4 Mar : Brisbane --> Lamington National Park --> Surfers Paradise --> Brisbane

After breakfast, we grabbed a lunch to go for our hike of the day. It was reasonably pleasant in Brisbane and on the road for most of the journey. +Jill wanted to go to Mt Warning but it is closed because of all the rain they have received in the past 4-6 weeks. So we decided to go to Lamington Natl Park (Coomera Circuit) which isn't closed but happens to be a rainforest. As we got up into the mountains, it got darker, and grayer, and ... more rainy. Hence the rainforest. It wasn't too bad as we exited the car that was the ONLY vehicle parked there but as we were looking at maps and trail options in the information centre, it started dumping.

As we drove the additional 1k to the shortest option (a 2k return hike), it was coming down and I declared I would happily wait in the car while Jill walked the trail.

Jill decided to abandon this ship as well - I'm just too scarred from hours in the rain to the top of Mount Kozi. We took a few photos from the car at turnouts and descended back to sunshine, vitamin D, and the Gold Coast.

En route we stopped at a small outlet mall where Jill got 2 bathing suits and I got some new sunglasses for under AUS$175 total. Once we got to Surfers Paradise, most of the beaches were closed. Given that we were dressed for hiking and not swimming, that was fine I guess. I walked the beach while Jill did a 5k run along the coast. We ended up salvaging the day decently. I love hanging out at beaches and even more when the alternative is rain soaked walking tracks.

We walked over to Lure Restaurant where Jill ordered bugs and mud crab for her meal. Both of these shellfish require digging out the meat. Jill did a marvelous job and they gave her a bib which came in handy. I ate my entire main before the mud crab was extracted and ready to eat. So I sat sipping a glass of port while watching Jill consume the meal she worked so hard on removing from the shell.