RTW - week 27 (unplugged)

We arrived in Gold Coast feeling emotionally and physically drained. Our last 2 weeks in WA were starting to drag, leaving even Hunter saying on our last night “I’m glad we are leaving tomorrow, I don't love it here”

(Way to keep your thoughts to yourself Hunter!)

It wasn’t the house's fault, nor the location that we were in (although the constant rainfall and cold temps didn't help!). We were starting to get anxious for our next step. Travelling place to place every 2 weeks is a far cry from a normal life, but it has become ours these past few months, and we have become quite comfortable with this pace.

When our last day did come around, we made our way to the airport a good 6 hours before our flight was to depart. Now I know that we always arrive early (and this is a domestic flight meaning we probably could have shown up 10 mins before our flight departed) but remember - we want to get a move on, so we waited at the airport for 6 hours before boarding our midnight flight, ahead of what would most likely be a sleepless night.

All 5 of us dragged our butts off the airplane at 6am local time (4 am body time) with next to no sleep. (We are starting to really nail this "walking zombie" look).

It was pouring down rain so we opted to splurge and take an Uber to our apartment as opposed to fighting with the local busses and then deal with a 1km (as it would turn out) uphill climb with all rollies and sleeping children. It was the best $36 I ever spent.

Thank you Uber.

We had decided that we were going to take Gold Coast off.That means, no school, no car, no work, no phones, cameras, drones… the list goes on and on. It’s amazing how busy we have been keeping ourselves while on “vacation”.

At first it felt rather strange not documenting, if even for my own terrible short term memory. We would go for a hike through the National Park to stumble upon breathtaking scenery, wild turkeys, the most incredible trees and not be able to take a single image.

Aside from preserving my own memory, I had to ask myself again and again, why am I documenting all thisconstantly?

Who cares if I comment or photograph the 87th park I visit in Australia. Seriously.

So our days in Burleigh looked like this; beach, bike ride, BBQ, playground, supper followed by evening soak in the communal hot tub, before reading in bed.

It was so painfully boring and incredibly rejuvenating all at once.

We spent so many hours out on our balcony watching the Humpback whales breach and the surfers. It was incredible! And yes, it is much better seeing these animals in their natural habitat. Definitely worth waiting the 2 years for!

Here in Burleigh you have some amazing waves for surfing and body boarding. Every day Hunter and Lily would spend their afternoon on their boards, but Hunter wanted to take it up a notch.

He came up beside me one evening on our walk home and said quietly "I think I would like to learn to surf".

Hunter doesn't ask for anything from us, and he doesn't show much interest in many new things, so we immediately jumped on this and signed him up for a surfing lesson the very next morning. An hour before his lesson was to start we received a phone call saying that his lesson had been moved from Burleigh to Surfer's paradise (a 45 min bike ride) so off we went with baby seat and tagalong in tow, down the highway to make it on time.

I am sure we were quite the sight, our large family, biking down the highway, at record pace to make his lesson!

He has been bitten by the surfing bug BIG time, so we picked him up a rental board on our last day for him to practise on. All day long he rode those waves!

We hit the jackpot with our house swap. We are on the 14th floor of a condo tucked between the national park and the beach. It’s absolutely perfect!

{To follow up with what Hunter said the day that we were leaving WA, Hunter also mentioned a few weeks back that Switzerland and Croatia were his favourite homes.

Keep in mind, both these places were 1 bedroom apartments where the kids all slept together and Bryan and I slept on the couch. These were not extravagant homes by any stretch.

He didn’t care for the “backyards” at either of these places (because lets be real - both countries are incredible) what he loved was that we were all jammed into one place.

He and his sisters shared a room and we had NO INTERNET. Remember? We spent our days playing UNO and walking. That’s it.}

Kids don't want much do they? Nor do they require much, they only want time. Your undivided time. And let's be honest, we require that to. All these distractions just keep us from being content in our own skin.

I think we can all learn a lot from that; I know I have.

I think I am going to look back on Gold Coast and not remember much in a year or two because of the lack of photos. But what I will remember is the feeling that bubbles up deep down each time I think about it.