Gold Coast : Day 3 - It Is Surfer's Paradise!

We woke up and made fried instant noodles. Delicious! Then we fried sunny side up eggs for each one of us. Enough to spare for half a day, we hoped. We planned to have lunch outside since we had too many things to do today. Where else? The the east of Australia!

After took our bath, we went down to the basement. Today, hubby drove. AGAINNNN AS USUAL, I WAS THE MAP READER. BRAVO! HAHAHA! From Surfer's Paradise, we headed to Coolangatta. Eh, back to the airport? For what? To pick up another group member who was left behind when we bought the ticket! Hahaha! So we picked Zam and headed east, hoping to see the Captain Cook Memorial. We heard that there was one beautiful lighthouse that you shouldn't be missed. When we reached the Kirra beach, there was no signboard at all. I asked hubby to stop the car and I hopped down to ask one local couple who just got back from sun tanning the beach (the girl wore two piece ok!).

“G’day…sorry, are you local?”

“Yeah…”

“How to get to Captain Cook Memorial…blablabla…?” They gave me a "?" face.

Then they boyfriend started to voice out that the place was actually on the other side of the hill. He pointed to one gazebo on top of the hill and told us to find it there, same as what stated in our tour cookbook. So I went back to the car and repeated the same thing. The rest was laughing coz Cawan took a picture of me talking to the couple, it must be because that two piece girl! Hahaha!

We turned at one corner and saw one big statue on top of the hill. It was actually near to the place where we stopped just now! Haha! But when we got nearer, it just one old log! Hahaha! Darn! But it didn't bother us at all as the scenery was so beautiful along the beach. We saw people surfing here and there like no one business! Where the was sea, the was surfers. Even under the bridge!

Then we saw one signboard of Rainbow Bay, Point Danger! Yes! We drove up the hill and shouted, OMG!!! THE PLACE WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL! WE FELT LIKE IN HEAVEN! SO BLUEEEEEEEE AND CLEAR! But, where's the Memorial? We quickly parked and walked towards the Volunteer Marine Rescue, Point Danger. In there, there was one guard who was on duty. We snapped few pictures at one high statue that pointed to 4 directions of east, west, north and south.

Then we walked further up. There was one remembrance walk of World War II. We looked down and again, we shouted,

"OMG! BEAUTIFULLLLLLLLLLL!!!” 

I KID YOU NOT! SUPER NICE AN BEAUTIFUL! I even felt to jump off the cliff! But I didn't dare to do so. Haha! I must have hit the rocks before I got into the sea! Then we looked to the right,

“WOW! SO MANY PEOPLE SURFING!!!” 

It was Duranbah beach. The most popular place to surf in Australia. The people from up here looked like army of ants! TOO MANY! ALONG THE BEACH! We had to step onto the surf-board-bench-shaped to look, that we acted to be a surfer who are surfing. Hahaha!

We looked to the left, there was one track to the lower side of the hill. Still, we saw many people surfing. Meor, Zam and Mona went down first while the rest, walked half way and stopped. We decided to go down by car. Haha! At this moment, I was so shocked to see Na's eyes as both were swollen! She allergic to panadol and she took two just now! Pity her, but she said it wasn't too bad to endure...just itchy! Lucky she got shades to cover it up!

So we drove down the hill and parked in front of apartments. It was amazing to see these apartments that located exactly in front of the beach. Suddenly we saw the event that being announced via TV last few days, the Quicksilver and Roxy Pro World Surfing Competition!!! Woohoo! Along the way we saw banners and fliers. We passed by one van that full of surfing boards. These people teach people how to surf and some of them were Balinese! The Aussie guy was waxing the boards while the Balinese girls just sat there asking people to rent them.

Further up, we saw more and more people laid on the beach for sun tanning. Some were surfing, regardless of their body size. Hahaha! We walked straight to the even and there were tents and stage down there. There was also one big board that put up contestant names and schedules. In between the tents, we walked towards the beach where we saw two ladies wore thongs! Perghhhh! We snapped pictures, who didn't!

Then we took more beach pictures, playing by the water. We didn't want to get wet since we were not prepared for that. At this moment, many surfers were in the middle of practicing coz whoever won this title, considered the best coz the place was called Snapper Rocks (ya, full of rocks!)

Zam later came and joined us and he showed us his new pair of Quicksilver flip flop! Fuiyooo! He said it was darn cheap so the rest quickly went up and walked into the event tents. Inside the tents, we saw all latest editions, for instance the Snapper Rocks t-shirt, 9 times World Champion, Kelly Slater's surfing short, Roxy wetsuit and etc. OMG! I really wanted to get one! Then one of the staff asked hubby and I,

“Are you guys on honeymooooon?”

We answered “Nooooooo…hahaha! Why?”

“Owh…your t-shirts are soooo niceeeee!” 

We both Hubby looked at each other...and looked at our t-shirts. OOOOOO HAHAHAHA! We forgot that we wore the couple t-shirts! Hubby wore LO, while I wore VE, that made it LOVE! Hahaha! Guess what? They didn't have this in Australia! We had it every where in M'sia! And out of nowhere, hubby came to me and showed his new t-shirt! Aaaaaaaaa! He bought that blue color Snapper Rocks t-shirt! While me? Got nothing! Zzzzz...

