For a final treat after the 2011 Tearle Meet in Brisbane, Ray and Denice took Elaine and I on a whistle-stop tour of the Gold Coast. It was breathtaking. We loved every mile. Here are some pictures of that memorable journey.

Life on the Gold Coast – boating from city to city

Ibis – an icon of the Coast

Highrises on the coast road, Surfers Paradise

Relaxing on the Gold Coast – there’s a hamper full of tinnies in the sea

Cheekie little chappie on a restaurant table

After a hard day’s surfing, you take the taxi back to shore

The beach at Surfers Paradise

The lifeguard’s hut

Balmy days of glorious skies and calm blue seas

Even the public seating is a statement of the lifestyle

Windsurfer

Centaur Remembrance Walk

The end of our trip along the Gold Coast was the Queensland-NSW border. At this point, there is a lighthouse containing a brass strip which marks the border exactly, and a memorial walk. Along the guardrail that overlooks a precipitous drop to the sea are small plaques, one for each of the ships that have been unfortunate enough to founder along the Queensland coast. We looked for the ship which had brought Elizabeth Cooper Cooper and her new son, Egerton, to Australia, the Scottish Prince, but we could see no sign of her. She is nowadays a dive wreck in Moreton Bay, not too far from Brisbane itself. I wonder if Elizabeth called her son Egerton Burleigh, after this place? Because this is Burleigh Heads.

Burleigh Heads Lighthouse

The end of a truly memorable day. Ewart with Ray and Denice Reese near the capstain of the Centaur on the border of Queensland and NSW. The memorial is also, or perhaps is primarily, a lighthouse.

The last memory of our day belongs to a fabulous creature: about a mile out to sea, a pod of whales threw huge plumes of spray into the air and lunged and porpoised in the waves. On a warm evening in Australia, walking and talking with our family and friends, life could get no better.