Rainy days on the Gold Coast

We made our way from Byron Bay up toward the border making a stop at none other than Tropical Fruit World. We actually had never heard of this place but we saw a sign and decided to detour and THANK GOD we did. Because Tropical Fruit World was home to the BIG AVOCADO. We also pick up a bunch of fruit for an extremely good deal, including my favourite, dried banana.

We crossed the border and headed to the famous Snapper Rocks to watch the surf. It was awesome. We didn’t jump in today as we were still a way from our caravan park in the Gold Coast but we made plans to come back after our next destination.

For our next destination we were headed to Moreton Island, a large sand island just off the coast of Brisbane. We had booked our ferry ticket a few weeks before so we were still headed over, despite the forecast of rain.

We drove onto the ferry and took the relatively smooth ride across. We were shocked when we arrived and realised that the ferry landed on the beach and you had to drive straight off the ferry and onto the sand.

We headed to our campsite and luckily we had the foresight to go to Bunnings and buy a large tarp before we departed. It was a good thing we did as we used to tarp to set up a lean to. It was a good place to shelter from the rain but also meant we could leave our chairs and table at camp. We ended up getting 120mm that first day, a crazy amount of rain!!

We spent the next few days exploring the island. The majority of the 4WD track was actually just the beach and the area was tidal, with access around the island only possible at mid and low tide. This meant we would have to travel in the morning, get stuck in an area for 3 to 4 hours before we could then return. Unfortunately due to the rain, the water was quite murky so we couldn’t do the snorkelling we had hoped to do. But we still had a good time exploring and fishing despite the rain.

We saw a bunch of wildlife while we were here too. A tree snake, a python, a stone fish and lots of cool crabs. I posted a picture of me holding a ghost crab onto Instagram and was flooded with messages from people thinking it was a ring. Haha not yet folks! Just a cool crab.

After Moreton we headed back to Snapper Rocks for a few days, hoping to get some surfing in. Unfortunately due to the rain (as it was STILL raining), the water was murky and the swell was huge (8 m waves one day!) so there was no chance I was getting in the water. We instead used the time to get on top of chores by getting the car serviced and doing some washing. We also checked out the HOTA art gallery and bought some incredible wagyu pastrami and beef jerky from the markets.

We are headed inland next, but looks like there is still more rain forecast for the next few days.