The original Wednesday plan –
If weather forecast for Wed/Fri=good & did not go to Dreamworld Tuesday –
Dreamworld –
If we did go to Dreamworld Tuesday –
q1 – morning view
Pacific Fair OR Harbour Town
q1 evening view
DINNER – In @ Peninsula
With Dreamworld now being closed, it was Pacific Fair for us today. Again we were up at the crack of dawn, 5am. We sat around for a bit just enjoying the beach views, had breakfast, got up and dressed. We were in no rush to go anywhere and just enjoyed hanging out and chatting. Around 10:30 we headed downstairs and went to the local owl store – the one who had the door problems the day before. When we got there, people were actually working on the doors. I guess the day before fix was only temporary. The Go cards cost us $10 each and meant we could ride as many times as we wanted for the day.
We decided to go towards the university and hospital end of the track first. Trams appear quite regularly and it was not a long wait before we could board. The strange part is the tap on and tap off. I would expect that to be on the tram itself however the tap device is actually located on the stations, not the trams. The tram is fun to ride. It goes pretty fast at times. The best part is being able to sit, relax, and watch the world go by out of the windows. It took us about an hour to complete the full tram ride and end up at Pacific Fair.
Recently Pacific Fair has experienced a refurbishment. They have put a lot of work in. However part of the charm of Pacific Fair – and the International Marketplace on Oahu in Hawaii – was the “market” feel of the outdoor area. That is all gone at *both* locations – the International Marketplace has undergone a massive overhaul just like Pacific Fair and both locations have added in a lot of “high end” Up Money type stores.
Our lunch destination was Grill’d. We really love their “healthy” burgers. On the way there, we discovered one of the few Australian locations of Bath and Body Works. It is quite a bit more expensive than the US version. It was the perfect time for lunch time, just after 12:30.
I chose the sliders – Classic Slider has grass-fed beef with cheese, mustard, pickle, tomato sauce & egg mayo. Vintage Slider grass-fed beef with aged cheddar, Spanish onion, relish & herbed mayo. These were both pretty good, but my personal favourite has to be – Beet Chick Slider which has chicken breast with beetroot, mint & herbed mayo.
We also got the tasting plate of chips to share. I had never considered Zucchini chips as a concept before but wow, they were pretty incredible.
After lunch we wandered around. It was a super hot day and quite a bit of the new Pacific Fair is outdoors without much in the way of shade, so going into the airconditioned stores was a welcome relief from the heat. Eventually all the hot-cold-hot plus the fact the boys sat out in the sun waiting while I went into places like Zara or Topshop or H&M ended with some cranky people, people feeling a bit unwell, and people feeling a bit blah overall.
I think we were all feeling a bit depressed about Dreamworld, the constant news coverage up there did not help us to cheer up, either. We were unsure what we wanted to do next but I felt like something sweet, so we headed to Cowch for a treat.
This place was cute, with all the cow udders hanging from the ceiling. It was kind of like a cow themed Max Brenner. I ended up choosing a cappucino because it was afternoon coffee time, the boys went for milkshakes.
After this, we decided it was time for one last lap of the shopping centre and then back to the tram to go home. The trip back to our hotel was around 15 minutes on the tram and we headed upstairs for a rest and to do the potatoes for dinner.
For dinner I wanted to put some cheese on the potatoes but discovered we did not have any. So Sephyroth and I went for a walk to Paradise Centre to get some cheese from Woolworths. This was the first time we had walked in this direction.
After dinner I remembered that there were night markets on the beach, so off we went for a quick stroll. Mostly it was “tatt” as my Mother would call it – people selling fake opal jewellery and pretending like it is real, general junk I would not want to buy. However there was also a guy making glass creations right there in his tent, and a few bits and pieces worth looking at, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time, though we did not buy anything.
After we were done, we headed to Gelatissimo for an icecream. It had been a very hot day. I chose the chocolate sorbet which is so delicious and icy cold. I can’t remember what the guys chose. We then did a walk around the Cavill Mall area, then back to our apartment for an early night. Because clearly nobody would be getting any sleep ins anytime soon. ;)
Next week – Thursday @ Tambourine Mountain.
Tatt! A word I haven’t heard or read in a while but so appropriate for what it describes.
Thanks for the low down on Pacific Fair, I’ve seen it listed as location for many stores and have always been curious about what it’s actually like as a shopping destination. Looks fancy but shame about the lack of shade…
SSG xxx
We usually avoid large shopping centres, so we did not see the one you mentioned and it sounds like we did not miss much. I had to make a run for a GC tram and I forgot you have to tap on before you get on. I didn’t get caught, only going one long stop, but there was a lot of checking done when we there. I noticed on a sign outside Grill’d saying it now has avocado chips too.