Gold Coast

This morning, I got up to run and Mark went down to the beach to check out the surf. It wasn't that great though so he didn't rent a board but instead indulged in the traditional HUGE aussie breakfast with eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, toast and other stuff I don't remember. My stomach hurt just watching him finish the last bites of it.

The place we stayed at last night, Halse Lodge YHA, was a great little place. It was in a nice location right by the beach and national park and it just had a great homey feel to it. The staff there were really nice too. The only weird thing about our room (mixed again) was that the guy sleeping below me was asleep before 9pm and still sleeping at 7am - how is that possible?!?!? There are also a ton of turkeys around the area. At least we think they are turkeys. There was this baby one in the dining area that came around and started pecking at my feet - why can't the birds just leave me alone?!?!??!

Our drive down to the Gold Coast was uneventful. We ended up deciding not to visit Brisbane because neither of us were too excited about visiting a large city - we just want to enjoy the beaches. So we past Brisbane and headed for Surfers Paradise. We arrived around 12:30 and what can I say but total disappointment. It is jampacked with highrise buildings. The beach was nice and the waves were pretty big compared to the Sunshine Coast beaches, but it was way too touristy for either of us. We walked around for a bit but were just so stunned at how different it was than what we pictured so we left pretty quickly. This kind of put us both in a down mood.

So we headed to Coolangatta - our stay for the evening. It is about 20km south of Surfers and is the "Gateway to the Gold Coast". We checked in and were a bit disappointed because our YHA is not near the city. We wanted to do something though, so we got back in the car and headed into town. First stop, Kirra Beach. The beach is HUGE!!!! I can't believe how much sand there is between the road and water - at least a football field. There was a huge Kid's Ironman competition going on so we watched for a bit (this Ironman is different - they swim and paddle on knee boards but do it a few times - I don't know all the details). We walked around a bit and drove into Coolangatta - there is a Mexican restaurant - I think we are going to eat there tonight! We can't wait.

Next stop - Rainbow Beach. So this is the most exciting part of our day. We arrived here at the perfect time because the Quicksilver/Roxy Pro Surf Tour is going on right now at Rainbow Beach. Today was cancelled due to bad swells, but it is supposed to go on tomorrow instead. We still went down to the beach though to watch the surfers out there and guess who we got to see surfing - Kelly Slater! It was great to watch him out there with all the other surfers just catching waves like he is some ordinary bloke...unreal. Mark and I watched for a good hour. There were a ton of other pro surfers out there as well, but we weren't able to spot anyone else out. Our plan is to spend all day down there tomorrow to watch the competitions.

The day started out crappy, but ended up really nice after spending the time at the beach watching the amazing waves and surfers. It also got a bit sunny out, so we were able to enjoy some more rays!



P.S. I will try to get all my recent pictures up on the site as soon as I can...