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Gold Coast, Australia -Oct. 25, 2000
Position: Gold Coast, Australia -Oct. 25, 2000 The Gold Coast of Australia is north of Sydney several hundred miles and is the Miami Beach of Australia. It has magnificent beaches for many miles with hundreds of high rise condos. It is the vacationland of Australia. We were fortunate to have two of our families spend time with us in Australia. The Hoopers, Teri and Rich, from Aspen joined us in Sydney for the last couple days of the Olympics. We all watched the closing ceremonies from Seaquell anchored close to the fireworks almost under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. With the Hoopers we toured Sydney area by bus to the Blue Mountains. We flew to Ayers Rock and Uluru that are unusual large red rock formations in the middle of the continent near Alice Springs. It is one of Australia's famous tourist attractions with 5 hotels and new airport built just for this site. Visiting the area you realize how barren the centre and west of the continent are. You also realize that Australia is as large as the US and has a population of only 20 million. The British started a colonized life, other than the Aborigine Indians, some 200 years later than America. We enjoyed driving up the east coast from Sydney to the Gold Coast. This gave us the opportunity to see the coastline from the land. 90% of the population of Australia live within a few hundred miles of the east coast. 50% of the continent is uninhabited due to not being able to make a living off the land of central and western Australia. Our 3 days travel up the east coast with the Hoopers gave us the joy of seeing this new area together. Continuing north from the Gold Coast we met the Campbells, Tamie and Bob from Mpls in Brisbane. All of us flew to Hamilton Island to meet Seaquell. All six of us spent several days on the Barrier Reef with our Captain Peter Verdon and the crew. We were introduced to the underwater beauty of this fabulous gift of nature. The few days we had together were filled with excitement and fun. We snorkelled the reefs, had a picnic on an island beach, explored island trails. Our family time together was short but we were fortunate for this quality time we had together in such a special part of the world. |
