OUR FOOT PRINTS: Queensland South East 2005

This was a trip we took on a package deal to stay at the Blue Waters Resort at the Gold Coast for one week, so we took advantage of our time to go as far north as the Australia Zoo at Beerwah and Caloundra as we had not been here before, this was a fantastic getaway.

We drove up the F3 and followed the Pacific Highway up the east coast our first stop being Bulahdelah around 2.5hours from Sydney.

Bulahdelah is an old town on the Myall River which is the gateway to the Myall Lakes, it was an old mining and timber town in the 1800’s, now tourism has grown and this is a great holiday destination.

Rather than drive through to Queensland we stopped overnight at Port Macquarie in a motel near the Hastings River. Port Macquarie has a lot to offer the tourist, beaches, rivers, lakes and canals we have been here a few times in our travels and always enjoy our stay. As this was just an overnight stay we made a quick trip on the car ferry over the Hastings River to Settlement Point a very small place with cottages, shopping centre and a lovely reserve. The reserve has shelters with Bar B Q’s, trees and playground for children.

Grafton

Sugar Cane

From Port Macquarie we called into Tweed Heads to see family which was great with the Tweed River on one side of Fingal Road and Wommin Lagoon the other then the beach the other side of the lagoon, very pretty, it was an ideal spot for water sports.

After a short stay we travelled up to the Gold Coast to our accommodation at Blue Waters Resort, this is in an ideal location just far enough away from the busy Surfers and Southport areas to have a peaceful environment and being on the northern end of the Gold Coast is a short drive from Brisbane and 5-15 minutes from the Theme parks.

Our room was clean and roomy looking out into the 21metre long pool which was located in the centre of the complex, lots of greenery and beautiful garden setting, it was ideal, with its own car park underneath.

Across the road from the resort is a beautiful park that had walking and cycling paths as well as play equipment for children right on the edge of Broadwater. Across the Broadwater was Sea World and we had already organized to go to this theme park, it was great, and it had been a number of years since we had previously been.

Sea World originally known as Surfers Paradise Ski Gardens (1958) then moved from its original location to later become Sea World with the addition of attractions and a marine park. Sea World is constantly adding and changing attractions to make it bigger and better.

In the whole day we were at Sea World we enjoyed the marine pool with big see through glass watching dugongs, dolphins and other marine animals, Polar Bear Shores was amazing, admiring these huge bears in the water and having fun out, the dolphin show which is always magical, the dolphins are just spectacular, the golden ball seal entertainment where we could see the monorail going around in the background and the water ski entertainment.

Just walking around and observing was great, the gardens are wonderful and the many places to get something to eat, as always it is a lot cheaper to take your own lunch etc.

Lamington National Park but we called it O’Reillys, is a world heritage National Park (1994) and one of the most beautiful national parks we have ever visited, bushwalking, waterfalls, birds, flora and wildlife our visit was just one day and we enjoyed this very much.

We travelled to Nerang then to Canungra which is the closest village (45mins) to Lamington National Park. The road going up to the top of the park is spectacular with very tall trees on either side of the road, the road is narrow and windy with dense vegetation but just amazing with the mist coming through it is like another world, a very pretty drive to the lookout.

At the top is a cafe, souvenir shop and also a small theatre where the story of how this park was established. We were given bird seed at the café to feed the Rosellas and wasn’t this great, the birds would land on our heads, arms and shoulders they were so tame it was amazing, a wonderful experience.

We then did the Tree Top Walk which consists of 9 suspension bridges up to 16 meters above ground, the beautiful Fig trees with stranglers hanging on.

On one of the shorter walks we saw pademelons and lizards hiding in among fallen tree branches and scratching around the ground for food.

We had lunch in the grassed area near the café and were surrounded by White headed and Topknot Pigeons, Wonga Pigeons, Black Faced Monarchs, Rufous Fantails and Robins such an array of birds it was wonderful all looking for a hand out.

This is a place no one should miss if you visit Queensland it is beautiful.

The Sunshine Coast of Queensland very busy we stopped and had a look around in Mooloolaba which has a lot of restaurants, good ocean beaches and the riverfront.

Lots of sailing vessels moored here and large fishing trawler fleet.

We visited The Wharf with its boutiques and eateries and on Fridays the ‘Twilight Markets’ a spectacle to be seen.

From Mooloolaba we visited family on Bribie Island it was a lot longer than expected the road out to the island along the Pumicestone Passage is quite long but a beautiful drive. The island is 34kms long by 8kms wide and one third of this is National Park, due to the wildlife that permanently live and migrate to this area every year.

The Natural Bridge located in the Springbook National Park is a naturally formed rock arch over Cave Creek, a tributary of the Nerang River, which eventually flows to the coast near the Gold Coast.

The Natural Bridge was formed from a waterfall which undercut a cave beneath the waterfall and dug a pothole on top, until the two joined and the creek flowed through the cave, leaving an arch across the front.

This is in the same area as Lamington National Park with the same vegetation and wonderful bird and animal life.

Australia Zoo is a 100 acre zoo located near Beerwah and the Glass House Mountains.

It was originally called Beerwah Reptile Park run by Bob and Lyn Irwin in 1970, with Steve Irwin working with his parents and maintaining the growing park in 1982 with the name changed to Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park then with more expansion the name again changed this time to Australia Zoo and under this name has won many tourism awards.

The Animal wildlife hospital has been built, the largest in the world with other expansions of African Safari and many more.

We enjoyed our time at the zoo in the crocoseum where we saw the snake handling exhibition, tigers with their handlers, crocodiles been fed and the birds flying in among the crowds all with great talks on all these animals.
We also enjoyed walking around seeing all the animals in their beautiful habitats they are so well cared for.
We will go back again next time we are in this area to visit and catch up on more of the expansion and new exhibits that are sure to have been built there hopefully with more time to spend enjoying this wonderful zoo.

Currumbin has been around for yonks just about everyone who came to Queensland brought their children to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and now we have grandchildren hopefully one day they will get the chance to visit this wonderful park.

There are hundreds of native Australian animals on display in their natural bushland and rainforest habitat.

Cuddle koalas, walk among kangaroos, get close to crocodiles, see reptiles and marsupials amazing sculptures, mini train rides and more truly enjoyable fun things to do.