Sanctuary Cove & Danger Point

The sun stayed out all day Saturday, so after work Joel and I headed to check out nearby Sanctuary Cove. This is a suburb north of work and all my clients have been telling me to check it out. It's apparently the Beverly Hills of the Gold Coast. We drove past the Sanctuary Cove Golf Club and of course had to check it out for Joel. This is where pro-golfer Adam Scott plays and he lives in a gated neighborhood nearby. Green fees here are pretty pricey, and a yearly membership is ridiculous- $45000 plus maintenance fees. Guess Joel won't be golfing with Adam Scott anytime soon!

There is also a big marina at Sanctuary Cove filled with fancy yachts. We stopped to watch the boats and enjoyed the best ice cream ever from a little chocolate shop.
Now that we both have regular paychecks coming in, we can finally try out some of the local restaurants. There are so many around us, so I'm hoping we can test out something new each week like we did at home. Last night we went to Hokazuno for Japanese food. We sat right at the grill. The chef asked where everyone was from, and after the neighboring two couples found out we were Canadian, we had some instant new friends. They all live in Brisbane and gave us all sorts of things to see and do on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane. At ten thirty the staff subtly asked us to leave. I still think it's weird that the restaurants close down so early here.

After a few phone calls home to the bros from Joel, we drove half an hour south to Point Danger in Coolangatta. This is basically the divider between the states of Queensland and New South Wales. You can see the entire Gold from the north and down to Byron Bay from the south. (It was cloudy and super windy when we got here, so I'm sure it wasn't as amazing as it would be on a sunny day.) Point Danger was named by Captain James Cook in 1770. There is now a lighthouse memorial in his honor which was the first lighthouse to experiment with laser beams. Point Danger connects the Pacific Ocean to the Tweed River. Due to the rough swells, a dangerous sand bar builds up at the river's mouth. A pipe system was built to pump the sand out before building a bar. Now the sand is pumped away nightly to feed the Gold Coast's beaches.

Surfers Paradise view.

I picked up some Easter treats today that I've been wanting to buy for the last few weeks. I was a bit disappointed by them though, they weren't as good as I thought they'd be.

Tonight we headed down to the restaurant here at our apartment, Kesh. They had a dinner special on that we couldn't refuse! We usually end up at the same table, so the waiter Fernando had "our table" reserved. Fernando is from Brazil and is still working on his English. When he greets us, it's always "Hello Sirs". He has kind of a creepy laugh, so Joel always ends up imitating it on our way home from dinner. Then we always think of the Abba song "Fernando" and get that stuck in our heads for the rest of the night.

There was a state election yesterday. I learned from my clients that elections always fall on a Saturday and that there is a $150 fine for those who don't vote. I'm sure this makes for a lot higher voter turnout then in Canada. It was a landslide win for Liberal leader Campbell Newman (aka Campbell "Can-do") with 70% of the votes. Sounds like it's been awhile since this party's been in power.

Thanks to everyone who's been reading my blog! I was just checking out stats and in three months I've had more readers then all of last year, woo hoo!