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Published: March 2nd 2008
They call Queensland the Sunshine State, lets see. back on the Greyhound bus we discover that there's one hour time distance between New South Wales and its northern neighbour. Queensland hasn't adopted daylight saving therefore it gets dark earlier in the evening. Whits that aboot!!! betcha the farmers have something to do with it, same as wintertime back home, it's garbage!!, live stock cannot tell the time. Their start to the day is surely based on sunrise, so it doesnt matter whether it is five of six in the morning, farmers still have the same amount of daylight hours to work with each day while the rest of us lose an hours light when we would enjoy it most, perhaps the farmers know something I don't.
We arrived early afternoon in Surfers Paradise on the Goldcoast, this is a really popular holiday resort full of high rise apartment blocks alongside a beach which stretches for miles. We enquired at the nearest hostel to the bus station, they quoted $85 a night, pretty expensve even although the room was en-suite with a balcony, we paid $61 in Newcastle and $70 in Byron. Decided to put our
rucksacks in a locker then go looking for a better deal. The lockers in the bus station cost $14 but we noticed when in the Islander Hostel next door that they had the same type for $6. No sooner had we dumped our luggage when we found suitable accommodation at Paradise Towers, an apartment block built in 1966 making it the 2nd oldest high rise in Surfers. At first Peter the manager quoted $110 then after a chat he brought it down to $95. Eileen said we could only afford $80, he replied "I could only take that if you stayed for 3 nights"
"We'll take it"
Eileen's charm works again! Ended up in a spacious one bed apartment on the 10th floor with 2 large balconies, mind you, the quirky furnishings and mosaic tiled floor were from another era.
So glad we had this accommodation to enjoy, cause we soon discovered that Surfers is designed to quickly empty bank accounts, full of theme parks, amusements, adventure tours and fast food outlets, it reminds us of Benidorm, parts of Florida, and maybe Brighton or Blackpool thrown in for good measure. It has some swanky hotels and up market
Put Another Sausage on the Barbie
Free barbeque facilities beside the rivervillas, especialy amongst the river system along the rear of the resort. It also attracts your common garden variety tourist who can often be seen wearing football tops, munching into greasy chips and burgers, usually followed by ice cream and a look through tacky souvenier shops. We clocked two Scotland and three Celtic tops.
It has a fantastic stretch of sand, when we first arrived there was a televised beach volley ball competition with loud music from the sound system between each point. Trying to jazz it up a bit to make it more exciting. Most popular beaches in Australia have surf lifeguards, here is no differrent. Safe swimming areas are indicated between red and yellow flags. It was funny seeing miles of sand with two flags a mere 40 metres apart. Empty water, except for a whole bunch of swimmers crammed into a small area, on top of that, signs warning of the dangers of Stinger jelly fish, little beggers with a sting in their tail. Hundreds of them can be seen washed up in the sand.
Strangely for such a large and popular holiday destination there really wasn't much for
us. You could say it was too much like Ratners Gold Coast than real gold, anyway it was still raining.
Surely it will brighten up when we reach the Sunshine Coast. YES!!!! It certainly lived up to its name. We reached Noosa in glorious sunshine, what a difference! 30 degrees with even higher temperatures forecast for the next few days.
Noosa is great, a scenic location with beaches, waterways and a National Park. Real wealthy cats have bought up real Estate, swanky apartments, villas, and boats, then there's the equally swanky Hastings Street complete with designer shops and fancy restaurants.
We pre-booked the Backpackers resort Hostel by the river, turned out a good choice. We stayed 5 days for $56 per night in a block at the back which only had 4 rooms. It also had a cool outside bar area and a small swimming pool.
Before we started on our trip I had a problem with an ingrown toe nail, sooo painful!!!, but such a relief when a Troon chiropodist extracted the offending piece of nail only days before our departure. Trouble is! it has started again, my big toe
is red, tender, sore to touch and getting worse. Don't know the Australian health care system or how much it will cost. One thing for sure I need to get it seen to. Do I go to a medical centre or a chiropodist?.
