I got the bus to Surfers Paradise in the morning and Howards was also on the bus. We arrived around lunch time. I was staying in a different hostel to Howard but we arranged to meet at the beach in just over an hours time. The hostel was a 15minute drive from the bus terminal. In fact it was more in Southport than Surfers Paradise. When we arrived the first impression wasnt that good as right outside the hostel was road works. Lots of noise and banging and of course not a nice view. Not exactly Paradise! It also wasnt near many shops or the town and there was no sign of the beach. Once inside the hostel was very nice. What impressed me most was they had people there to carry our bags up the stairs for us to our rooms. Why cant they do that everywhere? I left my bags in the room and went to meet Howard at the beach. It took me about 20 minutes to get there.

It was a gorgeous golden beach so you can understand why it is called the Gold Coast. Next to the beach were tallsky scraper buildings. We had a burger from a cafe before walking along the beach. We found it quite funny how it is called Surfers Paradise but we couldnt see one single surfer anywhere up the coast. After a while we went off the beach onto the road. A lot of the roads were fenced off as they were preparing the streets for a V8 race (the equivalent of F1 racing) We followed the track quite a long way and men were busy putting up stair seating at the side of the road. We stopped for a drink before finding our way back to our hostels.

It was a Wednesday night which meant it was the Backpackers Big Night Out. This was a bus that goes around all the hostels picking people up and driving them to town. We would get free entry and a free drink to 5 bars/clubs. So needless to say I went on it. To show we were on the night out we were given a straw cowboy hat and some Hawain flowers. We met in the hostel bar at 7pm. The Dutch girl in my room was also there, two Danish boys and a very crazy Scottish guy who was wearing a skirt! He didnt manage to make it out though as he was too drunk already. We were the first hostel to get picked up. Howard didnt come. The street where the bars were was very nice. I stuck with the Dutch girl and Danish boys from my hostel. We stayed in each place about 45minutes. In one place they had a pole dancing competetion and in another one they had girls in their underwear competetion. It was quite good as it gave you something to watch. The clubs got nicer as the night went on and im suprised I managed to keep my hat on all night without losing it. We got a slice of pizza and a taxi back to the hostel. There were lots of flying fox bats flying around so we stood on the balcony for a while watching them before going to bed. They are really big and look more like birds.

The next day Howard went to Brisbane and the Dutch girl left so I had a nice lie in and then spent the day sunning myself by the pool. At night we all watched a film in the hostel lounge. It was called "Wolf Creek". It is about backpackers getting murdered in the Outback of Australia and a true story! Great! Just what you should watch before going there!

The next morning was the day of the V8race so all you could here was Vrooooooom for the whole morning as the cars whizzed by. At lunchtime I went to get my bus to Brisbane.