Last days in Burleigh

We've found it enjoyable over the last week to keep to our beach holiday routine of walking, swimming, relaxing, coffeeing, wining and dining each day. The weather, up until today, has been beautiful so why not just enjoy the warmth and the sea air and all the good things on offer while we can?

We've had one or two outings outside Burleigh ...... last Tuesday we drove to Pacific Fair, parked the car and then caught the new (to us) light rail to Cavill Avenue in Surfers Paradise.

The light rail service was impeccable: clean, quick and easy to navigate. But we were a bit shocked by the Cavill Avenue area. Decades ago it was known for its classy shops and restaurants, but now it is all surf shops, fast food eateries and tattoo parlours (just waiting for a schoolies week invasion I guess). And the buildings are so tall ... they cast long shadows over these iconic beaches in the late afternoon.  Manly in Sydney is positively laid back in comparison....

Our second outing was much quieter, southwards to Kingscliff Beach, where we made a return visit to the Kingscliff Hotel for a late lunch (and an early g & t for me!)

There's always great pride taken in the meals served at this Pub. I had baked figs (YUM!) and Rob had a whole barramundi - a beautiful lunch!

And aside from our two outings this week we've continued with wine o'clock on the balcony each evening, around sunset ..........

Complete with the super bright "pink moon" rising on Tuesday night ..........

and morning coffees after our long walks. The Commune Cafe and the Paddock Bakery are our faves...........

while admiring the lush plantings everywhere - so different to Canberra gardens. This Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise) grows like a weed here (and only available at specialist florists in Canberra).

We have continued to eat well here too. Burleigh has a very diverse and quite interesting food scene for its size. "Red Hot Cod" was a great choice one night - and prompted me to consider serving baked salmon in a Balinese style satay sauce (gado dado style) when we get back to Canberra!!

And tonight we tried Oi Izakaya, an unassuming Japanese bar/restaurant in one of the laneways off James Street serving the kind of food that goes down well with their great selection of (Japanese) whiskies and sake. We opted for the sake set tonight, trying citrus, umami and floral flavoured varieties with a selection of delicacies that made us very nostalgic for all the wonderful times and great food we've eaten in Japan!!

That Wagyu in the centre of the table, on the hot rock, is still flaming, but Rob is not dousing it with his umami sake! ..........

I was very relieved that Matcha icecream was on the dessert menu - but somewhat overpowered by that death by chocolate soufflé served with it ........

Today we watched the set up being completed for the weekend's "Gold Coast Open" Surfing Championship, over the road from our apartment. We'll have an excellent view from our balcony - but it probably means it will be pretty hectic around here while it's on so maybe it's just as well we'll heading back home on Sunday, after our fabulous two week break.

Hopefully we'll be back to Burleigh some time - it has so much to recommend it!!

More Burleigh

We've been in Burleigh a week now, and settled into a very relaxed routine....

1. Morning walk - always 6-7 kilometres, and usually heading North (more coffee options that way). There's always plenty to see, especially this morning, ANZAC Day, with a lot of action over in the park opposite, from dawn onwards, and a service at 10.00am in the town park.

Morning walk views today ..........

2. Morning coffee - our two favourite places are The Paddock Bakery in Nth Burleigh ...... great coffee and in a very pretty location (the garden and verandah of a cute older style house) .......

And our other favourite: The Commune Café on the Gold Coast Highway, near Ellen's family's apartment. We were so happy to get a table there this morning on a very crowded Sunday morning that we celebrated with a full breakfast as well as our coffee (yummy coriander fritters, poached eggs and lots of avocado)........

Yesterday morning on our walk we hit the jackpot with a visit to the Saturday fresh food markets at the local school. Indoor plants so healthy and so cheap.........

Beautiful local produce - so fresh (and so cheap). Pick any 3 for $5!

All my favourite food groups...........

These bunches of herbs were $1.50 each!!!

So many passionfruit ($5 a bag) ........

And cool old cars are quite a thing here. Rob enjoys having a good look and sending pics to Joshy .......

3. Then we go swimming - at our local Burleigh Beach ........ some people might say the surf has been quite flat here this past week, but it is just the way I LIKE IT...... and the pristine Pacific Ocean seems so warm by our South of Queensland skins..........

4. It's often about 3.00pm by the time all that is done ..... time for some reading and relaxation, before it's  ..............

5. Wine o'clock - possibly our favourite time of the day, sitting on our balcony, sunset watching, people watching and enjoying a glass of whichever carefully chosen wine Rob has selected for our enjoyment this week.

While enjoying the sunset chorus of noisy lorikeets in the pine trees over the road and the occasional visit of this nosy (and sometimes noisy) kookaburra!

6. Then its time for dinner.... something simple in the apartment if we've eaten out during the day - but there are some interesting options around Burleigh too (Jimmy Wah's has been a favourite so far). Walking to our dinner date is another opportunity to admire the sunset light show............

It's a hard life but someone's gotta do it!

Burleigh holiday

We decided to head south this morning for our morning walk - along our street a little way to the start of the Burleigh Head National Park walking tracks. The park covers a bit over 27 hectares and is the only rocky headland left on the Gold Coast that remains substantially in its natural state - which helps explain why there are so many native birds around the nearby trees lining Burleigh Beach.

We walked around 5klm today on the tracks through the park. Some of the tracks were quite steep, but always with the reward of fabulous views of the coastline.......

And healthy coastal Pandanus palm sightings (which I love) .......

Getting higher ..........

.... walking through this beautiful littoral rainforest environment - a dry form of rainforest which grows only by the sea......

At the highest point (Tungun Lookout) we had this wonderful view looking southward over the entrance to Tallebudgera Creek. Beyond that we could see all the iconic beaches stretching out to the NSW border: Palm Beach, Currumbin Beach, Tugan, Kirra Beach, Greenmount and Coolangatta way off in the far distance, on this perfectly clear day.

Eventually the track wound itself down closer to Echo Beach (on Tallebudgera Creek). This was the view to the bridge linking Burleigh to Tallebudgera.

We stood for a while on Echo Beach looking over at the creek and reminiscing about holidays spent here, playing and "swimming" in these waters as very young children - well over 60 years ago - yikes! We also fondly remember our year 12 experience of the Education Queensland operated Outdoor Education Centre, located just beyond that line of pines in the pic below. Those were the days!

We followed up our park walk with some wonderful time on the beach today - swimming in the pristine clean ocean off Burleigh Beach. It's been many years now since Rob and I have enjoyed an ocean swim together. Its always been too cold or too rough for our taste since we've got to this very picky stage of our lives - but today it was just PERFECT - and we stayed in for AGES - long enough to be a bit concerned about sun damage - despite our efforts with the SPF50 etc!

Later this afternoon, feeling very noble after our quite active day so far, we drove all the way up to Labrador - Southport, just for the fun of seeing all the beach resorts and high rise havens of Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise along the way.

Labrador and the northern part of Southport face a protected bay/harbour, formed by the Southport Spit. Its where a lot of fishing trawlers come into port so there are some great fresh seafood markets around here.

We ended off our day with some very good quality fish and chips (for Rob) and fresh oysters and prawns for me from one of the markets - which we enjoyed eating in Harley Park facing on to Wave Break Island (and South Stadbroke Island "Straddie" beyond). The seagulls were very envious of our simple but delicious meal.

I don't normally like pacific oysters as much as sydney Rock Oysters - but these were wonderful!

There is a lot to love about a holiday by the sea!