We arrived in Brisbane early on the December 16th and my cousin Sean was a sweetheart and picked us up. It had been about 12 years since the last time we had seen each other and boy had he aged. Anyways we made our way to my uncle and aunt's (Dave & Viv) place in Surfers Paradise where we stayed for the first week.
Once we arrived at their building, Candice and I realized that we were staying in one of the most iconic buildings in Surfers, the Q1. It’s a giant 78 floor building just a block from the beach and is one of the tallest residential buildings in the Southern Hemisphere. Surfers Paradise is a major tourist spot 45 south of Brisbane. The area is full of hotels, large apartment buildings and canals lined with homes and boats.
Later in the day we headed out to see Sean's home. Sean lives in Currumbin Valley which is a short drive inland from the beach. His house sits up and looks over the jungle-like valley. Behind his house is a variety of avocado, lime, orange, banana and mango trees. Sitting on his deck you can hear the Cicada's (similar to a cricket) chirp; they are so loud at times that you have to raise your voice to speak over them. Once night falls the Cicada's grow quiet and the Toad's start getting noisy.
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| View from Dave & Viv's condo |
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| Beautiful Q1 building (the tallest glass one in the center) |
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| Surfers Paradise boardwalk |
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| Surfers Paradise boardwalk |
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| Dave and Viv taking a stroll along the beach on a rainy but warm day |
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| Mango tree at Sean's place |
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| Micheal standing on driveway to Sean's house |
We stayed with Dave & Viv for the first week and then moved onto Rachael & Mikes apartment. We spent lots of time visiting with everyone, looking for a car, going to the beach and relaxing in the beautiful pools at the Q1. We also enjoyed our first Christmas with down under where my family spoiled us with a great holiday dinner and gifts.
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| Rachael on xmas morning with her new watch |
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| Xmas morning at Mike & Racheal's |
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| Lyric and Baylee on their new slip n' slide on a very hot xmas day |
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| Dave hanging out |
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| Trev and Sean watching Baylee open her gifts |
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| Delicious xmas dinner |
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| Sophie (Dav & Viv's dog) enjoyed opening the stocking we got her |
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| Viv opening her gifts |
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| Sean, Mike and Travis having some xmas drinks |
Since arriving in Australia we have been lucky enough to see the following wildlife: wild kangaroos – one had a baby in its pouch, wild Cockatoo Parrots - white with yellow under the wings and on their head, Flying Fox - giant giant bat!, large blue Jellyfish - while standing on a bridge looking into the canel water, thousands of white smaller jellyfish, dolphins - while sitting next to a river that ran into the ocean in Bellina and a "baby" Huntsman spider - it may have been a baby but it was still the biggest spider we've ever seen (don’t worry Alex.. we were out at Sean’s in the middle of jungle-land and had to go looking for it to find it outside at night.. didn’t see it in the city or inside or anything like that). And we heard a Kookaburra sing!
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| Sign near Sean's home |
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| Kangaroo with a baby in its pouch in the grassy area in a small community on the way out to Sean's |
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| Wild Cockatoo |
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