After an ungodly early start, we made our way east, back to the Sunshine Coast. We spent a while in Noosa, the last surfing town on our way north (the Great Barrier Reef blocks the break for the rest of the Queensland coast). Noosa is a lot like the beach towns in the Hamptons or Cape Cod - a mixture of surfers and underachievers with posh shops and socialites.
After a fantastic cheeseburger and a final surfing attempt (I did stand up), it was off to Fraser Island.
We left Coff's Harbour for two days in Surfer's Paradise, a Vegas-on-the-beach where I learned to surf (of course).
I also got to take a tour on the back of a Harley driven by a fantastically grizzled Aussie biker, Rick.
The first night, we just had a nice dinner and drinks at a Lincoln Road-type pedestrian mall. The next night, we went to this theme restaurant called Dracula's, where there was a dinner-and-a-show thing that was very funny. We ended up at a club called Shooter's, where there was a surprise male go-go-dancer show. The lookson everyone's faces were worth the price of admission alone!
After seventeen really boring hours on a plane, I landed in Sydney last night. I took a really cool ferry ride through Sydney Harbor to Manly, a peninsula to the northwest, and spent most of the time on Manly Beach, on the ocean side.
I swam in the Pacific for the first time!
The sand is very fine here, which makes it soft, and it's a warm golden color. There was a surfing exposition going on, including a small clinic. I'll be gracefully wiping out on the waves soon enough, so I decided to pass on this surf class.
Manly has a big promenade that's a lot like Miami Beach's own Lincoln Road. The Wharf starts at the small harbor-side beach and looks onto Sydney Harbor, which was filled with sailboats and yachts. I saw a almost-collisions and one capsized monohull - the people on-board flipped it back and kept right on sailing, so no worries.
On the ride back, I had to get a shot of me in front of the Opera House.
