Surfers Paradise to Maroochydore
Trip Start
Apr 15, 2009
1
44
61
Trip End
Jun 09, 2010
Where I stayed
Surf n Sun Beachside Backpackers
Brisbane City Backpackers
Cotton Tree Backpackers
Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia
Sunday, April 4, 2010
The only bad thing about the beach at Surfer's is that from mid afternoon the skyscrapers and tall buildings that line the seafront cast a shadow on the beach and so sunbathing gets a bit chilly and pointless! The town itself is quite built up and full of hotels, bars and restaurants. With all the bright lights and good times going on it feels a bit like Vegas, but not as good perhaps!
We had only scheduled for one night here as we had heard it wasnt good for much other than partying and we couldnt really afford that! That night however we got free entry and a free drink at one of the clubs in town through our hostel. It was pretty bangin by 10pm and seemed like Surfers' would be a great place for a big night out...but you'll need plenty of dosh! At $10 a drink we decided our free drink would be our last and after soaking up the vibes in the club for an hour or so, a few of us from the hostel headed for a bottle shop and then back to the hostel to enjoy the nice cheap beers.
In the morning we set off for Brisbane straight after checking out. We drove halfway there when we remembered our passports were still in the hostel safe!! Durrrr! So, several hours and probably a quarter tank of petrol later we finally arrived in Brisbane! Here we encountered the first bit of rain we had seen in a while and we weren't too impressed! We explored the city centre, which wasnt too impressive, until we got to South Bank. Here it was really nice. On the south side of the river there is a man made-lagoon and tiny beach, surrounded by lovely gardens, public bbq's, bars and restaurants. In the evening its all lit up so that it can be enjoyed all day long. The view of the city at night across the river was quite nice as well (although lets face it, it's no Melbourne!) We liked it so much in fact we decided to treat ourselves to a pizza at one of the nice restaurants just so we didnt have to go home for dinner!
We spent a lot of time in Brisbane in travel agencies getting info on all the tours we wanted to do, and trying to get something booked. We soon realised that we in no way had enough time to do everything! We finally came up with a plan that included a Fraser Island tour, a Whitsundays day trip, some White Water Rafting and a dive at the Great Barrier Reef. Only trouble was that this plan also included one day of driving 900kms and two days later driving over 500km!
Our first activity however was a trip to Australia Zoo which is just north of Brisbane. If you dont know, Australia Zoo is run by the Irwin family - as in Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter! We had heard lots of good things about it and it was definitely worth the visit. First off we went to the Crocoseum (named this by Steve because this is where you see 'em - the crocs that is!) where we saw lots of animals including a huge crocodile which one mad man was throwing meat at! Through out the rest of the day we saw lots more Crocodiles, Giant Tortoises, Koalas, Elephants, Snakes (one of the staff even encouraged us to touch one, although I think Luke's effort at touching was stretching the definition somewhat!) and much more.
One of the hilights of the day was the kangaroo enclosure as you can get so close up to the Kangaroos and Wallabies. You can even buy some food and feed them if you so chose! Another hilight was getting a photo cuddling a Koala! It was a bit pricey but fully worth it I thought. The little fella was so cute, and his claws didnt dig in half as much as I thought they would. Pity I had to give him back!
It was a fantastic day out and the cherry on the cake was seeing the Big Pineapple on the way to our hostel that evening! We stayed in Maroochydore, a coastal town close to the zoo and not too far from our next destination of Noosa.
