Saturday
Got up and did the final bits of packing and Nik checked in with his friend - it transpired that we still can't go and stay with him. So as our greyhound tickets are booked, instead of going back to Brisbane right away, we decided to go to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, as the bus goes through there and it looked like a nice place. Found a hostel and booked it, although we are having to go in shared dorms as there are no private rooms available in our price range anywhere we can find. This will be an experience, especially for Nik the Only Child.
Randy drove us to the bus stop and it was very sad to say goodbye as we had the nicest time staying with him. However, we are sure our paths will cross again in the future and we'll definitely stay in touch. It was an interesting bus trip, as after 20 minutes, the bus took a 40 minute meal break! Still, it meant we could eat sweets and drink powerade from the petrol station - the best bus ride activities of them all. Hannah was however disappointed to see that the July issue of the Greyhound Traveller magazine is still not on board - leaving it pretty late methinks! Although we did find a dutch Men's Health and check out the pictures.
Got to Surfers Paradise, and our hostel is right next door to the bus station - handy as Hannah does not want to break her back again. It is part of a hotel, so it has good facilities, like a bar/restaurant, games room, swimming pool, hot tub, tennis, squash, a sauna etc. It seems lots of huge hotels that clearly never could sell all their rooms to capacity are following the model of making one area into backpackers accommodation - all they have to do is shove a couple of bunk beds into one of the rooms and you get a 4 bed en suite dorm with TV and a fridge (or that's what we've got here). Our room wasn't ready when we arrived, so we went for a little stroll about town. It is a really lovely place, esp on a sunny day. It has everything a big resort town needs, including lots of restuarants, bars, attractions and shops, but with a really lovely laid back vibe. We found lots of cheap Ugg shops. Hannah was very tempted, especially by the ones with tassles on. We also observed some shocking outfits on slutty girls and strolled the bar area, where there were two strip clubs. No connection to the slutty girls however. Although the shop called Trashy Shoes might have been.
Went back to the hostel and took our stuff to our room, we met one roommate straight off, he was a Korean we believe, who was there when we got in and even though we said hello, an English word he surely knew as he is travelling Australia alone, he said nothing. Freak. Our research also suggests that one of the other room mates may be a Colombian. As Surfers is a party town at night, our main concern is that us old losers may not be able to get a full night's sleep, but we shall see.
After sorting out our belongings, we went for a wander through the main shopping area and had a hot chocolate shake each to warm up and perk up - travelling on buses really takes it out of you. Then we went down on to the beach which was pretty busy but very pretty, although the sand was really very cold as the way they have built lots of high rise hotels up the Esplanade means most of the beach is in shade all afternoon. We went for a long walk up the beach, seeing some insane people learning to surf (they were nice waves) in the cold water, some people with excellent dogs, an anally retentive child with a collection of stones laid out in proper order and some kite boarders too. It was nice to use our legs again and a beautiful place to have a wander.
Browsed any shops that claimed to have a sale on, and then we went back to the hostel to get changed. Our Korean friend was sat in silence. Oh well. We went for dinner down near the hotel as the restaurants there are a bit cheaper, and we wanted to have something which wasn't an 'and chips' meal, and that seems to be tricky to find outside the big cities. We opted for curry, and for $15 each (about £8) had a huge plate of curry, rice and naan breads - just what the doctor ordered. And we did our usual of being the first there, sitting in the window and making the place popular.
After our feed, we went for our chosen evening activity - bowling. Nik has been looking to win at something for some time and this seems to fit the bill. Hannah does not like bowling and cannot do it but was willing to give it a try. The bowling lanes were pretty cool, with music screens and disco lights, and best of all, were right next door to the shooting academy, so you can go and bowl, and then go shoot some guns! Hannah was, as predicted, a lacklustre bowler, and scored only 19 on the first game. Nik won with 99. However, on the second came, Hannah invented a new bowling technique called the human ramp which took her score to over 60 and we believe provided much enjoyment for the other bowlers. Nik still won though.
We finished the night in Hard Rock Café, sat outside overlooking the street and watching the world go by. There was also some chick playing live music which wasn't half bad.
Sunday
Woke up after a pretty good night's sleep in our shared room. Only exceptions being the strange little Korean man leaving at 6.30am, having not bothered to pack his bag the night before thereby leading to much rustling of plastic bags, and both the other odd balls getting up early to go (seemingly) to work. One even treated us to wandering about in his pants beforehand!
Went for a morning stroll on the waterfront as it was a lovely sunny day, and stopped for breakfast at a coffee shop. From today, we are being healthy as we both have got fat and bloated from eating wheat, stodgy food for the last couple of weeks. As such, for breakfast, we had home made muesli with natural yoghurt. Nik was surprised that he actually enjoyed it.
Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to sort out what we're doing next, as we need to make sure we see Nik's friends but they're still not around. So, we've decided to stay another day in Surfers, then are going to Brisbane first thing Tuesday morning so we can get a whole day and night there ourselves for sightseeing etc before we meet up with the friends on Wednesday and Thursday. We will also be using this time to identify good deals on camper vans for the next leg. So we went through the boring task of booking yet more bus tickets and hostel rooms. Brisbane hostels are expensive, so we opted to share a room again - such romance - but have chosen a different hostel to last time so that we don't freeze to death again. And it seems to have free wifi too, bonus.
