Three days in Paradise...

Surfers Paradise to be precise!

Waaaay back in July, I spent 3 nights on the Gold Coast with 3 of my sisters (my 4th sister was travelling over on the west coast and couldn't join us) for my sister Sue's 60th birthday.  Sue's friend Heather also joined us and became the 5th sister!

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We arrived in Surfers Paradise at lunch time and had time to explore our accomodation - The Dorchester on the Beach.  A nice, airy apartment on the 8th floor with sea views up the coast.  Then it was time to go to a special High Tea for Sue's birthday.  It was a surprise for her and we were frightening her with threats of a stripper being there or maybe we were taking her bungee jumping...

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But it was just a pleasant High Tea with yummy food and some bubbles.

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 That night, after the High Tea had digested, I made chicken bean tacos for the girls.  Just something light as it had been a big day.

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 Next morning, we tackled the tallest building on the Gold Coast - the Skypoint Tower.  We took the elevator up 77 floors...

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Great views of Surfers Paradise...

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We went on a lunch cruise of the waterways which was lovely.

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A great buffet lunch (which we got first dibs at as we were nearest the food!). Beautiful fresh prawns!

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Blue Sky and the sun on our backs!

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That is a guy with water jets attached to his feet, he was flying around everywhere!

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 A relaxing wine before heading back to shore...

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Tuesday night, we headed out to the Outback Spectacular for High Country Legends.  We all had to wear cowboy hats - which I was thrilled about - not!  

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 I thought it was very good value at $140 as we got a complimentary drink on arrival, our hats, a group photo, 3 course dinner (soup, delicious steak and veg then apple pie & cream) and more drinks during the show.  The show itself was well put together and I loved it.  Any international tourists would think its fantastic.

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On Wednesday morning, we boarded The Vino Bus for a day of wine tasting and

sight seeing up on Mount Tambourine.

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Ed was our lively, chatty bus driver and he was a fountain of knowlege when it came to wine and the wineries.

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First stop was TM Distillery where we tasted some liqueurs and purchased some too!

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This is at Witches Falls winery.  Some very nice white wines here and I also bought a Chocolate Port.

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Lastly, we visited Cedar Creeek Estate Vineyard and Winery where we tasted more wine before having a delicious 2 course lunch.

  Here I am showing Eddie (the only guy on the tour) how to use a selfie stick!

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 I had the confit duck and noodle salad - yummy!

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Baked cheesecake ...

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 or the blackest chocolate mud cake I have ever seen!

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One last pic of us girls. Again, this tour was great value at $130 - we did 3 wineries and the distillery, all tastings were paid for (I think they charge $5 head unless you buy something) and the lunch plus lots of laughs along the way.  There was only one other couple on the tour plus us giggling girls (poor Eddie didn't know what hit him).

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Thursday, we packed up and flew back to Adelaide.  

Great times!

Cheers - Joolz xx