Gold coast

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Oz Experience took us Zorbing after we left Brisbane. This is a crazy activity that involves you rolling down a hill in an inflatable ball full with water!! It can only be described as being in a washing machine and is a lot of fun.

Our next stop along the coast was Surfers Paradise, a controversial city to some who moan about the skyscrapers and say its only paradise to those who surf. However, for us we loved it, a city right on the beach is perfect!! It is very much a tourist town with theme parks, shopping malls and nightclubs. We stayed in a hostel a little way out of town but perhaps this was a good thing as it was quiet. On our first day we went to Wet n Wild waterpark which was brilliant fun. It had a variety of slides and all of them enjoyable especially the Tornado that swishes you up the sides before you go through the middle. Wet n Wild do a dive n movies which we were excited about, they showed Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium in the evening after the sun had set and you could watch from the pool, a very novel idea!! The next day we spent on Surfers Paradise beach which was busy and you couldn't swim for bodies in the water! It was a lovely day and sunbathing on the beach was relaxing after the energy used at the waterpark, it was very hilly and there are always so many steps to climb to the top of the slides! That night we took our hostel's free bus into town and got free entry and a free drink in The Drink nightclub. Our free drink was Champagne which we were very estatic about! The weather was not so kind to us on our last two days at Surfers, the third day was overcast and rainy and the last day it poured and poured and poured! We took the opportunity to go to the cinema and wander around Australia'a biggest shopping mall, Pacific Fair.

We spent two nights at Bryon Bay which is famous for being a hippy town. We stayed in a hostel called the Arts Factory that is slightly alternative and focuses on the environment. You can take Yoga classes and learn to play the Didgeriedoo. Our dorm room was called the Pentagon was like a 5 sided Teepee made out of canvas. Inside it had wooden bunkbeds. We did have unwelcome guests while staying there in the form of spiders and even one Huntsman spider!! The Arts factory had a varity of places to sleep including wagons, a bus and themed rooms! It was certainly different to any hostel we had stayed in before. During our day at Bryon we visited the beach. Byron Bay is the real surfers paradise in that the waves are better here and its a chilled and laid back town much more suited to the surfing lifestyle. On our last evening in Byron we watched a fire show at the Arts Factory Buddha Bar, this was really cool to watch and even had children performing in the show. One girl who was about 13 did a hula hoop performance that had 5 fires lit on it, it was really awesome, they were really talented.

Our last stop before Sydney was a surf camp. It is a Mojo surf camp that Oz experience takes us to for one night to break up the journey. We arrived at midday and were given a brief surf lesson before we could hit the water! Mojo taught us a different technique to what we'd learnt in England and it seemed to work better for us. We were the last ones in the water still surfing and they had to practically drag us out!!! That evening we had a massive party at the campsite which was supposed to be a beach party, however once again the heavens opened and they bused us to a pub in a nearby town instead and we partied there. At 11pm when the pub kicked out we went back to the campsite and it had stopped raining so we all went to the beach. The crew produced a sound system in a wheelie bin so it doesn't get wet or anything which we thought was a brilliant idea! Early start the next morning as we had an eight hour journey the rest of the way to Sydney.

Sydney! We got dropped off in the evening by our hostel, which was in Kings Cross. For those that don't know, Kings Cross happens to be Sydney's red light district!! But don't panic, the majority of hostels are situated here and it was actually quite safe. First evening we eventually found our way to Darling Harbour and decided to eat in Nando's for dinner to compare with the English version which we think is definitely better. The next day we met up with Sarah and her boyfriend Chris (Steph's friend who is going to Lochearn this summer). We took the ferry together over to Manly Beach, which gives great views back across city and passes the Opera House. We had lunch at Manly Beach before walking around the markets and looking at a few shops. We got some ice cream before getting the ferry back to the city. That evening we met up with some friends we'd made on the Oz Bus to watch the Mardi Gras Parade (the gay and lesbian annual parade). It was quite a sight to see!! We had a great evening with a lot of laughs. The crowd was so big we couldn't see most of the parade so we got on some friends shoulders to see better. The next day we got up early and caught a train to Hornsby where Sarah and Chris picked us up and took us waterskiing for the day. Sarah's parents own a cabin along one of the rivers north of Sydney where they spend the weekends waterskiing and wakeboarding. It was Laura's first time waterskiing and after a few hilarious attempts eventually started to get the hang of it! It was great fun even though the river was a little chilly. On our third day we explored the city which involved a lot of walking!! We took a tour around the Opera House, where we got to see the inside of 3 of the 5 theatres including the Concert Hall and the Opera Room the two biggest auditoriums in the building. We were informed of the history of the building and given lots of statistics like capacity numbers, it was very informative. We ended the day by taking a walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens and seeing Mrs Macquarie's chair which is at the point and looks out across the harbour. We still have lots to do and see in Sydney but leave tomorrow for our surf camp. We are looking forward to returning to Sydney.

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