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Published: March 12th 2008
Queensland, Australia. The sunshine state.
After a 3 & 1/2 hour bus journey from Canberra it was just 1 hour & 15 mins flight to Coolangatta which is the Gold Coast airport, right on the border of New South Wales and Queensland. The airport is a tin shack. I took off the plane and walked through to where I would collect baggage and there was my friend Kylie waiting for me in the baggage hall. Basically, anyone can walk it and take a bag. They wouldn't have got far with mine though, it was so bloody heavy!
So I'm gonna keep this last blog brief as the last 3 weeks of my trip were more about spending time with my friends Kylie & Neil & their little boy Lachlan than tearing around places like I have been in the past 6-7 weeks. My friends were kind enough to put me up for 3 weeks. They live in a residential area called Parkwood which is a town a stones throw from Surfers Paradise. 'Surfers' is one of the hotspots of east coast Australia.... a very cool place indeed.
Unfortunately, QLD has been having heavy rainfall since the beginning of
Lachlan 'Locky' Lihou
At Mount Tamborine outsise glow worm cavestheir summer in December and the northern part of the state is suffering from severe flooding. I originally intended to travel north to see the Great Barrier Reef, but all roads to Cairns are blocked so I had to drop that idea. So here's a brief run down of some of the things that I got up to, supported by a few pics....
The start of the trip was hampered by illness - to all of us! First my friend Kylie came down with a bug, to be followed by me, and eventually Neil. The first week was a bit of a struggle, but after that things brightened up. We did get to Byron Bay, unfortunately on the day I was crook. There is a trail from the lighthouse that leads you to the most easterly point in Australia mainland. Unfortunately, on this occasion, I wasn't up to the task!
The following week I spent a few days in Surfers. People come to surf & swim but even it the tides are too strong it’s a nice place just to hang out. Q1 (The most sought after postcode in Australia) is the highest residential tower in the world.
The biggest fish in the world
Baby Bream cought off Runaway Bay It is possible to take a lift up the 77 floors to the viewing point which is nearly at the top of the tower. This I did, and you may see the pics of the view. Quite amazing, you can see how this area of the coast has been developed into residential areas over a string of canals which run inland form the sea. Most people have houses which back onto a canal and hey have the sun cruiser tied up out back. How the other half live, hey!
One day I took off to Australia Zoo. Set up by the parents of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter to you and me. This was a good day out; there is a lot to see. It's based around all Australian wildlife, but there are a couple of imports. You can get really close to the animals which is why it is so much fun. In fact when I was leaving I came across a couple of workers who were taking a cheetah on a walk around the grounds to meet people... not what you expect to meet walking down the street!
Later that week I went up to Brisbane, a
Brisbane (3)
View of the city from south bank really nice city. It has a laid back surf-side town atmosphere, despite it looking like a super modern city. It is split into the main city and the south bank. The south bank is a fancy public hang out area including a man made beach which is quite bizarre to come across in the middle of city. I took a walking tour of the city given by the lonely planet book, but the walking took most of the day and I didn’t get a chance to go into many of the places of interest. I planned to travel back to Brisbane to have another look around but never made it. I will keep it on my list of things to do...
There was the Quicksilver Pro and Roxy Pro surfing (male and female respectively) surfing championships going on at a place called Snapper Rocks right on the border of Queensland an New South Wales. I've never watched much surfing but I had heard the name Kelly Slater before. 8 time world champion and billed as possibly the greatest surfer ever. Well not long after we had arrived he was into the water in a quarter final heat. The surf
Surfers Paradise (3)
View from 77th floor of Q1 wasn't fantastic. Basically, the surfers get 35 mins to do as many surfs as they can and the judges give each surf a score. The best 2 surfs of each surfer will count and whoever gets the highest total will win. Well Kelly Slater wiped the floor with the guy he was against first. We next got to see Mick Fanning who is an Australian and Gold Coast boy so he is very poplar with the crowd. Fanning is currently word champion. He progressed to the final vs Kelly Slater. We didn’t get to see the final but we were so lucky to have seen the eventual finalists surf. Kelly Slater won the event.
Aside from this my friend Kylie & Neil’s little boy Lachlan celebrated his first birthday and also Kylie celebrated turning the big '40' (Ha she'll kill me when she reads this. She's only 34 but I like to wind her up). Check out the pics of her birthday cake I sabotaged...
On Kylie's birthday we went to Seaworld which is one of 5 adventure parks which are on the Gold Coast. We spent the whole day there, watching dolphin shows, watching sharks from underwater
view tanks, and a ski show. There were a couple of rides including a rollercoaster and a water park. It was good fun...
So that is all I really have to tell you about. I have really enjoyed my time in Queensland and Australia altogether. I would definitely like to return one day.
I hope you have all enjoyed reading my blog. I'm amazed that I've actually kept it up to date! The idea is now can put this onto cd and I can keep like a photo album to look at in years to come....
Now I begin the long journey home.
Speak to you all soon...
G'day
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David Rudman
non-member comment
chris's travel blog!
yo mate just saying a thankyou for your blog and pics! hope you had a fantastic time! see you soon!