The Sydney to Brisbane drive (Day 6)

Byron Bay is famous for its sunrise because it is the most easterly point of Australia. The reason we stopped for a night at Byron was so that we could catch that infamous sunrise. BUT IT DID NOT HAPPEN!!! It rained throughout the night, through till morning. Just look at how gloomy and wet the weather was!

Disappointed, we started our drive early towards Mullumbimby, where Crystal Castle was.

We were so early, we were the first to arrive and had to wait for them to open!

After purchasing our entry tickets, we were greeted by the Sand Castle.

Then, we walked past the Water Pourer Pond to the music of croaking toads.

There was a piece of giant Sahara fossil...

... and a statue of Dewi Sri.

On the other side, there was something called the Rose Quartz Sacred Circle.

Look at those gigantic pieces of rose quartz!

There were two amethyst gateways, with one leading to the Elephant God, Ganesh.

I followed the path through the gateway onto the Buddha Walk and passed Lakshmi, Goddess of Abundance.

At the end sits Lord Buddha atop his lotus mosaic. They claim that the statues are all carved from Gunung Merapi volcanic rock.

Audrey walked the Labyrinth, which was a walk of spiritual reflection.

Inside the main building, there was a spiral staircase that led up to the Reading Tower, which was where I had a go at my very first session of tarot card reading! Quite interesting, I would have to say. Now, I would have to see if part of what she said comes true (one issue I would have to wait till the end of the year!).

We fed ourselves at Lotus Cafe.

We both had balsamic mushrooms and tomatoes on pesto paste, which I thought spruced up every taste sensation in my mouth very well.

I gave something called the LSD a go. It stood for latte with soy and dandelion. Hm, interesting combination, I thought. The taste needed some getting used to, though.

We did some shopping, too. Audrey bought herself a lovely little suncatcher while I bought two windchimes. Both made from agate, I bought one in bright pink and another in brown.

Crystal Castle
81 Monet Drive, Mullumbimby, NSW 2482
02 6684 3111 (Tel), 02 6684 1196 (Fax)
E-mail: info@crystalcastle.com.au
Daily 10:00am to 5:00pm
Adults $14.90
Concession $12.90
Children $10.90
Family (2 adults, 2 children) $39.00
Byron Shire residents by donation

As we spent a longer time than expected at Crystal Castle, we had to cut short our walk at Wollumbin National Park.

We were both wondering what 'fruit' this was, as it was as big as a fifty cent coin!

From the originally planned three hours, we made it half an hour. Actually, next time (if there is a next time), a day or two would be dedicated to this park.

We were, or at least, I was pretty glad to be driving in the direction of Gold Coast, finally. That would mean that we would be in a different state, a different time zone!

Raffles Royale was just like how I remembered it to be.

The only difference was that when I was here back in 2008, I shared a two-bedroom apartment with five other people.

I totally forgotten to take a picture of the pool, which Jenny, Angeline, Chee Sing and I fully utilised the last time we were here.

Raffles Royale
69 Ferny Avenue, Surfers Paradise, QLD 4217
07 5538 0099 (Tel), 07 5538 0688 (Fax)
E-mail: info@rafflesroyale.com.au

One other down side was that we did not have an empty bottle for Audrey to collect some of the sand from the beach at Surfers Paradise.

Distance covered today: 163km

Gold Coast: Surfers Paradise

Boy was this trip packed with thrills and spills! As we are cheapskates, we bought the first Jetstar flight to Gold Coast that departed at 6:30a.m. Crazy right? Well, seems that the whole plane was full of crazy people like us. When we arrived at Gold Coast, we bought a Freedom Pass that allowed us to ride on any Surfside bus service for 5 consecutive days, and that included airport transfers from our motel. That was the plus side. The down side was that we waited at the wrong stand and the bus driver didn't bother telling us although we approached him!

Great...

When we finally found out where to go, we realised that it was the same bus driver whose bus we were going to board! Celaka... oh well... and while waiting for the bus to depart from the airport, we were observing a group of (pretty jakun) Malaysians, who must have flew on AirAsia. There was a camera crew and some people directing another group of people on what to do, where to look and all that. And then I saw the word ASTRO emblazoned across some of their jackets. Ah, baru I faham what was going on.

And then, it was onwards to Surfer's Paradise! We checked into a place that looked like a dodgy Polis Diraja Malaysia hostel with typical white walls and blue roof. We gulped. Oh no, please let the rooms be comfy... phew, thankfully, the apartment was in good condition and the lady who ran the place was super friendly. We paid $400 for 4 nights for a 2-bedroom apartment at Raffles Royale. It came with a toilet adjoined to the laundry with a washing machine and dryer, air-con/heater, cable TV and kitchen. Outside, there were barbeque pits, a pool and a jacuzzi. She didn't charge us for the extra rollaway bed, how generous!

After placing our luggages in our respective rooms, we decided to go out for brunch. Our first meal in Gold Coast was such a rip-off! My goodness! For the same price, we'd be having a much better looking, better tasting and BIGGER breakfast in Glebe! I guess feeling extremely hungry has its price to pay. After that, we headed to the beach. I must admit, the beach is spectacular - siky soft and fine sand, clear blue waters and skies and there was A WHOLE FREAKING STRETCH of 'em! Here, let me show you a left, middle and right perspective of what I mean:

Of course, we checked out the shops there as well. I didn't buy anything other than four gemstone bracelets for $10. The following two places we headed to the most because Shaun couldn't decide which cap to get and whether he really wanted the jacket he saw at

and because we had to buy two things on two separate occasions for Auds from

.... sigh, yup, decisions, decisions.

Our first day on the Gold Coast ended with a home-cooked pasta dinner. The next day, there were two additions to our foursome who joined us from Brisbane:

Just in case we'd forget again like we did the day before, we took a pic in front of the arch that greeted beach-throngers to Surfer's:

That night, we celebrated Jenny's birthday at an Italian restaurant. Nic secretly asked for a piece of cake from the waiter, much to Jenny's surprise. She was so happy that she decided to take group pics to commemorate the occasion:

Little did she know that there was another surprise waiting back at the apartment. We bought her a cute little star-shaped chocolate mint ice cream cake from Cold Rock:

And while everyone was relaxing in front of the TV screen, I was busy keeping track of who owed me how much for what. Wahaha, can't believe I actually listed out exactly what it was they had to pay me for...