Australia

Today we went down to the Gold Coast for the day, an area known for its extremely long beach and surfing. We didn't know exactly what we were going to do there, but got the train (equipped with questionable savoury muffins) there to have a look around.

The journey took just over an hour, and from the train we took a tram which went down the coast, about 1km from the beach front. We got off early and walked to the beach. It wasn't something we'd seen before. Dotted along the coastline, right on the beach front, were areas that looked like major cities, with skyscrapers, but were really the size of large towns! It was quite odd, walking along the soft sand, watching the waves crashing and being disturbed by the wind, and then looking right and looming above you a 70 story building. It's always nice to be back on a beach, and we wandered along the sand towards the city. The sea was relatively choppy and the weather cool, so there were very few people surfing but we could see how the beach would be ideal for it.

There were areas of swimmers, so after a while we put down our stuff and jumped in. The waves, however choppy for surfers, were great for swimming and diving around in, and we spent a good while body surfing and diving through the waves.

After we'd got cold and hungry, we got out and the sun came out to dry us off, we sat and read our books for ages, until about 3 when we went to a beach front cafe to have burgers and iced tea/coffee. The burgers were fab and suitably full we went back to the beach to do some more reading. The sun began to drop behind the buildings so we gathered our stuff and as we walked back up the beach towards the tram, we had a mini photo shoot in the light between the gaps in the skyscrapers.

We got the train back to Brisbane and as we were heading back to the hostel, decided we needed something small to get us through to breakfast, so stopped at a churros cafe we'd seen the day before and had, well, churros. They were very good with the dark and white chocolate dipping sauces and we sat on the street, reading and watching the world go by. We ended up staying there, getting more iced teas, for a good hour and a half and left only when they were closing up the cafe!
A very relaxed day overall, our last full day in Australia! The time has flown by and it seems so odd that we're going onto NZ already! We've had a fantastic time in Australia though, and before the flight tomorrow we're going to do some more wandering, and look around Brisbane for the morning/lunch.Read more