Greetings from the Gold Coast!

Surfers' Paradise has been sunny and tacky and lots of fun. We have spent the last few days with Holly and Sarah; lying on the beach by day and partying by night! It's been really cool to meet up with them...what a small world indeed!

We stayed at the school with Matt for three or four days and he took us to see things when he wasn't working. Our very own personal guide to Surfers'! We all shot up the Q1 tower in a very speedy lift for views right across the Gold Coast and watched the sun set from a great height! It was great to see the light faling from the top of the tower and watch all the lights come on up and down the strip. Matt then took us for a night of hardcore gambling at Conrad Jupitus casino, which was really fun! (I've now had to pawn my passport to fund the habit...) No,?what actually happened was that I won three dollars and lost five. Dammit! That was quite enough to put a backpacker off for life.

We also went for a barbecue at Burleigh Beach one evening, although our peace was somewhat shattered by a drunken idiot who decided to join us. His general anger and unhappiness in life was apparently linked to the fact that Matt had 'three birds' and he had none. Matt told him that the world worked in mysterious ways and that we would all appreciate it if he could please go away; which he did, for a time. He returned with a glint in his?eye and a drink in his hand which he then proceeded to throw at us, all the while screaming racial slurs at?Matt's Japanese friend, Tomoko. The alcoholic's daily massacre of braincells had obviously left him with some slight geographical misconceptions, however; since the crux of his argument was that Tomoko should 'go back to China' because she was a 'Phillipino b******'. Luckily, Tomoko saw the funny side. The real tragedy of the matter was that we had to leave our doritos and dip, as well as and onion (?!) and the tomato ketchup, in his incapable hands whilst we swiftly departed to notify the police. A terrible loss. I hope he enjoyed the onion.

Matt came into Surfers Paradise with us for the weekend and the five of us spent Saturday night on the Backpacker's Bar Crawl...which was every bit as classy as it sounds. Sarah and I were somehow coerced into doing it all over again on Wednesday night! Lots of fun. We all spent Monday reliving the childhood delights of themeparking with an outing to Dreamworld; the Gold Coast's biggest and best! Matt and Sarah and I went on every ride available about five times, whilst Lucy and Holly entertained themselves with an educational film in the Imax theatre and an adrenalin pumping ride in 'Wiggle World's Big Red Car'. I felt as though I had been through a tumble dryer by closing time.

Holly, Sarah, Lucy and I spent our last night here in Surfers' together with a meal at the Hard Rock Cafe; very sophisticated and stomach stretching.