Have been in Surfers Paradise for a few days now and will leave tomorrow. Surfers Paradise is in the heart of the Gold Coast. The town surivies purely on tourism. The town is made up of souvenir shops, information places and bars!! There are loads of skyscrapers over looking the beach and lots of surfers. After exploring Surfers the first day i got here and sitting on the beach for a little while on Wednesday i went to Sea World. Except for the good surfing here the other main attraction on the Gold Coast is the 4 themeparks. I chose to go to Seaworld to see the Polar Bears. It is a really good themepark. I watched the excellent Dolphin show where the dolphins did come cool tricks, saw the sealion show which was good and then the waterski show. This show has guys and girls doing stunts onwaterskii, jetskiis and wakeboards and was good fun. There wer sharks, pengiuns, fish, dungongs, pelicans and of course the Polar Bears. Spent a lot of time watching the bears throughout the day as they played around in the water. They have a very big enclousure and seem to be very happy. Went on the rollercoaster and to of the rides where i got wet on. luckily it was a hot day so soon dried off.

On Friday i went to South Stradbroke Island, it is only an hour away from the mainland. It is a20km long thin strip of sand similar to Fraser Island. The boat stopped at SSI resort. From here i walked across the island to the other side where there was a surf beach. THis beach was deserted and the surf was excellent (if i was surfer) but not the type of water to go for a swim in so i just sunbathed there. The vegetation on this island isnt as diverse as Fraser Island, there is just ferns and one type of tree on the island!! After sunbathing here walked back to get on the boat so we could go to Sanctuary Cove. This is an upmarket shopping resort. All along the waterways to the island are HUGE HUGE houses all withtheri opwn boats and jetties. Lots of golfers and motorracing drivers (Super cars) live here. This is where people with money all buy houses, there were loads of them. The shopping area was nice but very upmarket so didnt buy anything. WE then cruised back to SP. In the eveing went to the beach night market where there were some really nice art and craft stalls.

On Saturday i went to Carrara markets. This is a permenant weekend market. Lots and lots of stalls but mainly selling souvenires and 'tatt' so ended up not buying anything there either.