Family Vacation to Australia - Day 1, arrival at Gold Coast

In end June, my family embarked on a journey to Australia for our vacation. I was so glad that I had the itinerary worked out before I started work in late March. We decided on a F&E trip as we planned to meet up with my friends who are studying and working in Brisbane. And we pretty much prefer to travel at our own pace with 2 kids on tow.

Though I was still suffering from jet lag as I have just returned from LA on 29 June noon and I had to check in again that evening, I was looking forward to the much-anticipated vacation. I was praying hard that the kids could sleep through the flight journey as that was one of the reasons why we prefer night flights.

The kids getting all excited about the holidays

There was a zoomoo ride area at T3 basement and I had the last token left from the previous session. It was closed when we reached but the staff were kind to let the kids go on the ride when they saw us. Thumbs up for good service!

Roaming about the airport before we entered the departure gates. It was 10plus in the evening and they still looked so energetic.

All ready on board for the 8 hours flight to our holiday destination. Now they both need to get a seat of their own. Gone are the days of bassinet and infant seat belts.

The flight journey started out fine as there is Frozen in the in-flight entertainment. So I thought we are saved as Frozen will be good enough to entertain them. Soon after, both of them dozed off and I wanted to get a wink too. But I was unable too. Arghhh! Jet-lagging!

1.5 hours later, the kids seems to get uncomfortable and Jayven snuggled up to me to sleep. Janelle woke up at this time and saw me hugging didi and she wanted me to carry her in my arms too. I was unable to and asked her to sleep near to me. Then both of them started to shift about and kicked and whacked each other which led to them crying out loud. Gosh! Totally unexpected. They have been travelling quite a bit and this was the first time that they were unable to sleep well. Nonetheless, we managed to distract them with in-flight entertainment and food. But I was not able to catch any wink at all.

Arrival at Brisbane Airport. Milk for breakfast!

The kiddos with their grandma while waiting for me to freshen up at the ladies

We picked up our car at the car rental counter in the airport and loaded all our stuff before we start on the one-hour journey to Gold Coast. The first stop was to check in at our accommodation, Bel Air on BroadBeach. We booked a 2-bedroom apartment as there are 5 of us in total. The apartment is spacious with living room, kitchenette and balconies.

The living room in Bel Air

The scenery from our apartment

We freshen up after checking in and time to explore the surroundings

Opposite the apartment is one of Australia's largest shopping complexes, Pacific Fair Shopping Centre (the building behind us). Needless to say, the climate was cool yet sunny judging from our dressing with the shades. Perfect weather!

Oh! it was my birthday then! So I'm getting a birthday kiss from my boy!

And one from my firstborn

We planned to get a pocket wifi when we arrived at airport but Vodafone was the only counter and they were not able to activate the pocket wifi. I cannot remember if the network was down or what was the reason hence they cannot activate the sim card.

When we reached Pacific Fair, we tried to get the pocket wifi again at Vodafone but they were facing the same problem. Eventually we gotten the pocket wifi from Optus.

After satisfying our tummies, we decided to explore the huge complex. But we were not able to cover much as they close at 5.30pm and it was already 4pm when we reached there. We went to Toys R Us in search for Frozen merchandise but no luck. Eventually we went to Coles to get some snacks, dairy products and drinks for our one week stay in Bel Air.

By the time we were done and stepped out of the supermarket, the skies was dark. Time checked. 5.30pm! It was like 9pm back in Singapore. Well, it was winter in Gold Coast so we expected short day and long night but still it took us a while to get used as the skies turn dark before we even had our dinner when we were there.

With all shops closed at 5.30pm, we head back to our apartment to have an early night as everyone did not slept well earlier and we expected the next few days to be tiring with lots of activities planned.