After having heard so much about Surfers Paradise along the Gold Coast, we could not wait to get there and see what it was all about. Driving into surfers paradise and along the water front to the centre, it was soon evident as to why it is one of Australia’s top attractions.

 

    Luckily for us, prior to arriving in the Gold Coast we were invited to stay for two nights in the heart of Surfers Paradise with Jeff and his family, the son of a couple who we had previously met on our travels. Not only were we going to be able to really get a feel for the area but we were able to stay in one of the beautiful houses on the edge of one of the many canals. This beautiful one storey home overlooking the canal with access to the water meant we were able to really see what Surfers paradise is really like. Having dinner with the family in the evenings meant we were able to really learn a bit about Australia as well as getting to hear a few of Jeff’s travel stories from his travelling years.

 

   With it being a weekday when we arrived, we spent the day visiting the town centre and then heading out to a couple of beaches where I was able to do a spot of fishing. Despite it being a pleasant sunny day, being the beginning of winter the temperatures were far from the heights for sunbathing and swimming. Having spent some time along the impressive Main Beach, we head out to the much smaller beaches along The Spit. A nice, quieter area at the end of Seaworld drive meant I had enough space and was able to spend the afternoon fishing with many of the locals whilst Lou took in some of the rays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    From one extreme to the other, the weather overnight had completely changed into your typical winters day with heavy dark rain clouds above and the frequent heavy downpour every couple of hours. With the weather not ideal for heading to the beach, a visit to one of the Gold Coasts theme parks was a must. With Jeff and his family having annual passes to visit a selection of the theme parks it meant we were able to visit SeaWorld on their passes which was handy as it saved us over $100. As you can well imagine the park had all the standard shows you would expect to see in a SeaWorld but it was also nice to see how they put in a fair about of money and resources into a rehabilitation centre for vulnerable and injured aquatic animals. Despite our age, there was definitely no better way to end the day by enjoying one of the “adult” rides which had been tempting us the entire time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    With not many days to play around with, two nights was the most we could hang around Surfer’s Paradise if we wanted to ensure we visited all the main stops along the East Coast. After having been refused entry to Warner Bros Movie World as we didn’t match the people on the annual pass, we made our way down to Byron Bay stopping off at Coolangatta to get a view of surfer’s Paradise’s skyline in the distance and taking a few pics at the border between Queensland and New South Wales.