9/4 - Gold Coast Beaches, Currumbin Sanctuary, and Dracula

09/04/2012 - We awoke to numerous bird songs at Iain & Di's.  We all decided on a drive to the beaches, have lunch, let Di get to an appointment, and we'd go with Iain to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. 

The beaches in the Southport area are very beautiful and busier than up in the Sunshine Coast.  The guys drove together in Iain's vehicle and the girls drove together in Di's car. 

Iain led the way out to Doug Jennings Park and we wandered out on the jetty.


The water was so very clear.


There were warnings along the rocks about not getting on them as they could shift..really.  These things are HUGE, but in the 'King Tides', the ocean could weaken their position on th other rocks.

People were learning to surf on the beach; the male instructor had 4 young ladies he was teaching - good for him!

Iain between the "Di's"

We left there and headed down past Surfer's Paradise and Broadbeach toward the club near Elephant Rock for lunch.  We passed fascinating beach signs & pictures; from 1930 a picture of the lifeguards, from 1964 a picture of surfers, and from the 60's and 70's a variety of bikini babes and cool guys.  It was great.

 Elephant Rock was huge (as elephant's should be) and lunch was good. 


Di left for her appointment and we headed off to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where we found some fabulous creatures.
The bird show had started, but we were in perfect position for when they brought this guy out for pictures!

 We wandered by Holey's  pool - he is one huge Croc.  The little lizards were keeping a close eye on Holey and that was a good thing as Holey then went into "Stealth Mode".



Next we walked through the kangaroo area - there was lots of people petting these animals, then - in a flash, almost all got up hopped in a group up one of the hills for a bit, then came back down.  They must have knew it was time for a break.




The joey in this pouch would have had 'cold feet' if the day hadn't been quite warm.






There were numerous koalas, but this guy was ready for his nap... I snapped this yawn and then he was asleep!

T

We stopped by the lorikeet feeding area, but apparently they weren't scheduled until 4 and all the birds (who supposedly roam free) were wearing their watches and knew they weren't supposed to work overtime.

We got back to the house and met Iain & Di's son, Ashleigh (not sure of the spelling).  He gave us some tips on sights in Tassie.

We got ready and Iain & Di dropped us at Dracula's on their way to dinner.

Dracula's was quite interesting... no pictures allowed inside.   

While we waited in line, we were 'razzed' in a good natured way - darned vampires! 

After we got in the door, had some bubbly, got on the fun house / haunted house cars to ride through scary stuff, and got razzed some more we were seated for dinner and the show. 

Dinner was quite good as was the show - you never know what was coming next... apparently they take pictures of everyone's reaction on the fun house ride and show each during intermissions... some were funny (ours wasn't the best, but we got some laughs).  One vampire waitress asked us if we were married, when we said 'for almost 42 years', she remarked "oh, quite like a death sentence" and then wandered off.   Never thought of it like that... It was a fun evening.  Got a cab and got home about midnight (way past our normal bedtime) and rested up for tomorrow's adventure.