Surfers Paradise

We arrived at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast at 8:10am. We had already booked our accommodation at the hostel called Surf n Sun and arranged for their courtesy shuttle bus to pick us up and take us to the hostel. We booked just the one night here as we were moving onto Byron Bay where we would be spending 3 nights.

We ended up with a large comfortable room and no air conditioning but we did have a fan! It was a little stuffy but we managed to put up with it as we knew it wouldn't be for long.

Firstly we had breakfast as it was early when we left Brisbane. This consisted of crispy bacon, eggs, hash brown and toast. Yummy yummy!

After feeling stuffed we sat on the long stretch of beach for a few hours before checking out what the town had to offer.

We walked along the modern esplande stopping off for a chicken ceasar salad and a few beers. The town has many high rise buildings with the leader being the 230m above ground Q1building. We went up this tower to the 77th floor which took just 43 seconds. When we got out the lift we were faced with amazing panaramic views looking across the city and ocean. Many houses were sitting on islands surrounded by water and their own jetty! People on this coast are seriously minted!!!

We headed back to the hostel, as it was 7pm, for showers taking a turn each as there was only one bathroom in our block.

Unknown to Mark who was busy washing himself in the shower with the window partly open a group of girls on a balcony in a tower block were taking photos of Mark! He didn't realise they were looking at him until he waved thinking they were taking photos of each other and they waved back! To be fair they were a reasonable distance away so the camera flash wouldn't work.

Anyway, it was now 8pm when we got into town for dinner.We found a nice Italian bistro with alfresco dining so we sat there eating our pasta and risotto dishes until 9:30pm. It was a quiet night being a Sunday so we took a stroll beside the esplanade and back to our room to pack our rucksacks ready for tomorrows next stop - the hippy town of Byron Bay.

Byron Bay here we come! Peace, love and all that.