Gold Coast

Sunday we finally headed down to the Gold Coast, the most developed beach area in Queensland, if not in all Australia. If you look carefully in the picture on the bottom right, in the far distance (the close ones to the left are just Burleigh Heads) you can see the built-up skyline of Surfers Paradise. The most distinctive one is the highest residential tower in Australia. It's 80 floors or something like that. There are so many buildings that in the afternoon they actually shade the beach (which sometimes is a good thing in Australia).

Burleigh Heads, where we spent the afternoon, is a bit farther south and somewhat less developed with only a few high-rises. Still, it was the most crowded beach we’d been to thus far despite the clouds and windy conditions. However, there was a lovely national park with a 3-4 km loop walk that winds its way around the rocky headland separating the beach from Tallebudgera Creek and Palm Beach to the south. Just FYI there is a Miami Beach too. Apparently the Australian developers weren’t too concerned with originality.

Erik got out on his boogie board and caught a few good waves, but it was quite rough and the undertow was fierce, so I had to stay with him the whole time. He and Mark also built a sand castle complex complete with housing for castle workers. On the way home we were commenting that although it might be pleasant to spend the night, we probably never would since it’s only an hour’s drive back home.