Day 108: Surfers Paradise

As we are only 30 minutes from Surfers Paradise we decided to pop up there today to have a look at the Q1 building.

It is (as I have mentioned in a previous post) the worlds tallest residential building. 80 levels of luxury, they self proclaim, and at $1.8 million dollars for an apartment it is unlikely that I will ever find out if what the claim is true.

1.8 mill aside, for $17.50 you can ride up to floor 77 in one of the worlds fastest elevators, 42.7 seconds and repeated ear popping later you are treated to an awe inspiring 360 degrees view of Surfers Paradise from the Q1 Observation Deck.

It was pretty special.

However, to take each of my photos I first had to slide my foot out to touch the window frame, all the time looking at anything but the view (it was floor to ceiling glass), I then held on to a window support post with my camera to my eye and slowly moved my head forward until the lens touched the glass*... then I could look through the camera.

I must have looked really stupid.

We didn't take a tripod with us so our pictures were not as sharp as they could have been, but I am sure my pictures will give you a sense of some of the vertigo I experienced.

Emelie

*no camera lenses were harmed during this trip to the observation deck

Day 105: Surfers Paradise - Tugun

We are off down to Tugun which is just above Coolangatta.

A friend of a friend has an apartment down there that we have rented for as a treat.

We are going to spend four days enjoying the view, our own bathroom, a real bed, curtains, TV... I bet it doesn't rain either!

Em

Day 103: Surfers Paradise

Oly woke up with a crook neck and I was feeling a little under the weather this morning. However, the sun was shinning so we decided to cycle to Sea World. Having one person who had to move their whole body to check for traffic and one not wanting to be that far from a toilet makes for very interesting bicycling.

One hundred and twenty eight extortionate dollars later (I am not afraid to use blinking to emphasise my text!) Ol and I were faced with water, lots of it, and not just the water in the aquariums.

During the five hours we were there we managed to see some cute sea lions performing and wonderful, clever dolphins doing amazing things for their "best friend" trainers. It was fabulous.

That managed to fill an hour. The rest of the time we were dodging the rain that once again followed us. Did I mention we had cycled?

I think I have only been to one other Sea World before and Oly has been to two, in comparison this one was pretty lame. The didn't even have a killer whale! However, we did agree that for children it ticked all the boxes.

We did appreciated the good that Sea World does for orphaned and injured animals, they have lots of Pelicans they fed who had been injured by cars and boats and were unable to catch their own food. There was also a sea pig that was separated from its mother as a baby and had been hand reared at the centre. Things like that took the sting out of the high entrance fee. You don't mind paying a premium if you know it is going to a good cause.

We froze our butts off going back. It was really unpleasant. The tent was thrashing in the wind and we were very glad it was pegged firmly down. Just pegging it down had taken a good half hour on top of the hour it took us to erect it.

There are so many benefits to having a kombi.

Emelie

Day 102: Brisbane - Surfers Paradise

Viva Surfers Paradise!

We set off this morning, bright and early. Well not so bright and not so early. Why is it whenever we take a tent down it rains?

We waited for the rain to abate so we could speed pack the car. Check out of the camp site was 10AM, I think we managed to leave around 11AM with a decidedly damp smelly car interior, ahh we miss Henry!

It only took us 40 minutes to drive down to the Gold Coast. We were very surprised at the sight that greeted us when we arrived at Surfers Paradise.

Surfers Paradise is very built up, it has Q1 the worlds tallest residential building, skyscrapers of every shape and colour you can imagine. There is even a Versace hotel which we could only gaze at across the water from our very barren caravan site.

The weather was not great and it took us over an hour to pitch our tent because the wind kept interfering, no bugger offered to help us either. Some man kept on coming out and watching us struggle, it was really annoying me.

With that exhausting us, we spent the rest of the afternoon recovering.

Oh, and looking for the tent pole bag that has disappeared, more than likely blown away... it was there when we started, I am hoping it is under the tent.

It's bloody windy, I hope this tent stays up.

Emelie