The Gold Coast is the tourist capital of Australia, and we ended up in a little place called Surfer’s Paradise for one night before heading north again.  We never dreamed the Gold Coast would have a scene on this scale.  We pictured a more rustic place with hotels and cafes and mini-golf.  What we found is much more like Miami Beach, Waikiki in Honolulu or Daytona Beach – a monstrosity of tourism. Amazingly big, and the waves don’t look that good for a place with such a name.

A bit of trivia… Surfers Paradise become popular after a local entrepreneur Bernie Elsey got the idea to have the meter maids wear skimpy gold bikinis in 1965. We saw a couple while there- not that impressive if you ask me. :)

The Gold Coast is not really what we came to Australia to see, but we had a fun night. We ended up spending most of the night at a piano bar called Howl at the Moon, where Sachi found her version of heaven, singing and dancing to songs we all know by heart. 

I find it funny to sing songs like “Sweet home Alabama” and “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” in other countries.  I can’t help but think that some of the meaning is lost on the Aussies.  We did sing a rousing version of “Down Under” by Men at Work – and some of the meaning was likewise lost on me.  

In the end, we left the amazing party scene to come back to our room and go to sleep around midnight. You can enter bars in Surfers Paradise until 3am, then once inside, you can party until 5am, but once you exit after 3, you’re essentially locked out.  

We’re still on NZ time (3 hours later) and we can’t really afford, financially or physically, to party ALL night long, at least not tonight.  Speaking of "All Night Long" we've heard that Lionel Richie song covered twice by live musicians in less than 24 hours- is Lionel Richie the David Hasselhoff of Australia? Probably not.