The Gold Coast

From Byron Bay we headed an hour north to the shire of Tweed, the southern most district of the greater Gold Coast region.  The twin cities of Tweed and Coolangatta sit right on the New South Wales-Queensland border, with Tweed to the south in NSW and Coolangatta to the north in QLD.  We wound up at the at the beach in the latter enjoying a beautiful sunny day.  There is a lot to be said for “Coolie”, it being just big enough to have an atmosphere without the congestion that comes with a large city combined with the great year-round weather, both swimming and surfing beaches, cool ocean waters and laid back surfer culture that’s present but not overbearing.  I must admit I was quite smitten with it from the moment we rolled onto the scene.  Perhaps this city could end up being our future home after our road trip? Only time will tell.  

  

Coolangatta Beach 

Looking north from Coolangatta Beach you can see the towering skyline of Gold Coast City

A lone surfer getting ready to jump onto the swell from Fingal Head

After a day well spent relaxing at the beach we headed west for another tramp through the mountains (well, in this case mountain).  The largest and most defining feature on the western horizon from Byron Bay to well north of Coolie is Mt Warning, which is the volcanic plug of the ancient shield volcano, the Tweed Volcano.  Of course, you know this means I had to climb it.  The summit, once resting at twice its current elevation of 3,793 feet, is highly sacred to the local aboriginals.  It has been eroded over the thousands of years, leaving a large fertile basin where it once towered, dissected by a few remaining mountain ridges and hemmed in on all sides by world-heritage listed national parks full of ancient Gondwanan forests.  Just the drive up to the base of the mountain provided loads of beautiful views from all different angles.  The hike itself is a constant steady uphill over rocky uneven terrain through the rainforest for what was prescribed to be 4 hours roundtrip (exaggerated).  Kayleigh, being just about done with hiking since all I put her through in NZ, sat this one out (Who can blame her?).  Just before the final steep chain aided rock scramble to the top a sign informed me that the local aboriginals prefer that you not ascend to the summit.  Had I known this before making it this far I may have headed their wishes, but at this point there was no turning back.  From the top the views naturally stretched 360 degrees in all directions, to the southeast I could even see Byron Bay and the Cape some 100km away!

Looking southeast to Byron Bay - see it off in the distance there? 

Mt Warning 

The next day we took a pilgrimage to one of the American styled amusement parks that thankfully calls Gold Coast home.  Dreamworld is fashioned as the most exciting of the bunch, home to the “Big 8” thrill rides as they’re called.  Putting aside the small fair-like Luna Park in Sydney, this was the first proper amusement park we’d been to for over a year.  We came on a weekday in the off-season which meant lines were short and we easily hit every worthwhile ride in the park.  Some of my favorites included the (Big Drop, Tower of Terror and a really well put together zombie themed laser tag arena called Zombie Evilution).  Dreamworld isn’t quite as big or ambitious as its American counterparts, but it certainly hit the spot.

Dreamworld parking lot - you see the Big Drop and the Buzzsaw

Finally, we took a few hours to work our way through Gold Coast City and all its holiday debauchery.  To get a good idea of what the Gold Coast is like I offer you this - imagine that somebody threw the Las Vegas strip onto Waikiki Beach in Honolulu.  The result will either entice or disgust you.  Gold Coast is the 5th most visited destination in Australia for international tourists and is one of the fastest growing regions in Australia by population.  High-rise development lines the long stretch of beach, with Surfer’s Paradise at its hedonistic heart.  Ironically this produces large long shadows on the beach in the evening, effectively destroying the value of its primary asset.  On the lighter side, there are some fantastic engineering feats that have gone into transforming the coastline and the inland marshes into functional harbors and luxury houses on a network of man-made canals with direct access to the ocean.  It’s quite pretty in its own peculiar way.

The dark side of the beach

Surfers Paradise beach