December 5th, 2005 - Surfers Paradise

After a nice day and a half relaxing in the quaint town of Byron Bay, we were blown away by the magnitude and skyscraper filled skyline of Surfers Paradise. Although there were plenty of people who suggested to skip past Surfers because of it's gimicky tourist driven strip of sand, we decided to brave it anyways because we wanted to goto a theme park while we were there. The city stretches the full length of the beach and you can see right into New South Wales from Queensland. The beach is monstrous and goes for miles! We arrived late afternoon and headed into town to explore. After poking through some shops and wondering down the main strip to the beach front, we grabbed a bite to eat at McDonalds (I actually had a craving?). They were in the middle of building a huge sand castle for Christmas and Laure and I were fascinated by the time and precision involved, let alone the glue to keep it together! That night we parked ourselves at an Irish pub for a pint with a live performer and then headed back to the hostel and chilled around the pool. Although very relaxing, the next morning we regretted our poolside break since we were both covered in bug bites. That night was my worst hostel experience yet, aside from the night following. I shared a bunk with some random guy that tossed and turned like he was a pancake. Every time he rolled over, the bed shook and the hinges squeeled. Anyone who knows me can vouch for the fact that I'm a really heavy sleeper, but with the heat andbugs and noisy dude, I may have squeezed in 3 hours! The next day we headed off early for DreamWorld, an amusement park with a bit ofr everything - a zoo, roller coasters, Imax, waterslides...the works. We had a fantastic day, most of which was spent 'queing' and lotioning our frail skin. Our first ride of the day was the drop of death that was pretty much the closest I've been to free falling! Overall a really nice day other than a bit of dizziness from the heat and the excessive BO in the lines! That night we headed straight into town and meandered for another couple of hours before we headed home and packed for our next stop...Rainbow Beach.