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After using coat and shawl for ten days, its time to change the holiday destination into a place with sunshine and beaches. We decided to choose Surfers Paradise which located on Gold Coast, Queensland. It took us 1.5 hours to fly from Sydney and we couldn’t wait to arrive since we keep on imagining the picturesque beach, just like we saw on the websites and postcards.

We arrived at Gold Coast’s Airport. The airport is quite small and felt so tropical. As we found wooden furnish, warm sunshine, sea smell, and many tourists using beach floral blouse. Should we say, “Aloha!”? No, I think we still should say “Hawayah?” (The way Aussies pronounces How are you?). We bought unlimited three day bus pass at the airport as we found this pass is more effective and efficient for tourists. The pass includes airport transfers, transfer to theme parks, and also unlimited local bus access. Information related to transportation pass is available on Translink website.

We arrived at the hotel which we booked online on Virgin Blue website (without no information or recommendation from our friends). Tourist Luck! We found the four star hotel very comfortable, only 75 meters from Surfers Paradise beach and also located right besides Australia’s highest building called Q1. The hotel called Watermark hotel and it locates on the shopping centre as well. Couldn’t wait to feel the sand, we went to the beach and felt the warm atmosphere. The beach view is stunning. Clean, white sand, crystal blue water, with skyscrapers hotels next to the beach. By the time we went to the mall, we were surprised to know that most price is quite cheap compare to prices in Melbourne and Sydney. Even the clothes price is quite similar with prices in Indonesia. Voila! ;))) We spent the afternoon at the shopping centre and recognized our most favorite store called Sportsgirl and Diva. Then we went back to hotel and we were laughed when one of the locals said “Konichiwa” to us ;)) In the night, we walked along the Surfers Paradise Highway and found quite interesting Irish restaurant called Fiddlers. Located on 39 Cavill Avenue, the restaurant shows Irish band with violin player, kind of The Corrs style. The audiences who mostly 27-35 years old performed Irish dance after they had their very own Bavarian Bier. I just realized how “alive” an Irish restaurant is ;)))

The next day, we went to Warner Brothers Movie world theme park. We tried various rides and saw some special shows including Shrek’s 4 Dimension Theater which allows the audiences to feel light rain when the character’s sneeze. We also tried Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster, dark indoor roller coaster with many thrilling surprises and Road Runner Roller Coaster. There are many stores inside the theme park with movie setting, such as Harry Potter’s store which sells spooky items and Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory which sells various chocolates and candies. Currently, Movie world are promoting the two latest ride called Superman Escape roller coaster and Batwing Spaceshot which looks very interesting (at first!). Travels from 0 to 100 km in 2 seconds with 20,800 horsepower, the Superman Escape ride looks “cute” from distance with Superman’s very own red and blue color. Me and Angga went closer and interested to try. But as we were getting closer with the ride, we felt scared. Superman Escape Ride? It should be Escape from Superman’s Ride ;))) Batwing Spaceshot is actually more rider friendly. With 61 meters height, the ride allows the riders to felt 4 Gs while being shoot up and back down with 64 km/hour in 50 seconds. The theme park serves full excitements, but I suggested tourist to buy one day tickets on the weekday instead of two or three day pass since we finished all the rides in only one day. The theme park isn’t very crowded in the weekdays so that tourist doesn’t have to queue for long time. On 4 pm, we finished the theme park tour and had dinner. Surfer Paradise beach is warm in the afternoon, but very cold in the evening. I recognized there were so many outdoor restaurants uses “Heated Umbrella”, tent umbrellas with heater.

On the next day, we decided to go to different beaches which we knew from postcards. We went to Broadbeach and Burleigh Heads beach. We also went to a shopping mall called Pacific Fair as suggested by the hotel staff. This shopping mall is quite big, and I recommended tourists to visit as we found clothes and souvenirs with competitive price. Then we went to Hooters Restaurant, a “unique” family restaurant. Located on 2488 Gold Coast Highway in Mermaid Beach area, the restaurant serves western food with sexy waitress. Surprisingly, Hooters is a family restaurant with so many families brought their babies. We tried The World’s Famous Hooters Chicken Wing and curly fries. The foods were very tasty and crunchy. With sweet Barbecue Sauce, me and Angga finish our Chicken Wings until our last bite. Yummm…

We didn’t want to miss the rare experience. So we went to Q Deck. We enter Australia’s highest building and watch amazing sunset scenery of Queensland from the 77th floor. Q1 Building used one of world’s fastest lift which took 43 seconds to reach the 77th floor. We felt so excited and also fascinated with the sunset scenery. When the night’s come, we saw so many skyscrapers with city lights from Q Deck.

Finish sightseeing around Gold Coast, we went back to Sydney on the next day. We found out from the weather forecast that on the same day, Sydney’s temperature was 16 Celsius. We had exciting experience at Gold Coast and we will miss Gold Coast’s warm sunshine for sure.

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