A Visit to the Gold Coast

South of Brisbane is a long stretch of beach called the Gold Coast.  [Chad: and north of Brisbane is a long stretch of beach called the Sunshine coast.]  The Gold Coast is the home of the town Surfers Paradise (yes, for real), and the highly-recommended but lesser-known Coolangatta, among others.  It was also our first destination leaving Brisbane in our super sporty rental car (okay, it's a Nissan Micra so it's neither super or sporty...)  But it did mark our [Chad: ahem, my] first time driving on the left.

The Gold Coast is, in a word, developed!

Surfer's paradise has seen crazy development, and has a polished forest of high-rise condos and tourist attractions right up against the beach.

No shortage of lifeguards or surf condition warnings.  You're supposed to swim between the red and yellow flags = safest for swimming.

If you like your own spot of beach, away from the busy urban core, Surfer's Paradise is not for you!

Surfer's paradise has a tradition of gold-lamay-bikini- and cowboy-hat-wearing greeters/parking attendants who patrol the esplanade, originally to help with parking but also as goodwill ambassadors you can have your photo taken with.  [Chad: I figured I'd be called out as a lecherous old man - loudly, by Sarah - if I posed with the bikini ambassadors, so there is no photo.]

As much as we avoid fast food while travelling, a 30 cent cone in the heat is hard to argue with.  I'll bet Rick wishes he was here...

We stayed at the southern tip of the Gold Coast (right by the border with New South Wales), in Coolangatta - a quieter stretch of beach with a more small-town feel.  You can climb a small hill for a view of the area.

Like practically all other coastal areas in Australia, Coolangatta has a lovely public boardwalk, picnic areas and playgrounds fronting the beach.  No European-style private beach control or ownership - it's all public all the time.  Well done!

Looking north - Surfer's Paradise is just to the right of the photo, the towers poking through the haze.

[Chad: OK Australia, NOW I have deep respect for you.  This is on top of the hill in Coolangatta - it's a FREE public BBQ/grill.  This isn't unique to this area - most public picnic spaces have them, either gas or electric.  Let me say that again - free public grills everywhere.  So no need to bring your own messy grill and charcoal and/or propane.  Just bring the shrimp and the skewers, brush off the grill, fire it up and cook away!  Unbelievable.  I can't help but thinking how in Canada public grills such as these would be vandalized beyond repair within days.  But here, people actually use them and seem not to abuse them.]

More free public grills at Point Danger, just south of Coolangatta.

Now you see my sunglasses...

It was quite warm, so we took a dip in the ocean.  The thing to do seemed to be to stand in the surf and let it break on you.

Here I am shortly before a wave punched me in the face, ripped off my bikini top, and stole my sunglasses.

Chad bracing himself for a wave while capturing the moment on our waterproof camera.

Now you don't see my sunglasses...  Damn you, surf!

Good times at the beach.

Post being-smashed-by-the-surf beer - the only good thing about our hostel was 2 for 1 happy hour on Sunday nights!

Our hostel wasn't the best - prices are high and availability limited on the Gold Coast.  The hostel was totally populated by barely post-high school aged surfer kids, probably on their first trip away from home.  So it was pretty filthy, but such is the situation when travel budgets are tight.  They did have a decent happy hour downstairs, full of older pre-Christmas-celebrating Aussies and a duo playing live music, which was a decent time.

We took a day trip south to famous Byron Bay, the surf hippie/counter culture location of reknown.  It was okay, but really we weren't all that impressed.  It has a lovely beach, but so does, well, everywhere in Australia.  The rest of it was absolutely overrun by tourists and tourist-focused enterprise, and the beach was full of trendy too-cool-for-school types instead of hippies.  So we just stayed long enough for a quick beach walk.

However, on the way out of town we saw signs for a brewery, so decided to drop in.

Brewery, cinema, day spa... together at last?

Byron Bay Brewing used to be a typical light-lager company that contracted out all their brewing.  But several years ago it changed hands, and is now a proper craft brewery with a good selection of beer, all of it very tasty.  If you visit Byron Bay, this is the only must-see in town.

A surfboard of tasters, of course.

Yay, elusive craft beer at last!

The indoor pub area.  Pretty decent capacity for a brewpub.

More friendly lizards say hello while you enjoy your beverage.

As do Christmas-tinsel-wreathed Asian statues.