Surfer's Paradise
Trip Start
Jan 17, 2007
1
35
67
Trip End
Jul 20, 2007
The Gold Coast,
Australia
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Surfers Paradise: We stayed at a campsite between the town and Brisbane as we knew we wanted to go to both places and it's good to stay in the same place for longer if you can - you get to know it better and sometimes campsites can be really hard to find!
The first day we were there we travelled up to Australia Zoo - the one the Steve Irwin's family now owns and where he became famous. It's situated in a beautiful area, surrounded by mountains and forests and was originally set up by Steve's parents. It's focus is to educate people about endangered animals, especially Australian native creatures, but is now branching our to Tigers and Elephants. Crocodiles were his favourite animal, so of course there's plenty of those, and the main part of the zoo is the Crocoseum where the twice daily crocodile shows are held. Australia Zoo is really committed to wildlife and is actually they release more animals back into the wild than any other programme or zoo in the world! They have breeding programmes for the tigers which are predicted to be extinct by 2020 unless drastic action is taken. We're so glad that we got chance to be so close to them in Thailand and here and really hope that something can be done to prevent them dying out.
We had a fantastic day, really hot weather but all the walkways were really shaded. One of the exhibits - the world's 10 most venomous snakes was a bit scary as there was only a small piece of glass between us.
01 Wombats at Australia Zoo
Apparently, the most venomous snake's poison can kill over 100 people with one drop or bite! Feeding the Elephants was great, their trunks are a bit sloppy and they certainly enjoyed the food they were getting - a fantastic experience. It was also amazing to see the tigers playing with their keepers. They are apparently still wild, but as they are used to the handlers they don't harm them (unless they get too rough whilst playing!) and it was really fun to see them swimming, chasing balls just like normal cats.Jilly's favourite was the wombats. We didn't know what they looked like before and they were really cute. Very similar to koala's, who were also very very cute - we even got to stroke one, their fur is so soft!
The crocodile show in the afternoon was great fun. They showed clips of Steve Irwin - so funny! and there were tributes to him all the time. The croc was so lethal and quick, chasing the keepers through the water and jumping up to the balcony to get food. Their lunge is so fast you really have to be careful if you're near their territory, however, they're dead slow on land and you'd easily be able to run away. A large part of the show was dedicated to educating people about the animals and also how to deal with a snake bite - we paid very careful attention!
A really really good day out.
One day we spent in and around Brisbane. It's quite a small city, I think it's Australia's third largest though. It seems like a really nice place to live, near the coast, a lovely river going through it and warm for the majority of the year as well.
Surfers Paradise itself is apparently a bit of a misnomer.
02 Jilly with a red kangaroo
The best places for surfing on the East Coast are a bit further South towards Byron Bay which we are going to next. It's a really lively city, but a bit fake and very touristy. There's loads of surf shops, but then round the corner there's loads of shops like Prada and Gucci and I'm sure there aren't many surfers who go in there! There's loads of restaurants and bars, skyscraper hotels and it's right on the sea front. It's probably Australia's biggest tourist area as loads of Aussies go there for their holidays. It was Easter while we were there and we enjoyed listening to some of the street performers and live music - it gave an even greater atmosphere to a great place!One day, we braved the waves and took a surfing lesson with the Cheyne Horan school of surfing. He was a World Champion surfer who now teaches advanced surfers. We tried to book one with him, but I don't think he's too interested in us novices - maybe next week after a bit of practice! The conditions we were told, were not great and serious surfers wouldn't have bothered. The wind was on-shore (bad), which makes it hard to wade back out and makes the waves smaller and there were a large number of rips that make it difficult. However, despite these difficulties, we were in fact quite successful for our first 2 hours of surfing. We tried to take some photos with another underwater camera, but we might have to wait till Fiji to get them developed - we're not planning on spending too much time in the freezing water of New Zealand! The instructor was a typical ageing surfer dude - really laid back but still enthusiastic. Under his guidance we both managed to stand briefly, but the end of a surf was always inevitable! Apparently Fiji is quite good for surfing, so we might try and hire boards there and have another go!
The following morning we played tennis at the campsite adn unfortunately Jilly sprained her ankle - it happens to the best players. It's since gone through a variety of colours and shapes (I think she was almost a size 10 at one point!) but thankfully it's now in much better condition and she's planning on being fit for Wimbledon! That day we took a trip a little further down the coast to Burleigh Heads to watch some more serious surfers enjoy slightly better conditions than we did. Some of them make it look so easy - it really isn't!
We've had a great time around the Gold Coast and Brisbane and are a bit sad to leave. Hopefully we'll be back someday!
Lots of love,
Jilly and Laurie xx
