Before this trip materialised, we never thought we would return to Australia within 9 months for another vacation. Thanks to our Herworld subscription which entitled subscribers to 7 nights free stay at a resort anywhere in the world subject to availability. Well the catch is, we can only book our 7 nights free stay at most 1 month in advance to our departure date. The resorts available for selection are normally not located in major cities. Thus we found Coffs Harbour, a small town situated 5 hrs away from Brisbane or 6 hrs away from Sydney by driving. Thanks to the effort of KH and CX that we found a good deal with Emirates Airlines that flew us to Brisbane.
We rented a 8-seater van to move ourselves from place to place. Really fun to travel together in one vehicle. Really missed those road trips we had in USA.

Went grocery shopping at Woolsworth after we checked in to our resort.

Preparing breakfast for everyone. It’s more economical to cook our own meals and besides, the apartment came with a kitchen complete with almost everything, including a dishwasher.

We were very satisfied with our delicious breakfast that cost us only a fraction of what a restaurant would have charged us.

It was great that both Yuxin and Yuen became good friends with Anders who is 5 months younger than Yuxin.

The 4 kids had such a wonderful time together during the trip.


Looked fun but I chickened out and offered to stay back with Yuen. Honestly, Yuen was allowed on it if she had wanted to. I was kinda of glad that she refused.

Yuxin loved it and went on it again for another round.




The icy cold sand and the chilling wind did not hinder the kids from having fun at the beach.

Little mushrooms found growing near the pond outside our apartment.


All the 4 kids love the horse riding experience. We paid A$25 for each child to have a 30 min ride on the horse.


We were initially worried that Yuen might not like the idea but she amazed us all without putting up any fight. In fact she loved it and her sense of balance was very good.

Little Yuen was so proud of herself for managing her first horse riding experience so well.

Poor papa had to walk the field 3 times with the girls. He was dead tired by the end of the whole experience. We had very much wanted to go back to the ranch for another round of riding experience for the kids but the last 2 days of our stay at Coffs Harbour were greeted with stormy weather.


My favourite place at Coffs Harbour has to be the Pet Porpoise Pool. This place offers interactive experiences with many of the animals. You can’t get any closer to a dolphin than this… how magical!

Yuen gamely stayed still while waiting for the dolphin to stick out her head for that magical kiss.


KH was wet after his intimate encounter with the seal. fortunately his jacket was water proof.

We all had fun touching the belly of the dolphin. There were 2 dolphins swimming round and round for us to pat them.

As there weren’t that many people at the park, the kids had so many turns feeding the little blue penguins with small fishes. They must have queued up at least 6 times.

So cute to see little people feeding little animal.

The dolphins loved playing with the ball.

We had a picnic at the park with fish and chips.

Oooh… yum yum.



Saw pairs of parakeet outside a confectionery. Papa only managed to snap pictures of 3 pairs although there were 5 pairs perching on the wooden fence. How extraordinary to see so many pairs together. Not sure if it’s the mating season.

KH insisted that we should have a bbq during our stay at the resort and thus his wish was our command.


Brought the kids to an indoor playground as there’s pretty much nothing to do on a cold rainy day.

The children went wild when the playground dimmed the lights and put on catchy music with bubbles.

Stopped by the Tropical Fruit Farm on our way to Gold Coast.

A mommy kangaroo and her joey.

Yuxin and Yuen loved having the kangaroos ate out of their hands.

A little train ride within the farm. Something new for us and it was quite fun.


Our dare-devil loved the thrill of playing on the flying fox.

Yuxin was brave to swing down on the flying fox by herself.


Although it was our second visit to Movie World in 9 months, we had a different experience at the park with both the girls slightly older.

They still love the Tweety bird cage ride.

This bumper car ride was something they didn’t try during our first visit 9 months ago.

They were definitely thrilled to see their familiar characters.

A nice group photo.

While jiejie was queuing for a second bumper car ride, meimei seized the opportunity to pose with Tweety.

I was so glad that I could stay back with Yuen and not take this Wild Wild West ride.

According to papa, Yuxin was scared stiff when the boat plunged down.

After the Wild Wild West ride, this was chicken feet to Yuxin and she went up with Andrena and Anders without any hesitation. This was considered her favourite ride. She has indeed become bolder.

We were at an Italian restaurant celebrating Yuxin’s birthday. As we only ordered two kids meals, they had to share the 2 ice-cream cones.

After dinner, the girls dressed up into little fairies. Our girls’ outfits were present from CX and KH. As we did not find anything suitable for Anders, he was in his pjs.

We only managed to buy a small mousse cake for Yuxin. We noticed that it’s not easy to find nice birthday cakes in Australia. Also all grocery stores closed at 5.30pm. We were really spoilt with choices in America, so easy to find a nice and cute princess cake.

Our last night in Gold Coast.