KL - Goldcoast - Mount Tambourine

8 June 2014

My first time stepping out of Asia, my first time being surrounded by so many natural blondes and brunets, my first time flying with Air Asia (chuckles). 

My flight was on 7th June, 9.10pm, and we reached Coolangatta Airport at 7.10am, 8th June. Oh yeah, my first time having to walk across the runway from the plane into the airport. They should've warned us or print it on the ticket or something, so I wouldn't wear shorts. -.- 

The runway was so windy and it was still early so the temperature was like 15 degrees. And I, was in shorts. I almost died.

The mom with the jakun brother.

I'd post a picture of the meals but they were so bad I didn't even care to bring out my camera.

We arrived on time, and spent forever at the custom and baggage check, then spent another lifetime walking by the roadside looking for the car rental place, with a map, pulling three luggage bags behind us.

Got the car, pumped some gas, and we drove north towards Mount Tambourine.

The view was gorgeous.

We had the urge to stop by every farm we came across, only to realise later that almost all the Aussie country roads are as mesmerizing. 

Our first stop was the morning market that happens every fortnight. 

My dad and I sort of went a bit overboard with the strawberries, and all the other berries we came across in Australia actually. But throughout the 1 week stay there, the strawberries we had in Mt Tambourine were the juiciest and the sweetest. It wasn't exactly very cheap, but they were so satisfying I had half a box for breakfast.

We came across this tiny stall that sold homemade desserts and pastries.

So we bought 5, one for each, but ended up passing everything in a circle so everyone had a bite of everything.

This was my favourite.

Passionfruit poppy seed cupcake, with the smoothest and creamiest cream I've tasted as fillings.

I hate cream, hence I only like dense cakes like cheesecakes or brownies, and the only bearable frosting to me are creamcheese and chocolate ganache, but the cream in this cupcake was heavenly.

Not captured on camera were chocolate, lemon and passionfruit eclairs, and a lemon cupcake.

In my brother's hand was the crunchiest air-popped popcorns that costed two large TVG caramel popcorns.

The market had loads of handmade crafts and goodies but they were super expensive and we were too hungry to hunt for cheap ones, so we basically ate our way through.

There was this stall that sold jams and compote.

Figs, berries, pear, apples. dates, mangoes, apricots, peaches...

And they served the jams on crackers with fresh cream.

SO GOOD.

And they had an area in the centre of the market with picnic benches and tables so we sat down and had another round of food.

Okay maybe not exactly another meal. We shared a huge German hot dog drenched in mustard, a few cuppa and some really good hot chocolate and this:

Proffertjes are mini pancakes, wiped with fresh butter, sprinkled with icing sugar and you can shower on whatever sauce of your choice. They have maple syrup, strawberry syrup, chocolate syrup, honey and I can't remember the rest at the side of the truck.

Yes they sold this from a truck, just like those mobile pancake or hot dog or ice cream trucks you see in American movies.

The so-called makan spot.

Pony rides.

Australians are brilliant at making money out of the randomest things. They had this, and some smarty-pants set up a small fence-surrounded area and made their own petting zoo.

They fenced up guinea pigs, dugs, geese, hedgehogs, baby goats... And gave the kids little baskets so they can toy with the tiny rodents.

Genius.

Should be the weather.

Aussies have really really pretty dogs.

Like GORGEOUS dogs with clean, smooth, thick fur.

This husky was humongous. It looks small here because you don't have anything to compare it to. But trust me, it was big.

We left the market and dropped by a viewing bay on our way to a vineyard to see glowworms.

A super hot, blonde mom-of-two took this picture for us. She was wearing skinnies and a crop top. It wasn't even a crop top. It was like an undersized tank top just enough to cover her boobs. And her husband was hot too lol. Her two little boys looked like Beckham's kids.

This was our waiting place to wait for our tour into the glowworm cave.

The background is so beautiful it looks kinda fake here.

My sister and I wondered around a little and stuck into their vineyard and private properties.

If this was my home's driveway.

<3

After the glowworm tour we drove to some gallery walk on our way down.

It was basically a very long road, with individual shops by the sides.

All the shops were really uniquely designed, I felt like snapping a picture of every single one of them.

a.k.a. candy store

Fudges are mainly sugar.

And flavours.

But damn they're addictive.

And I had my first ice cream there.

They were just cheap Nestle nice creams, but gosh.

They were better than BR and HD. Not kidding.

This shop sold grandfather clocks and cuckoo clocks. Adorable.

Had my first real meal in a cheap cafe.

The food quality in Australia is so superb, that it made me feel like I've been eating garbage all my life. Everything is so well controlled, and the consistency is always there. And it's actually very very affordable if you don't convert the dollars to Ringgit. I mean, you can never convert because our currency is kind of non-existent when you compare it to dollars. Whatever dollar. You just can't convert.

After our late lunch, we drove north to Brisbane and spent the night in Carissa's future home.