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Friday, November 30, 2012

That day cruise to the Gold Coast...

You know I still haven't finished writing about that day; it really was jam packed with so many sights, sounds and history :-). In a previous post I ended with us sailing past the mouth of the Logan River. We also sailed past Rocky Point which has a sugar mill...


Rocky Point sugar mill smoke stack

The mouth of the Coomera River is just hidden from our view...

Another large river which flows into Moreton Bay is the Coomera River. Coomera is well known in the tourism world for Dreamworld and Aussie Outback Adventure. The captain pointed out a huge house
at Coomera which belonged to the world champion motor cyclist, Mick Doohan.


Mick Doohan's place...
DH had been out on the bow taking photos and I went to join him...I noticed that the cap he had been wearing wasn't on his head...apparently it blew away! 
 During our journey we had two more singalongs with Carl...





We can see some of the highrises of the Gold Coast in the distance...we are still several kilometres away though...we were now in the expanse of water known as the Broadwater
 On South Stradbroke Island on the left of the vessel we started to see some of the resorts...Firstly we sailed past Tipplers...


 Then we saw Couran Cove Island resort...this was a very prestigious resort but had closed suddenly a while ago. One of the crew on the 'Lady Brisbane' told us that it has been sold and is expected to re-open...




 Talking of prestige, as we sailed farther south, on the mainland side, we came to Sovereign Island...This is an incredibly expensive development...
 DH used his zoom lens to get a closeup of one of the buildings on Sovereign Island. This is one house not a hotel...


How's this for a beach house?
Those high-rises of Surfers Paradise are getting closer...

This is another development on the northern end of the Gold Coast, Ephraim Island. 

We are nearing Southport now and parts of  Seaworld are visible...



the Gold Coast monorail

almost at the end of our voyage now...

One of the many large shopping centres on the coast

The first part of our  journey's end  at Marina Mirage

We tied up just near this vessel; apparently it's a floating chapel

DH and I went for a walk around the shopping centre in Marina Mirage and also stopped for a coffee...


The centre was already decorated for Christmas...

The Pandora shop had all these sparkly stars...
 After a stopover of just under an hour we then boarded a small bus for our trip back to Brisbane. We'd had a wonderful day!!

6 comments:

Dorothy said...

Love the Gold Coast - thanks for the memories. That captain looks like a real character. Gosh you two get around a lot !!! xoxox Have a good weekend.

twinpeakprimitives said...

Beautiful journey!
I enjoyed it a lot; thanks for sharing with us!
As a white Christmas lover; I can not get used to the idea of ​​celebrating Christmas in summer :))))

Have a great week!

Anonymous said...

wow look at the size of that water slide and i would hate to be cleaning a house that size,lol,thankyou for sharing Maria.xx

Susan said...

Oh wow Maria, I totally enjoyed sharing your trip through your photos - a really beaut day for you both :D)

Anonymous said...

Hi Maria. It has been lovely sharing this trip down to the Gold Coast with you. I have passed the link to your blog to my brother and sister-in-law in the UK so they can follow this journey. They will be out in March and this cruise through Moreton Bay that you have illustrated so well is one of the things they want to do.
Please let us know of any other day trips out of Brisbane that you have enjoyed. I love your pics.

BurntwoodFolk said...

Greetings from Jean's ("Allotment Adventures with Jean") Brother and Sister in Law in the UK.

We have just enjoyed your pictures of the boat cruise and followed your journey on our maps. We plan to take this tour ourselves.

Many thanks for your time and effort. We are very much looking forward to visiting your great country once again (only 6 weeks away). Hope the weather is kind to us, it is bitterly cold here in the Midlands at the moment.