Day 27

Today we drove out to Gold Coast, about an hour drive, to see the Pacific Ocean and all its beaches! We went to Surfer’s Paradise first, and it was aptly named. We drove along the ocean searching for a parking space. I immediately snapped a couple photos of the fine white sand and gorgeous aqua waves. Some were rather huge, and I spotted a couple surfers. It was partly cloudy, but warm enough. I headed to the ocean and acclimated quickly to the temperature change. It was so much warmer than Maine’s Atlantic Ocean in the summer! And actually warmer than some of the pools I’ve swam in. The yellow warning flags were up and I didn’t head in too far. The undertow was crazy and kept pulling you down the shore.

After swimming, I lay in the sun a bit and then we played Bocce ball on the beach. We then got in the car and drove further down the coast to Burleigh beach. It was totally full with surfers! There were about 40 all in the same area trying to catch the waves. This was my first time seeing surfing and it was interesting to see how only 1 out of 5 successfully caught a wave.

Surfing’s hard! We ate at a surf club, on the deck with a great view of the ocean and surfers. The food was amazing! I got a Barra Fillet burger with chips (fries). Barramundi is now my new favorite fish. Sorry Haddock!

We then walked along the paved path by the beach into this national park that had some trails through a woodsy area and a lookout point.

We ran across some other people that had just seen a huge snake on the pavement! It was one of the three (a bit of an exaggeration) non poisonous species in Aussie, but it disappeared before we got there.