2025 Queensland List

We left home at 8:30am for our Virgin flight to the Gold Coast. The flight was uneventful and we arrived on time and collected our hire car - a small SUV which was sort of huge.

Anyway off we went to Peppers (Soul) in Surfers Paradise - we stopped at Dan Murphy's on the way and arrived around 1pm. We could check-in right away so we dropped our luggage and went off to find some lunch. We had one of the worst pizzas ever then went back to the unit to unpack and do some grocery shopping.

We finished off the day with a beach walk and dinner at home (steak).

We spent the day doing a mega beach walk and otherwise lazed about - we had dinner out at Seascape - a good choice and very close by.

We drove about 1 hour to the hinterland for a 2-hour bushwalk - it was a warm and dry day so no leeches. We had an apple and a slice of cheese for lunch.

We had dinner at home - lamb fillets.

It was another bushwalking day - pretty much the same as yesterday. Back at home we had dinner at Omeros at the Mirage Marina - which it turns out is being demolished for redevelopment - only a couple of restaurants remain open. There is also a Ritz Carlton and super-yacht marina being developed right beside it.

We had another mega beach walk then later in the afternoon we did a 1.5 hour river cruise - checking out all the mega mansions along the shore. As the boat made it way back the captain declared it was Happy Hour so we each had a Margarita at the very reasonable price of $10.

We stayed home for dinner of pasta and salad.

We got up early (as we have every morning due to Queensland jet-lag - no day light saving here) - packed up and drove to Spicers Tamarind.

It was about 2.5 hours drive and we arrived around 1pm - we were told our villa would be ready in 20 minutes so they offered us a glass of sparking wine in their bar.

We got to our villa (the Orchard Villa #14) which was really nice - 1 bedroom, lounge, kitchen and lovely deck overlooking the bush. We ate the pre-made sandwich I had brought then unpacked.

We lazed about until dinner at the Tamarind (i.e. in-house restaurant) - it was sort of an Asian inspired mishmash - $99 for 3 courses like it or not. The meal was OK but far from fine dining.

Breakfast, which was included in our room rate, was pretty good but to our surprise juice was $5 extra !! Breakfast started out with a "vitality shot" and seasonal fruit (which was a very small portion of very ordinary fruit). I had muchrooms with poached eggs and Dieter had Roesti with poached eggs. My dish came with a huge pile of lovely mushies.

Later we drove the short distance to a reserve for a pretty easy bushwalk - there is an interpretive center which was closed for day. We had a light lunch at the cafe.

Back at home we rested and changed then drove to Maleny (the closest village) for a wander around - not too exciting.

Since Spicers' restaurant is closed Monday and Tuesday we elected to have sambos at home.

I was up very early for a Strata Meeting which commenced at 7:30 Queensland time - since this overlapped with breakfast hours, Dieter went for breakfast on his own and brought me back a "Yoghurt parfait with fruit etc" - without a word of a lie, it was the worst breakfast in recent memory - Spicers should be embarrassed.

When this finished we drove to Kondalilla falls and did the 4.5 km bush walk - it was a well made trail with lots of stairs so it was a bit challenging, made more so by the hot and humid conditions - we completed it in 2 hours.

We stopped in Montville on our way back to our villa - the village is much more up-market than Maleney - we had a light lunch at Poet's Corner, a cafe we had been to some years ago.

Back at home - we had dinner of pasta and salad.

Our short break was over and it was back to Sydney and all the pre-Christmas and New Year's activities. 

We had breakfast (of course) and the only thing of note was I ordered the same mushrooms and poached eggs as the first morning - the previous huge pile of mushrooms was only a small pile this time - very inconsistent for a luxury resort.

It was quite obvious to us that Sunday-Wednesday are very slow days at this resort asisde from ourselves there seemed to be only 1 other villa occupied. We able to secure a midday checkout which was good as our flight was not until 3:20pm.

The flight left on time but had to circle around Sydney for 20 minuts due to congenstion so in the end we only arrived home at 7:30pm. So popped over to Ventuno's for dinner.