A week on the Gold Coast

(All photos enlarge to full size when clicked)

This past week has been one of those not quite ordinary run-of-the-mill weeks that we have experienced during our life here in Yamba.

It was certainly as traumatic as the fire (November 2017) and, for my wife, definitely a life-changing experience because she was admitted to hospital for open-heart surgery for the replacement of the aortic valve.

The hospital at which the surgeon operates is the John Flynn private hospital at Tugun, on the Gold Coast and literally a stone's-throw on the Queensland side of the QLD-NSW border.

I stayed in an apartment in the Royal Palm resort tower at Palm Beach, less than 10 minute's drive away along the Gold Coast Highway.

This was a very convenient location due to its proximity to (a) the hospital and (b) a Coles supermarket less than 500 metres away. As you can see in the photo below, this location has plenty of construction underway as older buildings are demolished and new, taller, buildings are constructed. And so the unattractive coastal sprawl continues along the Gold Coast.

The apartment I stayed in is very large (2 bedrooms) and most comfortable....and, when the sliding glass doors to the balconies are closed, also very quiet.

I tended to leave the bedroom door slightly open at night and the sound of the surf less than 50 metres away lulled me to sleep....particularly on the night after the operation was performed and I was able to relax more than I had over the previous few days.

When not visiting my wife in hospital I spent some time taking photos of the Jetstar, Virgin and Tiger Air aircraft on their final approach to runway 14 at the Gold Coast airport, less than 6 kms south of the apartment towers.

An RAAF item joined in the fun one morning.......

The aircraft landing pattern had them doing the crosswind leg off the coast and they would turn onto the final a kilometre or so north of my location and pass by and above the tower as they descended.

The photos above were all taken from the balcony beyond the TV set you can see in the second photo of the apartment itself.

All the above pix were taken in the morning or early afternoon.

Here's one of a Tiger Air unit taken as the sun was setting............

The view from the apartment is superb. I was on the 9th. floor so it would be even more so from, say, the 24th. floor.

Looking southward, towards the Currumbin Creek estuary

The rock formation at Currumbin Alley (popular surfing spot)

Surfer's Paradise 20+ kms north.

A few photos from the Currumbin Creek and Tarrabora Reserve area.........

A bush turkey. Quite used to humans and didn't move away.

This stuff is impenetrable!! A natural barrier to everything except a tank!

I'll close with this photo of the sun rising behind the clouds at about 7:30 AM on my fifth and final morning before coming home, with my wife out of ICU after a successful operation and on the road to recovery.

FOOTNOTE:
Here's a little video of a workman commuting to his job on a construction site........