Costa Del Gold

Leaving rubber tyre marks in Byron we pegged it up to the Gold Coast. This is the 35km strip of coast between Tween Heads and Southport. The most famous of the towns must be Surfers Paradise. It was amazing when we drove round a headland to see in the misty distance across the sea the outline of what looked like New York City. Having seen nothing but trees and hills for the last 1000km it was an awesome sight in one of those mad made kind of ways.
The Gold Coast is a metropolis of everything we have grown to hate, gigantic shopping centers, high rise apartments, motorway sized streets, rush hour traffic and all things BIG and noisy.
For these reasons we thought we would hate it. Sadly not, we love it. The tackyness is incredible, but it goes perfectly with the white beaches, bright blue ocean with skyscraper back drop.
Girls in gold bikinis walk up and down the beach handing out leaflets to the latest casino or mall. Old women walk down the beach wearing massive shades and talking on mobile phones. Overly tanned overaged men wearing bright lime polkadot briefs lie on the sand, and adverts for the biggest theme parks light up the streets at night.
There are wax museums, water parks, movie parks, rollercoaster parks, seaworld and gun shooting academys advertised by pictures of naked women hold guns. Its hilarious. Its just as I imagine Venice beach in L.A or Miami.
I'm sure we will get bored of it all soon and head back out to the national parks to build a fire.