The Gold Coast

Surfer's Paradise is a beach town in an area known as the Gold Coast. It is here I had my first couchsurfing experience. I got off the greyhound in Surfer's and armed with the address of one Dean Mayer I began asking how to get to it. Its a bit out of Surfer's so I got a bus to the area and a police officer was able to fill me in on the rest of how to get the rest of the way. After a fair bit of walking, carrying nearly 20kg of gear which gets pretty heavy after a kilometre or two. I found Dean's house and thankfully for me he was home. Dean is a young guy who has done a bit more travelling than me, to places like Canada and a few spots in Europe including Ireland. We spend the afternoon hanging out and he starts showing me some of the stuff nearby. Then I meet his brother and dad who both live with him. That was pretty much it for the first day, I stayed up to watch the footy and Dean went to bed early as he was up early for work in the morning. I slept on a mattress in the front room for free but I gave them the bottle of champagne I had acquired on the flight over as a gift for letting me stay.

The next day I got the bus to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and spent the day there. It is a place where you can see the wildlife of Australia in a cool environment. Its a bit like a zoo but I think the animals get more freedom here. For example, the kangaroo area was open plan, basically you walked into their enclosure as part of the walk around the park. You could get up close to the animals and I spent a while petting them and feeding them a little bit. There were also koalas in their own little sanctuary (it was extra to get a picture with them), tazmanian devils, crocs, wombats, wallabies and heaps more. Some had more freedom than others but most werent caged up which was cool. The highlights were the live shows though which ran staggered throughout the day. The best one for me was the live bird show where a guy stood on a stage and would call birds to him, attracting them with food. Some of the birds were really impressive looking and got quite close to your head as they swooped down on stage. I nearly got taken out by a big owl and an eagle at various points in the show. The eagle was massive and was an incredibly amazing sight to see it swooping down over the crowd to the stage. At the end of the day there was the lorikeet feeding as well. These are small, brightly coloured birds (think of a small parrot) and there were frigging loads of them. You could get a dish with some feed on it and you suddenly got a brightly coloured, feathery coat. Some people were hard to make out for all the birds on them. Afterwards I had dinner with Dean back at the house and had another night in with the footy. Dean lives a bit away from any nightlife so I wasnt tempted to go out. Which is a good thing.

The next day I just went for a walk around Surfer's Paradise for the day. Its a bunch of skyscrapers beside a beach and is essentially a rich kid's playground. Its full of expensive bars and restaurants and is not a very backpacker place. So I went for a walk on the beach, watched some of the surfers and chilled out. Im not entirely sure how much of a paradise it is for surfers as the waves werent terribly big while I was there. Nice beach though. In the evening I watched some boxing with Dean's brother and some of his mates which was a good laugh and kind of made me feel like being back in ireland, just chilling with a few mates and some sports. Not backpacker grade stuff at all but a nice change. Then I got up the next day, got a lift to Surfer's from Dean and was off to Brisbane. The Gold Coast is a bit overhyped I think, its far too commercialised and is very resorty but it was worth going there to meet someone like Dean who I got on pretty well with and to visit the Wildlife Sanctuary (like the zoos but cheaper). I was beginning to realise just how expensive this country is too. Entry fees for various things are a little bit high, I could drop my entire daily budget on one of these bloody things. Easy does it is the name of the game. Anyway Brisvegas is next and im being put up there too!