Jan 19th 2006

So now Im in brisbane! Only got here yesterday so not much to tell you so far!

Surfers Paradise was a really strange place! Its the most commercial place in Australia and can only be compared to spainish resorts like magaluf or somewhere! Full of high rise buildings right along the beach front too, so different to byron bay! The main centre is filled with shops, pubs, clubs, takeaways and restuarants, every corner you turn takes you to another street filled with them! As its on the gold coast the beach was gorgeous and just kept going for as far as you can see! Lovely white sand and clear blue sea, weather was too hot to sit down there for long though! Surfers is the gateway to the main theme parks in Oz so if you've got time and money to do them it'd probably take u a few days to get round them all! Me tash and eva were together the whole time and spent one day the Wet n Wild waterpark which was cool. It was packed though, surfers is the place that oz families come to to go on their hols, so strange that they come here for hols!! We managed to get on all the main rides and theres even a cinema at night so you can sit in your ribber rings and watch a movie!

We did a walk around the city and along the river where we came across the most expensive houses in surfers, must be owned by mega rich famous people!! One night there was a street market on set out along the beach front, loadsa stalls filled with home crafty things! Then there was a cinema screen set up on the beach with bean bags and everything, was so cool sitting there at night just chilling out! It was a red bull promo so they were giving out loadsa cans pf red bull and showing films from their adrenalin sports promos, one in particular of a bunch of guys surfing the highest wave ever recorded during a typhoon in Japan, crazy!!

At night theres loads of places to go, lots of clubs that are open till all hours, most hostels do pub crawls round them all so u should get round them ok!!

On thurs i left to head up here to brisbane and did zorbing on the way!! Zorbing involves being put in a water filled giant inflatable ball with 2 other people and them pushed down a hill, rolling over people (speed bumps) as you go down!!!!! It was so cool, so much fun and over way too quickly!! It was like being in a washing machine we were slipping and sliding all over the place and couldnt stop laughing!!!!!!

So thats it really and now im in brisvegas, oz's 3rd largest city, and the fastest growing too as everyones heading here for the nice warm weather! Last night was eva's last nite so we headed out to the 'down under' bar which was a really good night! Havent seen much of the city yet and not sure what there is to do so i'll update you before i leave here next Thurs! I'll try to put my pics from surfers paradise on again later!

Take Care all and thanks for all ur messages!

Ang xx

**  Now I'm in Queensland i've gone back in time by an hour, apparently queensland dont do saylight saving!  So am now 10hrs ahead of uk and an hr behind new south wales, victoria etc!