After a great night out experiencing what the nightlife of Byron Bay had to offer, it was a pleasant drive along the Pacific Highway this morning. That was until the single lane traffic turned -for the first time this trip - into multiple lanes of heavy traffic as we arrived at Gold Coast. It was a bit much for our jaded designated driver, Bret, after a week of practically having the road to ourselves!

As he adjusted to the change in pace, we remembered the German guy we met at our hostel back in Melbourne - he'd warned us to avoid Gold Coast, which is home to the notorious Surfer's Paradise beach, if we were not keen on America. As beach shacks and cute little bungalows lost out to huge skyscrapers and busy bars beside the heaving road we realised what he meant. But we've not been to America (yet) so how were we to know if we'd like it? We decided it was certainly worth a stop to see what the fuss was about.

We figured if we were going to do it, though, we should do it properly and headed straight for one of the many theme parks the Gold Coast is renowned for. This one was a waterpark called Wet n Wild. The sky was a little grey so we hoped it was a good day for it as we wouldn't get so burned…

Anyway, after ages sat at the entrance we wondered if it would open today, until it finally opened an hour after the advertised opening time - it took us until lunch time to realise that's because the state of Queensland is an hour behind New South Wales and we hadn't changed our clocks… d'oh! (And that extra hour in bed would have been just lovely after a night out!)

Once inside, we went straight for what looked like a simple ride on which we could share a dinghy down one slide. But as soon as we left the safety of the platform we realised it wasn't as simple as it looked. It turned out to be one of the scariest of the lot as it plummeted at a ridiculous speed down the slide. With our stomachs churning we decided to try out some gentler flumes….

Then, after lunch it was time to tackle the big one… a loop the loop waterslide. It involved standing vertical on a trapdoor above the slide, with a large pad strapped onto our backs for protection. After a countdown the trapdoor opened, sending us down the flume, and round a near-upside down loop. It was pretty intense, and each rider had to be weighed before attempting it to ensure that everyone made the loop and didn't get stuck half way!

…'twas not for the faint hearted, and certainly not for Nat!

After recovering in the lazy river, we both conquered a few more really steep slides before calling it a day.

With nowhere to stay the night we just headed straight into town to hunt for a campsite before it got dark. Luckily we found one right on the edge of town that even offered free wifi (albeit limited!). This is like gold dust in Australia so we paid up and headed for our allocated space. It was kind of strange parking up in such an urban area for the first time, but nice to make a change. The trouble was, whilst we've both gotten used to driving John, parking him is still a bit of a drama. And to make things worse, tonight the campsite is full because it's the Easter holidays. It meant we had to do it with an audience. Brilliant.

After much to-ing and fro-ing (and yelling!) to the amusement of our campmates, we finally settled in for the night. After all of today's excitement, we've opted for a quiet one in the van after sizzling some burgers on the campsite barbeque.