This Surfer's Paradise - 1-7-12 to 1-9-12

"She thought: For just a few moments-while this lasts-it is all right to surrender completely-to forget everything and just permit yourself to feel.  She thought: Let go-drop the controls-this is it." -Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. 

Surfer's Paradise BABY

The first supper

I have always heard about the amazing waves along the eastern coast of Australia; the incredible cities that one can get lost in and never bored; the perfect weather, though sometimes a bit stifling; and beautiful white sandy beaches that stretch for miles.  Gold Coast seems to wrap all this up into one with a perfect balance of tourist mecca and beautiful paradise.  I was more than pleased with almost every aspect of Surfer's Paradise, a beach region within the GC, than I could have imagined.  What I didn't imagine was how true the aforementioned comparison to the strange aspects of Panama City could have been.  If it weren't for such lovely attractions such as the Vomatron, the Segway Experience, the Wax Museum - conveniently located a block from our apartment, Haunted Houses around every corner, go-karts, sling shots, water parks, indoor shooting ranges, and any other maniacal attempt to take a tourist's buck one could imagine (with much delight and willfulness from said tourist) Gold Coast may be the perfect beach.

Some mom named Matt looking for shells.

The entire beach where we stayed, Surfers, is partitioned from mainland by a system of intricate canal ways and intercostal waterways.  All along the shores are lavish houses with coupled dock, outfitted with the standard fare of rich boy toys.  This gives the view from our apartment a feel very similar to that Miami offers.  We even discussed the likely hood in the event that we were to be teleported, with no prior knowledge of destination, to our porch, that we would guess our location to be in Miami; a very surreal and fantastic way of looking at things when we reminded ourselves that we were in Australia.  We seem to be required to do that in a pinch yourself to make sure you aren't dreaming sort of fashion.

Our accommodation was absolutely ridiculous.  Words can't even describe, you need to check it out on the website to get an idea close to how it actually was.  In a rare circumstance, the place was even better than advertised, but perhaps we are biased because of their customer care attempt when they made us wait for a couple hours for our rooms to be cleaned and prepped.  Their consolation was $300 in drink vouchers at a local club for so "inconveniencing" us - how can one's be flouted when there is absolutely nowhere to be; boredom is embraced in times like these.  Anyways, we gratefully accepted the vouchers with a new plan for the night: Melba's and $300 dollars worth of free drinks.

Demonstration of sub par sunscreen application.

First we strolled around town, taking in the sights and loading up on food, beer, and tank tops.  The ladies cooked an awesome family meal, and we prepared ourselves for what may ensue this night on the town, thanks to Trilogy.  We showed up at Melba's, half in shorts, and most of us in flip flops, and were subsequently denied.  We weren't to be turned away that easily, however, so we trekked back to the apartment to scrounge together as many closed toed shoes as we could find.  We found 8 pairs, so 8 of us set back out for a second try.  The doorman couldn't believe we would put that sort of effort in to getting in to the club - he would too with $300 worth of free drinks - so he let us cut a massive line that had formed in our brief absence...pretty good guy.  Needless to say, with our random assembly of wardrobe and footwear in an attempt to fit in - we didnt.

We all chose to take the lavish, ritzy approach to spending our not so hard earned drink vouchers and went for some P Diddy inspirer Ciroc dirty martinis and expensive whiskey.  With our money quickly blown, we set out for the dance floor and the rest is hazy history.  Stayed up to watch the sunrise - fortunately it comes up as early as 4:30 - and then off to bed for a few hours of sleep before hitting the beach and some waves the next day.

With tired eyes and wearisome bellies, we stopped in a few shops to get some recommendations on a place to eat; stopped in to one right off the beach; got a $30 very sub par meal; and headed off to the beach in search of waves.  During an attempted surf board rental and talking with the guys in the shop it turns out the wind is brutal, as is most of the country, if you don't hit the surf before 9 or 10...which would have put us running on about 4 hours of sleep.  Wish we had known that, we would have been fine, but needless to say, that didn't happen.  Even still, body surfing is always a good stand by and we spent the rest of the day fighting the massive waves and gnarly rip currents.  The power of the ocean here is unparral to anything this east coast boy has ever experienced.  Definitely going to need to get on a board when we get back to Sydney.

The afternoon was spent in the hotel hot tub enjoying a few adult beverages, which subsequently - to our surprise - drew the attention of the security guard who felt it necessary to call 8 cops to the "scene of the crime" to "escort" us out.  It was pretty laughable, but apparently you aren't supposed to have cans of XXXX Gold in the spa area or you will experience the wrath of the law - who knew?  Our friends from New Zealand and South Africa we recently met, who were with us at the time, said that a lot of the time they will chuck you in a drunk tank for about 8 hours just with an open container citation.  Glad we were fortunate enough to spend the next 8 hours cooking out in the comfort of our apartments and not rotting in the can.  As crazy as the people are down here there is no wonder they are so stringent on seemingly petty laws.  Note to self.

Random side note: Had an incredible last night burger cookout with all the trimmings one could imagine - including peanut butter, which Andrew swore to.  I gave it a shot, but decided to make a monster double after the concrete like mixture of egg, beef and peanut butter hit my stomach.  Too rich for my blood.  Moving on.

Headed back to Brisbane the next morning spending only $16 on the entire round trip, and that sure as hell beats $300+ for a flight to Cairns, that can wait for the end of the trip.  The infrastructure and public transport system underlying it is truly an awesome asset.  Just recently, according to some articles I stumbled upon, the city of Brisbane bought 500 brand new natural gas fueled buses.  That brings up some interesting reflections and experiences from today; stay focused.  Anyway, the rest of our day was a mix of relaxation, meetings, and work, but one thing that was of notable cerebration is the Public Library that I know sit in and for the first time utilized yesterday to begin this post. 

Matt Ryan or R. Kelly?

Every public building, park, resource, transport, or what have you seems to be more often utilized, better maintained and all around higher quality than many of those back in the States.  I have not had near the experience with such public utilities back home as I have had here, but I also have never been so impressed with the ease of use and availability of government funded, publicly utilized facilities.  Something that brings a lot of thought to the importance of city planning, environmental design and nature of public services in cities across the world, and Brisbane, as well as Sydney, does this quite well, in my humble opinion.  Not quite my motif, but still an interesting thought.

Cheers.

We get Bob Saget and Tom Bergeron and they get this babe?

Enjoying the killer balcony view