Anyway, after all the boring stuff was done, we went for a walk down the road for a game of mini-golf. On the way, Nik found his ideal job. A shop selling fight gear, supplements and Tap Out T-shirts here in Surfers. He had a look around and a nice chat with the boys in there. The main one had big muscles and a small vest. Once Nik had dragged himself away, we went to King Tutts Putt Putt, as we had a money off voucher for it and we chose the Egyptian themed course, which on reflection wasn't so smart as it was the busiest one. From the off it was a close run race, but ultimately, Hannah was the victor! It was a special moment.
After our game, we pottered down the Esplanade and to the mall to see if any of the surf shops had ladies sheepskin boots, but they only had mens ones so Hannah still has bought none. Nik however found some that he might buy as his trainers are offensive on the nose when he wears them so he needs new shoes.
In the spirit of health, got a smoothie instead of a coffee or some lunch, and sat in the street doing some people watching. Not only did we see the girls in gold bikinis with bad spray tans (they do some sort of work round here and are always about), but also sat and observed the most hideous, rude and obese child ever. He was moaning about having to wait for his mum and his sister and then when they came back with a gift for him, started moaning that it didn't work properly, and insisted that they take him to Time zone (an amusement centre) for two hours and that his sister couldn't come. He also demanded ice cream "but not from donut king, as even though they do cheap soft scoop, it tastes terrible and isn't creamy enough". Horrendous. We also saw a lot of hot asian girls that we thought Randy might approve of.
Pottered back to the hostel with the intention of spending a while in the hot tub, but accidentally fell asleep. We were awoken by the other roommates coming back and rudely talking at full volume about trying to find somewhere to live - it seems they are students over here. It also became obvious that they are not very rock and roll and both were staying in and sitting on their beds silently for the evening.
We spruced up and tried to go to the Teppanaki restaurant by the hostel, but it was full of drunk people and there was no room for us (and in fairness Nik isn't very tolerant of noisy drunks so it was probably for the best) so we went away to wait. We chose to go to Vegas in Paradise, which is part of the hotel and is famous for its $13 all you can eat breakfast, as we had a free drink voucher. We sat back and had a schooner each, did some more people watching and observed everyone on the pokies - funny that young women on a night out go on the pokies first up, strange culture. Anyway, when we went back to the Teppan place there was room for us so we each had the chicken meal. This consisted of miso soup, salad, rice, vegetables and chicken plus two sauces. It was Nik's first experience. We had edamame beans too. It was delicious, and a healthy option all in all, even though Hannah left feeling so stuffed she couldn't move. And it as pretty cheap too, about 20 pounds sterling for the both of us.
Rolled back to the hostel, and sat watching a film of the computer before bed. Needless to say, the others in the room were in bed at 9pm.
Monday
So today was our extra day in Surfers, and it became clear pretty early on that without wheels, money, or the desire to get drunk the whole time, there's not too much going on there!
Went for a breakfast yoghurt and coffee before deciding to take on Surfers Paradise Mini Golf - another course here in town (it was at this point we realised that Surfers is like the Isle of Wight during the day but with marginally better shops…). It had a northern man working in it so we both got a discount despite having only one discount voucher. It had a wild west/cactus type theme and was old school. The holes were quite hard, but in the end, despite a couple of shocking scores, Hannah romped home the winner.
Went for a walk 'the other way' down Surfers Paradise Road, which was mainly hotels and more ethnic restaurants PLUS a pancake restaurant. We then turned onto the beach and had a lovely walk on a much quieter and lovelier section of sand, we even saw people surfing.
Lunch was a coffee and a shared frozen yoghurt with fruit and muesli on it - very tasty. This was followed by a quick browse around the shops to find some potential new footwear for Nik - the trainers are now so rancid they usually can't even be in the same room as us, but we couldn't reach a decision. Instead, Nik decided to throw down the gauntlet, and we went to Lilliputt - the final mini-golf outlet in town. It was interestingly in a tropical garden with huge bats, birds and squirrel gliders, so was rather an experience, and though a little shabby around the edges, was a good course. Overall, Hannah's performance was weak bar a hole in one and Nik looked set for a win, however, with a few mistakes on the final hole, Hannah came home victorious once again - that's 3 to 0. Clearly Nik Patterson has Some Limits.
Head back to the hostel to do packing and to freshen up before dinner. While Nik was in the shower, the roommate who walked around in his pants and made his bed like a sarcophagus came back and had a chat with Hannah, so its clearly just Nik that he hates.
Had spotted a meal deal earlier in the evening at a Chinese restaurant, so went there for tea. For $16 each we got a drink, a starter (we had fried dim dim and spring rolls) and a main course - bargain. We got some sweets for pudding - we forgot we were being healthy. Then Nik finally bought some sheepskin boots (its quite cold now so its allowed) and they are very nice so Hannah is jealous as she cannot find any (other than fake uggs at rip off prices). He also bought a hat.