Surfers Paradise

---

After a 2-hour Greyhound ride, begun with a fight over who gets the window seat that I won, we got to the Surfers Paradise transit centre. We arrived at around noon, the hostel was literally right across from the transit centre. The Islander Resort was actually a hotel with a hostel section, which was awesome cause we got to use all the hotel amenities. The room was awesome, just 4 beds, TV, ensuite bathroon, balcony.

We unpacked at headed for the beach, just a block and a half away, pretty fantastic. It was a beautiful view; the beach stretched for miles. I love that fine white sand that has been perfected here in Australia. I wish I could drag and drop it onto the Vancouver beaches. We wandered back through the mall later and got some groceries and went back to the hostel. We had a picnic dinner that evening on the balcony. There are little moments here and there in which I realize that I’m on vacation, and in Australia. As we sat out on the balcony, having a cocktail and looking at the sunset, that was one of those moments.

The balcony provided more entertainment than the TV most nights as it was the custom for backpackers to drink on them and shout at each other. The balconies overlooked the hottub and all faced each other in a V shape. Conversation usually began the boys yelling a statement of nationality and room number to a girls’ balcony. The response was usually giggling or some sly remark. I was properly embarrassed to be a Canadian by a balcony of Canadian guys on the last night, their heckling was pretty shameful, and a complete failure in the end, because no one responded to them.

The next day we spent wandering around the mall, sitting at the beach, lounging by the pool (seems to be a recurring theme), and reading.

Wet n Wild was our last day in Surfers. We caught the public bus (so much cheaper) out to the theme park. It was a bit overcast and was threatening to rain so it wasn’t crazy busy. We managed to go on almost every slide by the end of the day, the Tornado twice cause it was that awesome. At dusk the dive-in movie started, as did the rain unfortunately. I hadn’t seen Wall-E yet so I enjoyed it, pretty cute. Definitely slept well that night.

Next morning we took a shuttle back to Brisbane Airport for the flight to Cairns…

---