine Plaza shopping centre.
We did visit one of our favourite places, Montville, in the hinterland. There we wandered through the tourist area full of interesting little shops and Penny even found two very upmarket op shops! We lunched at the Poet's Café, an old favourite, and reminisced. Each night in Mooloolaba we ate at local restaurants along the foreshore and had some of the best Italian food ever. And with ice-creams in hand we walked to the beach to watch the nightly beach volleyball.
View from our balcony
Penny's parents' house at Maroochydore
Noosa was on our list of locations so we spent a few hours in famous Hastings Street and lunched at Rococo - wonderful salads!
Then it was time to leave the coasts and head to the big smoke - Brisbane.
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