The Constant (Failed) Dieter: Travel Log: Gold Coast ~ Australia (Day 4)

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Travel Log: Gold Coast ~ Australia (Day 4)

Previous Day (O’Reilly’s & Tamborine Mountain)

Destination: Gold Coast, Australia
Duration: 6 Days 5 Nights (Aug 21~Aug 26, 2011)

Day 4: Springbrook, Natural Arch & Tropical Fruit World

I’d decided to eat cereal for breakfast today after heavy dinner last night before heading out to join our day tour. Barry was once again our driver cum tour guide of the day. The bus first stopped at Point Danger where Queensland and New South Wales were separated by just a single turning. Accordingly to Barry: during some time of the year, you would lose or gain 1 hour by just stepping over the state line due to daylight saving in New South Wales.

Point Danger - New South Wales & Queensland Border

A View from Point Danger

We then headed to the Tropical Fruit World to have a fruit feast! We were treated with banana with chocolate pudding fruit juice (yummy!), a platter of papaya, star fruit, yellow dragon fruit, blood orange & soursop (aka angmo durian!). The soupsop was particularly tasty! I never thought that it could taste so nice! We were also served with a bowl of nacho with avocado dip – oh mine! This was one of the best dips that I’d ever tasted. I couldn’t even describe the taste! My vocabulary was simply not good enough for this! Only thing I could say was: It was sour and zesty and I guess healthy too? They actually sold the dip ingredients (papaya seed, avocado, Thai chili etc) but it cost AUD30 per package.. simply too expensive for us.

Tropical Fruit World

Fruit Platter - Bon Appetit!

Nachos & the Yummy Avocado Dip

Banana with Chocolate Pudding Fruit Juice

After our morning refreshment, we were shooed to Natural Arch to admire the amazing archway formed over millions of years. Barry told us that Hinterland was actually formed after a volcano eruption where changed the landscape to form all those amazing sites today. The water sprayed over our faces as we approached the arch. It was simply amazing how it was shaped. I heard that if you come to this place at night, you can actually see the glow worm in the cave where we were standing. Hmm.. now I think about it, would it not only water that spray our face but the glow worm’s pees & poops too? Oops! We were also led to the top to see how the water was flowing towards the cave. I must say it was as amazing watching from both below and above!

Random Farm on the Way to Natural Arch

A Look from Afar..

Getting Close!

We are Here!!!

Sprayed by Water and Possibly Glow Worm's Poop!

A Look from Above...

This is How It Flows.

Barry then dragged us away from the area to continue to “The Best of All Lookout” where you stand on the eroded rim of the extinct Tweed Shield Volcano to look at the amazing landscape formed by volcano, rain & time. We were so excited and started to run towards the lookout. We met some other tourist on the way and they grinned and said: “You would be surprised what you see out there!” Now that wasn’t really assuring! We finally reached the lookout and what a surprise instead! We saw a…. Big FAT NOTHING!!! It was so foggy until there was nothing but FOG!!! I was basically laughing hysterically when I saw this. This was simply the BEST lookout!

Running towards it!

Strange Tree!

The BEST of all Lookout??!!!

This is Hilarious!

Lunch was at Springbrook Manor - a English style mansion with 19^th century decoration. We ordered The Manor Chef’s Soup of the day (AUD7.90) & The Manor Chef’s Roast of the day (AUD16.90).

Springbrook Manor

The Interior

Welcome by Cute Lil Puppy!

The soup was very thick potato soup. If it got any thicker, it could be mashed potato. It was served with very crispy bread and butter. The roast consisted of 2pcs of roasted beef, vegetables & mashed potato. The portion was outrageously huge! The beef was kind of hard to bite though.

Potato Soup & Very Crispy Bread...

Roast of the Day...

After lunch, we continued our journey to Springbrook National Park Canyon Lookout. Fortunately the fog had cleared at this time and we would see the view clearly. There were lots of waterfalls and if you zoom your camera enough, you could see Surfers Paradise from here. Well at least this was better than “Best of all Lookout”. *wink*

A bit foggy but still ok...

Some Waterfalls from the Lookout..

Twin Falls!

Another Waterfalls!

Surfers Paradise from Afar..

After that, we went to explore the Purlington Falls – one of the taller waterfalls in Queensland as it dives some 100m off an escarpment into the well-forested base. It was really a sight to behold. We went to two different lookout directions just to take some nice photos of the waterfalls.

The Tree is Going to Engulf Me!

Purlington Falls!

A Picture is Compulsory!

Need to Grab Some Water too!

Purlington Falls from Another Angle..

This was our last tour with Scenic Hinterland Day Tours and we were really glad to engage them. They really brought us out to amazing places where typical tour package would not go. Two thumbs up!

For dinner, we went across the street from our hotel to Seafood Empire. The places were packed with tourist and we ordered Fish & Chips (AUD10), Rump Steak (AUD10) & a Vodka Cruiser (AUD 8). The Fish & Chips was ordinary but the Rump Steak was tender & yummy!

Vodka Cruiser

Fish & Chips!

Rump Steak!

After that we went for a short walk to Woolworths, Surfers Paradise Night Market and some surrounding area before calling it a night. A fun trivia – the police station was right in the midst of some nightclubs and strip clubs! How cool was that?