I found there is a pretty residential area,Varsity Lakes, in Gold Coast. There is a footpath along the lake. That is very beautiful. I took some photo during sunset, that looks a “art”(I think so)!
Please click here to view the photo album of Varsity Lakes.
Today is the first business day after Brisbane Transport Fare increased. This is 15% Raise! That is very high! I think that is not reason. 15% is much higher than the change of Brisbane CPI!
I was living in Sydney for a year. No Doubts, our Brisbane Bus services are better! We got busway and a lot of new buses which is LPG power and with air-condition. This is very high standard bus service. 15% raise is not affordable. For some people who live in Zone 4 to 5, even they have a Go-Card discount, that will be more $10 for traveling to City! That is crazy!
I found a new tourist attraction in Gold Coast. That is Hinze Dam. According to the information from Wikipedia , the site opened on 19th December, 2011. Therefore, that is only a few days before our visit on 26th December. We could enjoy the brand new facilities.
Those are not just new. They are quite complete. There is a big visitor center. The visitor center exhibition hall which tell you about the history of Hinze Dam, function rooms and public toilets. The center has a lot of indoor public space too! You can have a picnic in there.
Moreover, there is a large parklane. You can have a walk, that is very comfortable. In addition, there are two outlook points in the park. You can enjoy the great view of the Dam.
Besides of the “quiet” features, there are some more active! There are a bike track on the top of Dam.
That is a great place to spend an afternoon with your family.
Please click here to view photo album of Hinze Dam
The way to go there : Driving on Nerang Murwillumbah Road , and turning to Advancetown road. The vistor center is at the end of Advancetown road.
Today is New Year Eve. In Brisbane, there are a lot of events in Southbank. The key event is fireworks on Brisbane River. That is two sessions of firework. The first is at 8.30pm and the other one is at the mid-night. You can watch it in Southbank and Eagle Street. I prefer to watch it in Southbank, because the people will have count-down in there too! But I may not watch it this year. Because that is very cloudy outside, it looks like raining soon!
Springbrook is famous of water falls. There are many good spots to visit as well, such as Best of All Lookout . That is near Gondwana Rainforests. It has the view of South Gold Coast, even as far as Northern NSW. This is a great view. Unfortunately, when we went to there, there was a heavy rain. We could not see much. But there are a lot of clouds, that like walking in the sky!
This lookout is not far from the water falls, that is only about 5 minutes driving. If you go to see the waterfalls, you can go to there as well!
Please click here to view the photo album of Best of All Lookout.
I went out shopping again today. Finally, I found a present for myself. This a 8GB USB Flash Drive. This costs me $8.74 in BIGW. That is near similar with the price in Hong Kong. This is a good deal!
Today is Boxing Day. The most of shops started their end of sales on today. So in “Australian Custom”, today is a shopping day. I went to City for shopping as well. I found Queen Street Mall is full of people. There is a kind of “Human Traffic Jam”. I cannot walk faster, because the foot path is too many people. I entered Myer and David Jones, a lot of people are so busy with shopping.
Even the shops have a long queue to line up for entering their shop! That is crazy!
But there are a huge saving, I saw some goods have 50% off, such as the Sheridan quilt cover in David Jones. Others are at least 20% off!
The things draw my attention a lot is Ultrabook. Dick Smith and Harvey Norman set all Ultrabook on specials.
That is great, but they are too expensive!
Finally, I did not buy anything for myself.
Well, the end of sales has not finished yet, the sales will run to the start of next year! Maybe, I can find something later. Let us go shopping again later!
When I was in Hong Kong, I love to watch Christmas Lights. There was some lights which is about Christmas Stories on the high rise, we can watch on the street. In Brisbane, there is no high rise buildings have lights for Christmas. Instead of, the people will set Christmas in their house. There is a competition for this too! Last night, we went to Liam Court, Calamvale. The houses in that street are joined this competition. Although they are without the help from professional people and big sponsors, the lights are so beautiful! I appreciated the effort of the house owners put into that!
They are creative too! I saw one of houses put some Chinese features in their Christmas Lights!
Officially, the Christmas Lights are ended last night. If you live in Calamvale, that is still worth to drive pass there. Maybe, the owners still leaves their Christmas lights on.
If not, then please click here to watch the photo I took last night
Last Night, major shopping centers in Brisbane opened until mid-night. I thought there were a lot of people. But I went to Garden City around 7pm last night. The car park is not full. The shopping center is not busy. I went to there on Thursday too! There were more people on that times. I think that is because there was heavy rains around evening time last night. Moreover, the most of people have done their Christmas shopping.
I just went to Calamvale Central for lunch. For the most of time, the car park won’t be full. Even normally, there is not many car parked in there. But Today there is nearly full of car!
Although the shopping center is not full of people, there are still quite busy. Wow, everyone is crazy about Christmas Shopping!
