06.09.10


Yesterday we spent the day down in Burliegh Heads. Its about 35 minutes south of Paradise Point, and also had a park nearby that we wanted to walk through.
Our initial plan was to head out West to the Lamington and Springbrook National Park. The park itself is free to get into, but the ride out is not. Unless you have your own vehicle, which we do not, you can take a shuttle or tour bus, which costs $80 bucks a person. We didnt want to go that bad. We are still in the process of getting our international driver licenses so we couldnt rent a car, and there is absolutely no public transport that makes its way out there. We did end up finding Burleigh Heads Park, and settled for that instead.
It was gorgeous and private. Nothing huge, but the park itself was at the end of a beach which was also really nice. There were two main paths for the park, the ocean walk and the rainforest walk. We decided to climb up the small mountain through the bush first.
On our walk, we ran into several brush turkeys, enormous spiders, and lots of neat plant life. At the top of the mountain was an incredible view overlooking the Gold Coast skyline and the vast distance of the ocean. We got some incredible pictures of the creatures and the view!
On the way back we walked the ocean side and watched the surfers. The waves were pretty awesome and it is so intriguing to see people out in the ocean trying to surf. There were lots of spectators actually. Just not quite sure if they were looking at the surfers or looking for sharks!
The best part of the day is that in the park they had boiling water tanks. There specifically for families who are picnicking and need a tea time. As it is the thing to do here in Australia. We used the water instead to make cup-o-soup. Part of our $25 dollar groceries, we managed to eat lunch and then headed back home to continue working on my school final.
This morning we woke up bright and early to get ready for another shoot. This time, right in the center of the city at Surfers Paradise beach.
Gold Coast is your typical beach city. The only skyscrapers are tall hotels, and the streets are just a mix of tourist shops, dinning, cafés and more shopping. Like Brisbane, the houses are on stilts and have palms and exotic looking plants surrounding it. Marinas, boat docks, and seafood places are plentiful, and everything, both hotel, stores, and restaurants, have some sort of nautical name, like ocean spray, sea foam, mermaids landing, seagull hideaway. Even all the streets were cleverly named after different sea creatures.
The beaches are long. Just one huge long stretch of beach from top to bottom, and then some. I dont know how they decide when one beach starts and the other ends, since there are several beaches all within this long stretch of coast.
It has been kind of windy, and therefore chilly, but today was perfect. We first grabbed a 5 dollar breaky, and then plopped down on the beach. The waves were big, the air smelled like salt and annoying as they are, the seagulls just topped the whole day off. A beach isnt a beach without its seagulls.
We spent a few hours on the beach, did the photo shoot, and then headed back for home. On our way we stopped at a seafood market/restaurant to try some local catch. John got a seafood basket and I grabbed a fish sandwich. While we waited, we walked around the cold counter to view all the neat seafood. Mussels and oysters, all different kinds of crabs and lobsters, fishes galore and prawns. The food was endless, and delicious. I cant lie though, even though the fish was good, it doesnt come close to my grandpas fish in Sandusky. Maybe it is the fresh water/salt water difference, or maybe it's just my grandpa ; ) ? Who knows!
Having been in cold weather since we left home and since we have been in Australia, a day full of sea, salt, sand, sun and fish was exactly what we needed!