Once we left Brisbane we headed to a place just outside of the Gold Coast where the Oz Experience people had a chance to go zorbing. Unfortunately our group wasn't very exciting and only two people actually did it (it was the morning after St Patricks day!).
We were dropped off at the transit centre and picked up by Surf 'n' Sun, the hostel we were staying at. Would definitely recommend this hostel it's really friendly with nice clean rooms, also it's within walking distance from the town and the beach.

On the first day in Surfers Paradise we had a look round, ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (which was yummy but not quite a backpackers dinner!) and had a game of Mini Golf. I'm sure Zoe will be disappointed if I don't write this on so...Zoe won! BUT she did only beat me by one point and she did lose a ball (hehe)!

The nest day we got the bus from town and went to Seaworld. This place was AMAZING! It was $66 to get in but it was worth it. WE went on Australia's only monrail to get a good look at the park. Then we looked round the Aquarium and saw the only Dugong (these are also known as the sea-cow and were once mistaken for mermaids by fishermen) raised in captivity.

We then watched a sealion show which was really good. It was a story show where there was a bad guy over fishing the sea and was selling the fish to a shopkeeper. The police were on to them however, and it didn't take long for The Fish Detectives to catch them. The sealions were part of the fish detectives and it was amazing to see how intelligent these animals are. They would chase the baddies, bring props onto the stage, clap, smack themselves and even gave mouth to mouth to one of the bad guys! This was definitely worth seeing!

Seaworld has got a Sesame Street theme in one part of the park, where you get to have your pictures taken with the characters and also go on the rides. Me and Zoe went on a small ride where you had to pull yourself up and then drop down, we also went on the carousel which made us both feel like big kids!

I think the best display at Seaworld was Shark Bay. From the view of acroos the water it didn't look fantastic but when you went to the underwater gallery it was brilliant. There were loads of fish living with the sharks, and there were many types of shark. It was so good to see these animals so close.

The dolphin show was also something not to be missed. This was a show more designed to tell you about dolphins and to see the staff showing off with them! These are also very clever animals and it was great to see what they could do and high they can jump.

We also got to see penguins and polar bears, although the polar bears were having a lazy day and hid behind some rocks.

The last show we saw was called Wipeout and was done with water skies. It was kind of an Australian sea version of Grease. This time it was the staff that were the main attraction. This was a nice show to end the day with.

That night we went on a bar crawl with the hostel. We started off with punch by the pool and then went to out first bar - Strike Bar. Here we had a free shot and could play bowling. Next we went to Melba's which was a really good club. After that we went to Cocktails and Dreams whcih wasn't so good seeing as we were the only people in there, luckily there was a big group of us so it didn't look too empty when we were inside. Lastly, we went to the bedroom which is a club with lots of double beds! Also a really good place and great music.

We left the club with our Dutch roomie, Eva for what should have been a simple walk back to the hostel, however we got a bit lost! When we had walked for quite a while and started to see signs for Byron Bay and no skyscrapers we decided it was time to ask for help, so it just so happened that a lovely Canadian guy was also kind of lost too so we enlisted his help. He was supposed to know where the ocean was but we ended up walking into someones garden and making a quick exit when we got to the swimming pool! We decided he didn't know any more than we did! We did eventually make it home although it was 5am by this time! A good night though.

The nest day was a lazy day to recover from the night before. We did go to one attraction called Infinity which was very stange and scary! When you pay you get given a pair of gloves and a pair of giant socks to cover your shoes. You go through 20 different rooms mainly in the dark or with flashing lights and have to find you way itno the nest room. It also had a bouncy room, a wobbly bridge and a room with giant balls. It was good but Zoe had to hold my hand through most of it, especially when other hands were touchung us and things were dangling down!

For the rest of the day we slept on the beach!

That night we got the bus to the Australian Outback Spectacular. Here we had a three course bushtucker meal whilst watching a show on the Australian Outback. The involved many animals including horses, cows, sheep, dogs, camels and chickens. It also had a quad bike, yute and even a helicopter! The show was about the competition between the Austral Downs cattle station (which me and Zoe were in and who wore yellow hats) and Wondoola cattle station (who were the competition and wore red hats). During the show there were different races and games involving the animals and the skills of the riders which made up the competition between the two cattle stations. In the end Austral Downs won by two hats! The food was really good and the show was fantastic.

The next and last day of Surfers Paradise me and Zoe had a re-match of Mini Golf unfortunately this time Zoe thrashed me and I have no excuses to use this time either except maybe it was hot! Whilst playing golf a helicopter went past some of the buildings and wrote in the sky 'Marry me jess?' which we thought was lovely but sadly neither of us are called Jess!! After our game of golf we ended up on the beach again until it was time to hop back onto the oz bus and leave for our next destination Byron Bay!

We wasn't sure what to expect at Surfers as a lot of people said they were skipping it and going straight to Byron Bay or simply told us that it was crap. After spending a few days here we've had a great time and would definitely come back again. Theres loads to do altough it can get a bit expensive we still had a great time and its got a great beach!