It's October and it's school holidays. It means it's Gold Coast time! And luckily, we have a reason to go. Our resident minister is going on their family week and so we are going too!
We were accompanied by the minister's family and the Abingunas. The original plan was that we will be going in the same car as the minister's fam, but we realised we have a wedding to attend to at the end of the week, so we have to go home earlier than the rest. So we decided to drive the Tesla, while the family is joined by the Abingunas in the borrowed 8-seater van.
Sep 29, Sunday
Left home at 11pm to meet up with the rest of the group at the chapel. We all then depart just past midnight.
First stop was at Heltherbrae to charge the car and go for toilet breaks. Then at Port Macquarie for another charge and 30mins sleep. Then we drove 2 hours to Coffs Harbour to charge and have breakfast. And Finally a stop at Harwood to charge for our final stretch to Surfer's Paradise Beach
Sep 30, Monday
Arrive at Surfer's Paradise before 12noon. The rest of the group were already there with the picnic lunch set up at the walk by the beach. After a hearty meal and plenty of laughs, the kids headed to Timezone then we went for pictorial at the plaza. At 3pm we left Surfer's to travel 30mins to our accomodation at Hope Harbour Hotel.
The Hotel was big, but built like a maze. It took us a bit to find our rooms. The rooms were spacious with view of the pool and marina. There were 2 queen beds in each room so it was comfortable. We spent the rest of the day at the hotel, swimming at the pool, and having leftover dinner in one of the rooms. Some of us went to the gym and sauna to cap the night. Lani and I drove out to charge the car again at the station close to Dreamworld.
Oct 1, Tuesday
Woke up early so we can get to Movieworld before it opens, and we did. Upon entering, we immediately headed to the Joker rollercoaster, the longest rollercoaster in the southern hemisphere according to Ethan. Ethan was very anxious as it was the ride where he got turned back 2 years ago because he wouldn't fit. He had been working hard to lose weight the past week so he can ride it. And thankfully we got to ride it without any hassle. In fact he and Yaj were able to ride it twice despite the long queues. It was their first and last rides of the day.
The day was spent queueing and being in rides and attractions, eating, and taking photos.
We left the place at closing time - 5pm, then headed to surfers paradise to eat dinner at the Clock Hotel. They had really good steaks and ribs. Then we walked to the plaza so the kids can play at Timezone again.
Oct 2, Wednesday
Early rise again to head to Seaworld. The queue was exceptionally long. We got to see the Seal and Dolphin shows and the kids went to a variety of rides, including the Levitian, the newest rollercoaster in the park.
Left the park at closing time and headed to surfer's to eat dinner at Kubo Grill. Filipino food at it's finest.
Oct 3, Thursday
Even earlier rise to catch the 6am worship service at the local of Brisbane. Glad to see some friends there, specially the Tarroja family.
After worship we headed to Oxenford to shop at Aldis and Wollies for our food at Wet n Wild. We rented a Cabana so it was a comfy picnic. The kids spent the entire day in the water and we were able to go on some of the rides as well. Again, we left at park closing time.
We had plenty of food during picnic, so we just ate leftovers for dinner.
Oct 4, Friday
Our family checked out at 3:30am for our trip back to Sydney. We had to attend a wedding at 6pm.
We had a bit of charging situation because we only had 30-% to start the trip and the next stop that would leave us with only 12% ended up closed until 6am. We drive to the closest supercharger which left us with 7% but we couldn't find it. We found a destination charger in the hotel but we didnt have the right cables to use. Deciding to go back to the previous stop which would leave us with less than 3% left and we had to wait 1.5hours for it to open. Which meant we will miss the wedding. However I decided to look the closest supercharger using a different app (Evie) and managed to find them not too far from us. We were able to charge to 80% and were back on the road at 4:30am.
4 stops more for charging and rest, and we reached home at 3:30pm. Just enough time to get ready for the wedding.
0 Comments