Blogs from Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Arrived in Surfers Paradise on thursday morning, the weather was amazing so much better than Byron, so headed straight to the beach! Went to Main Beach had a couple of hours sun bathing but there is not a lot at this beach struggled to even find one shop to grab a drink and an ice cream from but it is very quiet and peaceful. Our hostel is great, feels very homely, and it gives us 2 hours of free wi-fi everyday which is awesome! Watched Superbad tonight, nice to just chill out and watch a film its been a while since we did that. There are a few theme parks around here, so on Friday we went to MovieWorld - a super hero themed theme park. They had a really cool 4D show for "Journey to ... read more

The clock alarm rang at 7:30am. We were both still very tired, but at the same time we wanted to go to Wet n Wild. Wet n Wild is a water theme park located not far away from our hotel. It is one of the popular tourist theme parks in Gold Coast. Nicole and I drank hot chocolate on the balcony (where there was chairs) overlooking the beach view. The sea swells were loud, we could hear them from the balcony. It was a windy day and the sky was a little bit grey. After breakfast, we packed our towels, bathers, camera, phone and tickets into our drawstring bag that we were carrying around with us. The bus came, and it was a different bus driver. The bus driver was a middle age african man who ... read more

We woke up at 7am. We were going to Dream World today !! We were so excited because we both loved to go on scary rides, unlike some people :) The bus came. We hopped onto the bus (showing our tickets like always) and then sat on the two seats at the middle of the bus. This bus was really big. The bus was noisy and full of families with teenagers. By the time we got to Dream World it was around 9am. We got our tickets and headed off to find a locker to put our stuff inside it so it wouldn't get stolen. At Dreamworld, we went on the Wipeout, the Cyclone, the Giant Drop, the Claw, the Tower of Terror 2, the Buzzsaw, the Thunder River Rapids ride, the Reef Diver, the Rocky ... read more

As I got off the Virgin Australia DJ 535 flight from Sydney to Gold Coast, I was really tired because I landed at Sydney 5:30pm, but I was also really excited aswell. My flight was a 'stopover', so it meant we had to stop in Sydney and hop on another plane to get to Gold Coast. Me and my friend, Nicole, both went and got our luggage at the luggage collection place. As we got our of the airport we felt a cold breeze blow onto us. Gold Coast was nearly dark when we got outside and hopped on the Gold Coast tourist shuttle bus to go to our hotel. Gold Coast was really bright at night. It was surrounded by Nightclubs, Bars, Resturants and Shopping stores. We checked in and dropped off our luggage and ... read more

Keith took us around Surfers Paradise on Friday 8th to scout out possibly hostels for the weekend/ following week. This was primarily for the other three, due to the fact that I was going to spend the weekend with my family. After a long walk up and down the beach in the sunshine, observing all of the expensive apartments, we were treated to lunch, then we headed back to Mudgeeraba for our last night. Alex, Jonny and Zach booked Surfers Paradise Resort Hostel for Saturday and Sunday night. I woke up late on Saturday morning and the others had already been taken to the hostel, so I quickly packed up the rest of my clothes and helped pack up the car for the weekend. Taking rather a long time dismantling a stubborn cot for baby Blake, ... read more

For the first time in our trip, the group lost a member for a few days. Oli was invited to stay with his family as they went to a holiday home further down the coast. Sensibly, he took up the offer of luxury living for another few days. Myself, Zach and Alex were thrown back into the harsh reality of backpacking on Saturday 9th April. We booked ourselves into a hostel on the outskirts of Surfers Paradise. The staff were mainly English, sadly they were Northern and very loud! They bullied us into a club crawl that night and we dragged ourselves along after paying for tickets. To be brutally honest, none of us were in the mood and we went along for the free drinks. It was a pretty bad night out and we ended ... read more

After leaving Brisbane it was time to head down to the Gold Coast to meet up with our ‘travellers in crime’ Claire and James, we were both really excited about catching up with them and seeing the famous Gold Coast! We all met up in the plush surroundings of Surfers Paradise, Claire and James rocking up in their green camper or Sid as they like to call him. We decided to do what you should do on the Gold Coast - head to the beach! This was the first part of Australia where it was safe for us to go into the sea, so safe in the knowledge that no croc or stingray was about to take our life Paul dived in to enjoy the crazy waves. The Gold Coast waves are rapid and non-stop so ... read more