After Sydney, I got back home for a week to wash some clothes, clean some room, and pack some bag to head on out for Currumbin! Before deciding on Currumbin, we just knew we want a mini road trip, for about 3 days. It was either up north to Sunshine Coast (which most of us had gone before), or down south towards New South Wales. In the end, we thought that it would make sense for us to search for nice accommodation before we confirm where we wanted to go.
After hours of searching for bed and breakfast (wanted a new experience, darling!), I found the Hanging Rock Chalets, in Currumbin. It looks gorgeous, doesn't it? Away from city life, where we can go and prop our feet up and listen to the sounds of nature. And it's very cheap too! $300 for 2 nights for the 4 of us. Each person only $32.50 per night. What a deal!
After swipping the plastic over the phone (That's rather scary right? You don't know what will happen to your details), we rented a car, waited for R to arrive in Queensland, wondered over our budget, debated about whether to have a BBQ or not, and we drove on out!
Since all of us do not own a car here, we wanted to eat lunch outside the local vicinity. Went to the much recommended Vietnamese restaurant at Sunnybanks: Hien Vuong!
We ordered a plate of raw bean sprouts, lemon, chilli, and sweet basil. Budgeting, remember? ):
To go with our beef noodles!
The noodles was quite good, although I would have preferred it to be a little less sweet. Nevertheless, good to be on the road with a full stomach. Let's get back on!
Because we had not been to the chalets before, we drove rather slowly. Even more interesting was the fact that the street directory we had did ended at Currumbin. Bah! Good luck to us! The map that was sent to us had a "98" on it. We naturally thought that would mean exit 98. But when I checked on this site earlier, it wrote to exit at Stewart Road. When we passed exit 95, it wrote there Stewart Road. So was it exit 98 or 95? We took exit 95. Luckily for us, we were on the right track. Strangely, although the chalets are supposed to be a little more than an hour's drive from Brisbane, we reached there 3 hours later, with a lunch thrown in.
The place was not visible for the main road, which was what makes it perfect for a short getaway I suppose. If you are going there, drive along Pacific Highway, exit at Stewart Road (Exit 95). Travel along Currumbin Creek Road for 8km then turn into Tomewin Mountain Road for another 6.7km. Look out for the small signboard that says "Hanging Rock Chalets" on your left. Turn in and go straight up to find the main house, which is where the reception is.
I love the place! It was even better than the pictures, because you get to breathe in the fresh air and enjoy the wonderful sounds. When you walk into the chalet, you will see the dining and living area (with TV) on your right and the kitchenette on your left. The kitchenette is well-equipped with two stoves, an electric kettle, lots of cutlery and utensils, and even salt and pepper grinders. These are the small things that make you feel right at home (although we don't even have these luxuries at home). The liquid detergent they gave us are not those cheap-skate homebrands we use at home, but those that are really gentle on your hands! 100 marks! We get a decent-sized fridge too. Further in, we have the bathroom and a bedroom with a queen-sized bed facing the huge window. Imagine waking up to the lovely views! Awesome! Coming out from the bedroom, on the left, is a spiral staircase that leads down to the second bedroom, where the bunk bed is. You get loads of windows here too. Amazing views! I think this room can sleep up to 4 because there is also a pull-out bed and the lower bunk bed is a double. I like this place!
The Green Chalet! Pretty, pretty!
The evening skies. Lovely, lovely!
As you can see, we had a bit of problem. It was getting dark and we wanted to get groceries for dinner tonight and our breakfast picnic tomorrow. However, we didn't really know the way well. Earlier, I had asked the girl who received us where the nearest supermarket was. She told us that we could turn left or right at the foot of the mountain and we would be able to find it.
Sadly, we took the left turn and went all the way into the Mount Cougal section of Springbrook National Park. Haha!! D did a hasty three-point turn and by then, it was truly getting dark. We decided to head back into town, where we had come from after we took the exit. We found a petrol station and stopped to ask the petrol uncle where the nearest supermarket was. You have to understand our anxiety because shops here close at 5pm most of the time. If we didn't get groceries, we would have to survive on chips and Pods. Not very healthy!
The petrol uncle made it sound very easy.
Petrol uncle: You go straight ahead, turn left and cross the bridge. Then you should see it! There's a huge mall called Pines.
Well, it was not very easy to locate! We did as he asked but only saw a sports complex. We decided to turn around there somemore. Just as we were turning out of a wrong turn, I suddenly caught sight of the word "Pines"! Eureka!!! Found it!
What's more, we found Coles and Woolworths. It's quite rare for the two supermarket giants to be located under one roof. We divided up the workload: J and R toLenards to get chicken for dinner, while JY and I went to Coles to grab lettuce, tomatoes, bread, canned soup, eggs, ham, tuna, coke for dinner, and tomorrow's breakfast and lunch.
We went back and the two drivers got their well-deserved showers while JY and I did the cooking. It was fun! But the stupid, stupid chicken did not cook even after a long long time in the oven. Pui! And it was chicken thigh. I hate, hate, hate chicken thigh because it's so chickeny! Bah! Some of the flavours were not bad though there was one that reeked of chicken thigh taste. *shudder*
Let you see our cute toilet.
Toilet, toilet, how clean are you. 3 days later, you'll never be the same again!
The plan was to get back early and rest early because tomorrow we will go to Byron Bay to watch sunrise! That means waking up before we even sleep!
Chilling out at the dining table. I love the dining table. It's made from a solid piece of wood, and is irregularly shaped. Amazing! And it's positioned just beside the windows so you can look out into the darkness to enjoy the view. Perfect!
As the lovebirds went to bed, JY and I did not want to waste our money and miss our first night out at Hanging Rock. We went to the huge deck to sit and sip our hot water. A higly-recommended experience!
1 comment:
That is one unsual table. Quite nice too.
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