The Gold Coast and Sydney

We arrived in Brisbane on January 25, 2009; rented a car and set out to drive to Sydney along the Gold Coast. This was my first time driving on the left hand side of the road. It not that difficult if you rememberr that as the driver you should always be closest to the driver coming in the opposite direction. My biggest problem was with the turn-signals and the windshield wipers. At home the turn signal is on the left side of the steering wheel. Well in Australia, it is on the right; the result was that frequently when I went to signal a turn I hit the windowshield wipper signal. Our first stop along the Gold Coast was Broadbeach not far from Brisbane. Its name accurately describes the town, a very long broad beach with golden sand and good waves. It also is a tourist town with lots of good restaurants, hotels and condos for either rent or for sale. Most of the people seemed to be in their 20's or early 30's. There were a fair number of billboards and signs warnig about getting too much sun, but as always there were a lot of people with lilly white skin being slowly baked towards lobster red. One of the things that will strike anyone from North America driving in Australia, is their road signs, if anything they are to the point. For example "Speeding equals low IQ", a number of billboards with a girl saying "no one thinks you are big if you speed" she is also making a sign for a loser, lots of signs advising that speed cameras are in operation. About every 50 to 75 km there were spots to pull off the highway to rest. The sign for these was "Stop, Revive, Alive". Our next stop was Coffs Harour again for two nights, then onward to Sydney.

We were in Sydney two years prior on our first Around the World Southern Hemisphere Tour. We loved the city then and continued to enjoy it again this time. Our hotel the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth was near the harbour so natuarlly we spent most of our evenings at one or another of the outdoor restaurants around the harbour. We did take a tour out to the Blue Mountains, visit the Olympic site, take a ferry and wander around.

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