YoungNomads: Gold Coast - Burleigh / Varsity Lakes and surrounds

It was only a short drive down to Burleigh Waters but our Garmin GPS decided to take us right through the middle of Brissy on our way south, well done Geoff for hauling our big rig through that messy city!! Thank you so much Geoff, Glenda, Jarrod and Sarah for allowing us to park our van up your driveway while we visited the Gold Coast!! Once we were set up we made a beeline to Jodie and Josh’s, wow so good to see my sister and the bro again, happy days!! Sarah, Max and Jordan were very excited and happy to see us when they got home from school! We went back to the Geoff and Glendas for the night and went out for dinner, dumplings and followed by chocolate!!

Rise and shine nice an early in the morning and we hoped on our bikes and headed to the coast. We road to Burleigh Heads and then north through Miami, Nobbys and Broadbeach and then on to Surfers Paradise. We stopped at several spots along the way to check out the awesome beaches. We got a coffee and then headed back – this took us just over 3 hours so we were pretty hot by the time we got back, so time for a swim, thank you Geoff and Glenda!!

Schoolies compound area

We packed our bags and headed back to Jode and Josh’s at Varsity Lakes for the next 3 nights, yay so pleased to be spending some time with them! When we arrived there it was fantastic that Emily had come up from Ballina! We went and watched Max try out for a rep team for soccer and while we were there, Deb had rung from Brisbane letting us know about the horrific storm that had just swept through there, they’d sustained some damage to windows and Cori’s car…. Omg there was nothing down the coast where we were, so lucky we’d pulled out of Brisbane.!!

Jodie and Josh decided that we were going to celebrate Thanksgiving by cooking up a storm!! Oh wow, Pulled Pork, Sweat Potato Mash, Colslaw, Corn, Cherry Pie and Pumpkin Pie!! We were so stuffed, thanks Jode, absolutely delicious! Geoff spent most of his time with Josh copying hundreds of TV shows, music and movies…. Which meant we were probably going to be watching tv for the rest of our lives!! Hahaha!

Cori came down and joined us on Saturday, it was great to see her!! We decided to go for a drive and discover some local attractions, first off it was lunch at this Eco Village, which was yummy! We drove on to Currumbin Rock Pools and went for a nice walk into the rain forest, we didn’t end up swimming because the place was over run by Schoolies – but we could imagine how beautiful and peaceful it would be normally. Next we went to Currumbin Beach and walked from the channel to the surf club, we got to see some great surfing by the locals too! We walked up the Elephant Rock lookout to get some great views! On the way back to the car we called into to the RSL Home Lottery House – bought some tickets together and imagined what it would be like when we won!! J

We had a bbq over at the park near Jodie and Josh’s and spent another great night with them. Cori left and went back to Brissy in the morning and we went for another tour around the place with the sis and bro. This time we went into the mountains and visited some lookouts and waterfalls, we finally made it to the Natural Bridge, wow pretty amazing! We did a nice walk through the forest. When we got home it was time to say goodbye to Jode, Josh and the kids, the time had gone so fast!! But it has been so wonderful to spend the time with them. Thank you so much for having us guys! Xo

Gonna miss these rascals!

Miss you already Miss Sarah!

We went back to the van at Geoff and Glendas and commenced out pack up in preparation to heading back on the road again! We had a great night with G&G, firstly drinking some lovely wine and then taking a walk around the street checking out all the Christmas lights, then pizza and pasta for dinner!! Thank you so much Geoff and Glenda it was fantastic to spend some time with you both and the kids, we really appreciated you letting us leave our house on wheels at your place!! Hope to see you in Adelaide one day soon!!