Surfers Paradise, AUS

We had arrived in Surfers Paradise after a short bus ride from Murwillumbah (or as they call it, Mur’bah) to the Gold Coast. The Greyhound was a comfortable ride and even cheaper than CountryLink, although it was an hour late. But apparently this is the norm for all coach buses – too many variables going on in comparison to the train.

It was a definite change from working on the farm, where we were automatically kept busy, to crusing about the outdoor malls and beachline looking for things to do. We had arrived in Surfers around 3pm on Tuesday and were pleasantly surprised with the fact that most cafes remained open – another advantage to going to the bigger’touristy’ centers. We browsed through the various surf shops.  During that time, we fell upon the Deus Ex Machina fab shop that Dan got really excited about.  Apparently these guys are all over Bike EXIF, which is a website that showcases custom motorcycle designs.  We ended the evening with a somewhat delayed birthday dinner, where Dan tried out the Kangaroo filet. Mom K had sent money and instructed us to use it to ‘eat somewhere nice’, so we decided to use it to finally try some of the local fare. Dan thought the kangaroo was like very tender beef, but with a less pleasing/familiar flavour. I took a bite of his dinner (as a good wife should always do) and thought it was a little gamey, but the mashed potatoes were fantastic. 😛 My dinner consisted of pan fried baramundi served with a lemon cream sauce and salad. It was tasty, but far too big a serving from which I had grown accustomed to on the farm. This is not say that we were fed less by the Thomas’, but I had developed a much healthier habit of eating and had taken to Lindy’s ‘grazing’ throughout the day.

Our accomodations at the Surf n’ Sun Backpackers was conveniently located; a 5 minute walk from the beach and 10 minute walk to the main shopping area. Because we had booked a double private room (rather than a dorm), we were somewhat separated from the main hostel area. It looked like the management had bought up the propery next door and used this for their private rooms. This was the first hostel with a swimming pool, but being so close to the beach, we never felt there was a use for it.

Our second (and final) day at Surfers started out somewhat leisurely. I still got up at the crack of dawn, despite the absence of the cow, rooster and goose calls. I managed to force myself to fall back asleep so as to avoid waking Dan and have him complain about my habit of waking up too early. At a much more civilized time later, we woke up, got ready and walked along the boardwalk to find a cafe to eat breakfast. We found a perfectly situated seat where we could people watch and enjoy the blue skies. We then decided to slowly head back to the hostel (while stopping in shops on the way) to change into our swim gear. While we were just about to leave, we ran into the hostel manager and Dan struck up a conversation with him about the surfing conditions. He was nice enough to lend out a surfboard for free, where it was normally $20 for 2 hours. Dan REALLY worked his charm with that one! And it reminded me of the comment that Julene had made in St. Lucia about how we seem to charm our way with staff to get freebies. So, for the first time ever on this trip, I purposely tanned on the beach (I had to even out the farmer’s tan I had developed), while Dan took the surfboard for a ride. Now, despite its name, Surfers Paradise is not really a good place to surf. The waves are quite choppy and there are hardly any clean breaks. This was pretty apparent when I watched Dan and two other surfers fight the white wash the whole time. This wasn’t too much of a surprise to us, because we were warned by locals and the Lonely Planet. But, it was worth a shot with a free surfboard anyways.

We text messaged our friend Armando & Aurora and they are currently at Fraser Island, a few hours north of Brisbane. We’re not too sure if we’ll be able to catch up with them, but still remain hopeful and in close contact.