As I get to know my new home here on the Gold Coast, Australia, lets start with a few things I love about it.

1. Winter – OMG, if this is winter, I’ll take it.  While we haven’t lived through a summer yet, which I understand is vile, these warm, sunny, 20C winter days are amazing!
2. Bike paths – there are bike paths everywhere!  I can bike to the nearest mall which is about a 20 minutes away, virtually the whole way on a bike path – completely through parklands.  Ditto to the GCUH tram station.
3. Trams – speaking of trams, the new stage 2 extension includes a station about 5 minutes walk from our house – bonus!  This will make it super quick and easy to get to the heavy rail line in Helensvale which will be two stops away, or go south towards Pacific Fair.  We need to wait for a year for it to open but its nice to have something to look forward to.
4. Trees – I know NZ has trees,  but now living somewhere that isn’t completely flat after coming from plains, and being able to see trees for miles around is a sight for sore eyes. Likewise the broad expanse of sky we can see from our street at the top of a small rise is incredible for stars.
5. Wildlife – Koalas and Kangaroos are in biking distance, there are even Koala signs up around our neighbourhood.  The birds in our garden and neighbourhood are fabulous – Cockatoos, Galahs, Magpies, Currawongs, Doves, Ibis, Lorikeets, Wood Ducks, Noisy Mynas and Kookaburras.  Plus the dozens of other species I’ve yet to identify.
6. Shopping – I’m completely spoilt for choice now – the advantage of a larger population is having more options.
7. Neighbours – from the minute we moved in, they rallied around and loaned us stuff to get us through the first 10 days until our container arrived.  The neighbour over the back even offered to throw a power extension cable over the fence for a couple of days until we had the power turned on.
8. Beaches –  I HATE sand … but these golden, sandy beaches are very inviting.  I’m looking forward to taking the doglets to visit once we have a car.
9. Fruit – again the choices!  But not to mention the prices too.  Yesterday we bought 3kg of beautiful navel oranges for $3, bananas $0.49kg, Rockmelon $0.99 each, mandarins $1.99/kg.  If we had a car we could have bought a box of oranges or pumpkins for $10.  We’ve also recently bought pineapples for $0.49, watermelons for $2, pumpkins for $0.99 – thats each, not per kg.
10. Proximity – there are so many fabulous places that we will have the opportunity to explore due to our new home base.  Beautiful Brisbane city is an hour away.  Spectacular Sydney and its gorgeous harbour and Melbourne with its Victorian heart are only a short flight away.  Tasmania where I have been keen to visit for years is now much easier to get to.

The future looks bright and sunny.