Bay Of Palms Resort Gold Coast Coolangatta

... the Currumbin Wildlife sanctuary. It was fab. Saw very cute koalas, Tasmanian devils, crocs, wallabys, dingos and wandered among the Kangaroos. Had a walk along the beach in the evening then headed back to hostel. Checking out again in the morning to meet Lara in Brisbane. Can't wait to see a familiar face!!<br><br>Em xx

The Gold Coast is sort of like the Las Vegas of Australia but with beaches and not so flashy. There's high rise buildings blotting the skyline, loads of hotels and gambling all day long. It's all a bit tacky for me and it's a shame that some of Australia's nicest beaches are located here. We decided to give Surfers Paradise a miss and stay in smaller Coolangatta just down the coast. It hurts me to say, but at the tender age of ...

Australia How can you not love a place where the garbage trucks are painted pink and the sides say rubbish relocation? After nine hours too long on an Air Asia Airbus A330 I felt like rubbish and after 20 minutes on the beach I was ready to relocate here. The water is a clear bluish green like I have never seen before. I'm in the heart of the Gold Coast about 100km south of Brisbane in a laid back city called Coolangatta ...

The great thing about the Gold Coast airport is that you just have to stroll 300m and you are on the beach. I had breakfast and a recovery nap in the early morning sun, listening to the waves roll in from the Pacific and reading The Weekend Australian. Not a soul in sight - such a change from China! Then a nice lunch washed down with XXXX beer at North Kirra surf club before getting the bus, train and ferry back to Dockside.

... stop on the backpackers east coast route. but im glad i came cos ive fallen in love with it and never want to leave. money was running a bit short so i needed to find a job pretty soon and this seemed like the perfect place to do it. stayed with my friend penny for the first week, and after a week i moved into the youth hostel here. i have an arrangement with the hostel manager to do 15 hours of housekeeping a week in exchange for free accomodation ...

... yet one is in New South Wales and the other is in Queensland. Normally this shouldn't matter but we never noticed the hour time difference when booking the tickets and there was all manner of confusion about the time. We asked an old man on the street what time it was and his lovely watch fell smack on the pavement face down. Sounded like it broke. I don't know why there is an ...

Surfers was as good as ever! Some great nights out and some good surf. Not going to write too much for many of these logs for Oz as they would just be a bit bland compared to those of Asia! I'm sure as soon as we hit South America the stories will come thick and fast!

... they move this swimming area throughout the day as the currents change. The rest of the beach is JUST for surfing, but you have to know what you're doing because the currents are so strong and the waves are really big and fast. We've decided it's called "surfer's paradise" because only the good surfers can successfully surf here. We were watching a bunch of beginners struggle to stand up, and then wipe out a ...

Was soooo exciting to be reunited with all my travel buddies, so as a 4 again, and with Mitch in tow as our tour guide, taxi driver, and i must say great friend, we headed to the unbelievably beautiful Byron Bay, where I quite possibly had one of the best weeks of my life. Byron has everything, it is pretty small and basic, some say 'alternative' as there is a slight hippy culture going on there. We had the beach on our doorstep, some nightlife ...

Staying at J's Byron Bay YHA (http://www.yha.com.au/hostels/details. cfm?hostelid=13) Hard to believe, but we've spent the past 2 days learning to surf! No major injuries, just some very stiff muscles. We took lessons through Style Surfing . These guys were great. They got us up on the boards quickly (Grant right away, me within 2 tries). The first day was quite easy (for me anyways), as the waters were quite calm ...