Queensland holiday 24th July -8th August 2025

We have experienced many issues which have caused us to delay our travels in 2025.

First, Jeanette is heavily involved with her Ionian Club as hostess and needs to be available for fortnightly meetings and then the monthly Members meeting and luncheon at Kooyong.

Secondly , Ken was diagnosed with Prostate cancer in March 2025 and has been seeing two specialists and undergoing treatments over the year to date. He currently has a gap in the treatments before recommencing on 12th August for 20 plus sessions of radiation therapy.

So after all of the travels and associated planning, and our love of cruising this has had to take a back seat for the first 7-8 months of 2025.

We travelled to Melbourne airport after an early pick up by Gavin.at 7.00am and a 45 minute trip to Melbourne airport. traffic was reasonably light and we arrived at the check in at 7.50am.

We processed through self checkin and then deposited the case at the drop off and activated the golf clubs which we then needed to be taken to the oversized luggage drop off.

Then we went through Security and then walked to Gate 8 arriving at 8.20am which left an hour to departure of QF876 to the Gold Coast at 9.20am. All has worked well.

The flight boarded at 8.50am and we went up the back stairs , although with seats at 17A and 17B we were told we could have used the ramp up through the front.

The flight was smooth and uneventful and we enjoyed the hot snack.

Upon arrival we collected our case and then went to collect the Golf clubs from the oversized area.

Unfortunately, our brand new suitcase has lost a wheel and Jeanette lined up to make a claim. She was given a form and we are try follow up.

We’re drove the 25 minutes to the Surf Club , had a most enjoyable lunch overlooking the Surf Beach and appreciating the warmth on a near perfect day. After lunch we visited Woolworths and bought a couple of things then drove up to the Sofitel Broadbeach and checked and we had used our Accor Free night and paid to upgrade to a Suite with views over the beach areas. Simply amazing.The view is stunning across the whole Gold Coast area. The suite is beautifully laid out.

We went out for a walk and stayed in eating snacks and having a drink after the enjoyable luncheon at the Coolangatta Surf club.

We are fortunate with our Accor and Hilton Memberships which we maximise to best use.

Into bed at 1030pm, and we both slept very well.

Ken went out for breakfast items and we enjoyed a light breakfast then began to pack after sitting in the sun enjoying the scenery.

We departed the Sofitel at 11.10am, as they were fully booked and couldn’t extend. We derive back from Broadbeach to Coolangatta and we were surprised that the light rail extension to Burleigh Heads has progresses a significant disatance since our last visit to this party of the world.

We purchase sandwiches and sat in the park beside the beach with these and cold drinks. We then hoped we could check in at our resort here at Cabarita Beach. We departed Coolangatta at 1.45pm and drove the 20 minutes back across the NSW border into the hinterland of the Tweed Coast. It is stunning farmland and tropical forest areas, but we then drive though these to the resort areas where there are Peppers and several other resorts near Kingscliff. We arrive at Tamarind Sands Resort at 2.30pm and we are advised that our unit 314 is cleaned and available for check in.

The 2 Deb room and 2 bathrooms is very comfortable. We then proceed to unpack and square everything away in the many drawers and cupboards.

We then have a drink as a celebration of our holiday then enjoy dinner of a roast Chicken together with Roast vegetables and Salads. Then we have ice cream etc for desert and finally a lovely cappuccino .

It has been a terrific first couple of days.