Australia

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After breakfast we drove to a nearby beach at Coolangatta. Again it was near deserted, so Matt saw the opportunity for a bit of kite flying, while I lay and read my book in the sand.

Once he was bored of flying it (having almost killed me when it dive bombed to the ground) we decided to go to the Currumbin Wildlife Park a few minutes away. A few people had recommended it to us as one of the best wildlife parks in the country so we had been looking forward to it.

It cost about £16 each to get in which wasn’t bad at all given that the place was massive and even in about four hours we didn’t manage to get to see everything.

First stop once inside was the koalas, as we’d really been getting desperate to see one. They were small cuddly bundles of grey, wedged in between the forks of branches. They were dotted around the trees in a section of fenced off forest. We were close enough to see their little faces as they slept, yawned and munched sleepily on some eucalyptus branches. We had to do the obligatory photo with one even though we felt guilty that we were keeping the koala up for our benefit - he looked exhausted! He was called Cola and we got to pat him before Matt held him for the picture. His fur wasn’t as soft as it looked, instead it was more like a thick heavy pile carpet, and he had an unusual smell about him that might have been the eucalyptus.

The two girls that had their photo taken after us got pooed on so we timed our photo just right.

It was a really fun afternoon. We got to handfeed and stroke kangaroos (some of which had babies in their mothers pouch), saw plenty of exotic birds, snakes, crocodiles, wombats, tree kangaroos, dingoes and finally another koala forest - this time the female koalas had babies clinging onto their backs. Now we understand why they have such long, sharp claws and thick fur! Finally I had to drag Matt away as the park was closing and I was exhausted.

Matt didn’t feel like driving far so we picked a nearby campsite and set off to a place called Miami. The motorpark was right on the beach so we went straight out for a walk. We could see the highrise blocks of Surfers Paradise along the coast in the distance. The spray from the surf made the sky scrapers look as though they were floating on the sand.

From the cliff top, three men were flying remote controlled gliders. They kept diving them to the beach and up over the cliffs in a figure of eight, then aiming for each other and just missing. The birds around weren’t sure about them at all and kept chasing them. It was addictive to watch and in the end I sat down on the sand and enjoyed the show, while Matt went and stood underneath them waiting to see if one would crash or drop out of the sky.

We sat outside our van all evening after that, enjoying listening to a band playing at the surf club next door. When it started getting dark Matt went to collect our washing from the laundry block before and noticed that a clock in there said the time was an hour different to what we thought it was. He went over to reception and saw it was still open - the sign said it closed at 7.30pm and our watches said it was past eight. He went in and asked what time it was. They laughed and told him that a few miles down the coast we’d crossed the timeline so were now on Queensland time which was an hour different.

Had he not asked I have no idea how long it would have taken us to figure it out. The guidebook didn’t even prompt us! We were pleased, as it meant we gained an hour to our evening. It was pitch black by the time it really did reach 7.30pm.

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