It is really hard to go anywhere for this rare five-day weekend because many places get booked months in advance, but we lucked out and found a place in Tamborine Mountain, a small village area in the mountains about 20km west of the Gold Coast. It took less than 1 hour to drive from our house in Milton to Tamborine Mountain. We had no idea it was so close! We also had no idea what it was like. The village and areas around it have a European Alps feel and many of the buildings are finished in a Tyrolean style.
"Alpine" side of Tamborine Mountain
We had lunch on Friday at a Polish Restaurant with beautiful views over the alpine valley to the west of Tamborine Mountain. The outdoor dining space was full of trees and the trees were full of very beautiful and very, very loud Rainbow Lorikeets. These birds have the most beautiful feathers but they shriek and squawk at the least provication, and they also seem to enjoy flying straight at people's heads.
Rainbow Lorikeet (in full screech mode)
We spent most of Saturday just poking around the village. There are vineyards on the mountainside, but we aren't sure whether there are enough grapes harvested to make wine in commercial quantities. We visited a couple of tasting rooms and tasted wines that were produced locally from imported Granite Belt area grapes. Regardless of where the grapes came from, the wine tasted pretty good!
St. Bernard's Hotel (Leo the St. Bernard is on the porch at the right hand side)
The area was a great place to spend a couple of days. We will definitely go back and try some of the restaurants for dinner, since many things were closed due to the holiday. We can also catch the "Cork and Fork" tour out of Brisbane, which will take us to multiple tasting rooms and restaurants, and remove the burden of one of us being a designated driver. And all of this is only an hour away!
View of Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast from our hotel grounds
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