On our last day at Surfers I made an enquiry at a nearby medical centre, the receptionist said I could see the GP for $60 consultation fee and he may or may not deal with it. I wasn't going to fork out money not knowing for sure if it could be dealt with that day. We then asked a young women in a pharmacy where we could find the nearest chiropodist.
She replied "whats that"
"Someone who deals with feet problems" I replied,
"Oh you mean a podiatrist"
They obviously have a different name here, and they don't have one in Surfers anyway.
She then says "What did you call it again",
"Chiropodist", I replied
"SOUNDS LIKE A MADE UP NAME" She says!!!
As soon as we checked in at Noosa we went looking for the nearest medical centre to get it sorted. On our way we spotted a Podiatrist, when we
went in to enquire the Podiatrist was speaking to the receptionist. She asked to have a look at it, five minutes later, she was digging out a spike of nail with scalpels and pliers, NEARLY MADE ME GREET!!! 20 minutes of torture but it was worth it, and she only charged 46 A$. Dead painful for a couple of days, now it is fine, hope it stays that way.
Our hostel is besides a great stretch of the Noosa River. Lots of activity, mucking about in boats, fishing, families enjoying barbeques on the riverbank, locals power walking and the like. We would often see young women in their summer dresses fishing on the bank, a rod in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, very civilised, would never happen in Scotland, not even the tally ho brigade.
One night we bought some meat from the supermarket and joined the locals taking advantage of the free barbeque facilities dotted along the riverside. Lots of places in Australia have them, all you do is press a button, and they start to heat up.
Had Steak, sizzling sausages, salad, and a couple of beers, followed by
Beach Volleyball
Surfers Paradise Beach a few wines in plastic glasses on a candlelit picnic table. I know the people eating in Madissons, an expensive restaurant across the road were envious.
Free kayaks were on offer at our accommodation, so we had to give it a go. We carted them along to the river one late afternoon when it seemed pretty calm, except it didn't really matter as so many speed boats race past anyway, but it was great fun. It seems I'm still pretty rubbish at paddling, always veering to one side, if I continue uncorrected I can complete a full circle clockwise. The only difference here in Australia being that the kayak goes anti-clockwise.
The heat during the last few days has been incredible, noticed a headline in a local paper, " Temperatures Almost Reach 40 Degrees" Phew!!!!! We're so glad it has made a belated appearence, need to buy more suntan lotion at the supermarket. We have visited far too many in OZ, no option, our allowance is being used up totally on accommodation meaning we're having to dig deep and budget accordingly. No more restaurants, sticking to cooking at our accommodation. It's not as if food is cheap, except
for Meat products everything is very expensive, can't even get a beer from a bottle shop for less than a pound or a bottle of vodka for less than fourteen.
At first it puzzled us why some travellers say it is good value here, until an Irish girl mentioned going on a trip for A$70, "that's about 25 pounds" she said. I'm afraid not!! At today's exchange rate A$55 is 25 pounds, no wonder some people think it's cheap here!!!
Noosa has a beautiful national park with great walks, especially the coastal trail. We walked along it in the sweltering heat looking to see Koalas in the trees and dolphins in the water when we reached Dolphin Point, NAE LUCK!! but we did see a large turtle swimming just below the surface. It was strange to see so many surfers carrying their boards on the pathways amongst the trees. Turns out there's a great surfing waves around the headland, this is where all the good ones go to surf.
Just before sunset thousands of Rainbow Lorikeets gather near the shopping centre squaking their heads off. They have amazing colours, bright green, orange, red, and yellow.
One more
Stinger
One of Thousands washed up on the beach thing about money in Australia, their notes are like Monopoly money, always new and don't look real, except of course, they are!!!
Still heading north up the east coast, just like Captain Cook. We have still to decide on our next destination.
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cheryl
non-member comment
hello
hey, it looks lovely there. cant believe that happened to your toe again, bet it was agony! at least its stopped raining, cant believe its 40 degrees! is that not torture, dunno if i could deal with that heat. its like -2 here ha ha! it was snowing the other day really heavy and been raining when its not been snowing! bet you dont miss that xxxxxxxx