Wind, Rain, Sand, and Frogs

A New Nation

Goin’ back to Sydney : 4 February 2004

The grand ute tour is over, and we’re preparing to depart this beautiful country. It’s sometimes nice to not have crazy adventures forced upon us. Instead it has been a leisurely drive down the coast with stops at some of the more well-developed tourist places, including the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, two of the most popular tourist destinations in Australia. The Sunshine Coast was represented by Noosa Heads, where we spent our free day trying to find an auto mechanic, then waiting for them to fix the lights (a relay had burned out), and catching up on some email. Noosa itself was a nice little town. It was much more developed than most of the other places we have stayed in, but still had wild rainforest next to our hostel. We actually saw a wild Koala while standing in the parking lot of the hostel. The people, on the other hand, are another matter. Not the locals, who, as usual, were very kind and friendly. But the crowd at this hostel definitely had a different vibe than most of the others. Most everyone was young and looking to party and hook up, and seemed oblivious not only to the setting they were in but to the fact that there were other people around. The bathrooms and kitchen were kind of gross, actually, and it was fascinating to watch these girls blow dry their hair in the heat and get all primped up to go out and catch a boy. The boys were nearly as bad, making sure to show off their muscles and hair as much as possible. Our next stop was the heart of the Gold Coast: Surfers Paradise. This part of the country is unlike any other in Australia, but is a lot like Waikiki beach in Honolulu, only bigger. It’s all highrises and shopping, an entirely developed and built up urban environment that goes for nearly 35km along the coast. We ended up staying on the 14th floor of the Marriot, with an ocean view room and a king sized bed. It was completely different than anything we’ve done for the last couple weeks, and we both wish we had allowed ourselves more time there. On the way down to Surfers, we stopped at the Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. We arrived just in time for the noon croc show at their brand new Crocoseum, a 5000 seat amphitheater surrounding a clear water lagoon. The clear water was cool. Usually, crocs live in muddy water, and that’s how they hide from their prey. Even most of the pools in the zoo have muddy water, since that’s what they like. But in the clear water, you could totally see him just hanging out on the bottom. Waiting. It was eerie. And when the handler would go near the water with food, you could watch how he would slowly slink up to the edge, then just lunge out, jaws gaping, teeth everywhere. It was impressive. We also saw many other animals there. We got to pet some kangaroos, we saw baby tiger cubs, Tasmanian Devil, wombats, snakes, birds, a couple elephants walking down the road, each holding the tail of the one in front in his trunk, cassowaries, some humans and a bunch of rain. It was a pretty cool place, though it was unbearably hot, and a little expensive. Even knowing that most of the profits go to animal conservation, the $3 bottles of water could have been a bit bigger. The strangest part was that the gift shop is filled with Irwin family crap. I mean, it’s tacky enough when people get the dinner plate with their own family photo on it, but why would you want to buy a family photo dinner plate of someone else’s family? But even creepier was the wall of Terri Irwin dolls. The last couple days we went back to Ballina. The surf wasn’t very good, but we suck anyway, so that didn’t stop us. Actually, we’re both improving, though we have a very long way to go. To add to our list of potential places to live, we have to add Lennox Head. We’re now getting ready to get on a train back to Sydney. Canberra was fun, and Sean showed us some of the sights, ranging from the national capital and the war memorial to the 24 hour brothels and adult stores of Fyshwick. After our one week backtrack to Hawaii, it’s off to China!

Replies: 3 comments

Robin, you are a madman. I can't imagine putting together this website and having the discipline to update it constantly, let alone plan that wacky trip. Glad to see that you guys are doing well, it looks like a once in a lifetime experience. Long live Smedge! -David Posted by David Summers @ 02/05/2004 12:16 AM PST

HI ANDREA/ROBIN HOPE YOUR HAVING A GOOD TIME Posted by ANDREA @ 02/05/2004 11:07 AM PST

We got a house! Posted by Chris @ 02/11/2004 07:05 PM PST