Hubby went out from the shop with happy face. Fine! I will make sure I shop till drop at Surfer's Paradise! While walking towards the car, we saw Kevin Slater's life size board and started to take picture with him. Haha! Hubby even covered Kevin's face and replaced it with his face, just to get Kevin's body! So funny! We then gathered and walked to the car, but we couldn't find Meor! Where the hell was he, we didn't know. So we drove uphill and looked for him.

When we reached there, Zam went down and looked for Meor. From inside of the car, we saw a signboard of “Captain Cook Memorial”. Laaaaaaaaa it was actually the place where we saw the east, west, north, south directions just now! Hmph! But where's the lighthouse? We waited for quite a long time for Meor and Zam, who silently went to the memorial and snapped pictures! They even went into the souvenir shop! Dang! Lucky there wasn't anything interesting there.

We then continued our journey to Tweed Heads. The purpose of going here was to see the Aboriginal Cultural Center. We got lost twice and went into housing areas, but at the end we found the signboard of Minjungbal Museum in one small jungle.
 

“Is it this one?”

As per direction, Minjungbal Aboriginal Cultural Center IS ACTUALLY at Tweed Heads South. But we weren't sure whether this is the one or not. Even more weird, no one came to that place, so clearly it wasn't a place of interest for tourist. Anyhow, we parked and went in. There was one wooden house with Minjungbal Museum board. From afar, we saw one fat lady, who looked like an Aussie aborigin. Looking at the hair, skin color, her dress (dress???) we believed that she IS an aborigin.
 

So we walked straight to them and confirmed, she's an Aussie aborigin! She had this Fiji look in modern way of life. She greeted us and we just smiled. We zoomed in using our camera and saw,

“HUH??? AUD15???”

Just to enter the Museum. Not worth it. So we just snapped pictures outside the place and zoomed whatever inside it. What we saw were their handicrafts, paintings, and some aboriginal items. Since we didn't meet any PURE face of aborigin people (painted face), we decided to go off.

Not long after that, we headed down towards the highway. We took Pacific Highway and this time, we saw no beaches along the way. We passed by one tunnel, beautiful green hills, until we reached Byron Bay exit. We then headed to Ewingsdale Road and reached its town. There were lots of shops, boutiques, surf outlets, shopping fair, and so on. We drove further up the hill and at the end of the road,
 

“HUIYOOOOOOO!!! SO BEAUTIFULLLLLLLL!!!"

YUP, IT WAS TOTALLY FAR BETTER THAN THE LIGHTHOUSE AT TANJUNG TUAN, NEGERI SEMBILAN! This one was far bigger, whiter, and located at the end of the cliff! Along the cliff, there were railings and place to sit. There were toilets and eating places as well. We straight away took pictures as we couldn't bear it no more. The water was purely blue, the sky was purely clear, the wave was amazingly strong, the rock was amazingly huge, and the cliff, speechless! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BEAUTIFULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! We can feel the air, clean and fresh! And guess what, that kind of place, we can still see some surfers surfing! Crazy!

There were lots of people up here, so we went down the lighthouse. We had to walked down the track and got exhausted when we reached there! Suddenly,

“Eeeeoooonnnnngggggggggg”

One 1945 jet fighter flew over us! OMG! Please don't release any bombs nowwww! Hahaha! Scary ok! Then we quickly went down and snapped more pictures like there was no tomorrow! Lucky we used digital! If we still use film, I bet we had tones of film in our bags!

We found that there was a way to go down the hill. The was a small pathway, beautiful and well-kept, with railing for visitors safety. Both on the left and right sides were oceans and at the end of the pathway was a cape. And there was a house too, wow, must be expensive! There were surfers surfing and hell yeah, they were so brave to surf near the rocks! We walked further down and stopped at one bench. We looked at each other and started to jump around and snap pictures! Hahaha!

We set the tripod, counted one two three and jumped! We jumped over and over again till we got a very nice group picture. We conquered the place so other visitors had no chance to stop by at that area. Hahaha! And the best part was, the place that we conquered is THE MOST EASTERLY POINT IN THE AUSTRALIAN MAINLAND! WOOOHOOO! (You can see the tip on the map, that was where we were!)

The we walked up the hill back to the lighthouse. OMG! That was exhausting! But snapping pictures along the pathway made us forgot what tiring felt like. We stopped by at the lighthouse since it was too sunny and hot. We then walked back to the car and in the car, suddenly Cawan told us that he snapped one picture of dolphins!!! OMG! Why didn't you tell usssssssssssssss! He told that he didn't quite sure what was it since he just saw a group of black color thingy but since it was moving, he knew that it was dolphin! He said about 20 dolphins ok!

On the way back from the cliff, we saw more and more beaches. We finally stopped at one beach and went down for swimming! We paid the parking fee and walked towards the beach, put on the sunblock, and splashhhhhhhhh we dive in the sea! The water was cold! The wave was strong! But not as strong as Surfer's Paradise. All of us swam and no one got left out. We used the underwater camera and snapped few pictures. But the quality wasn't that good since it was using film instead of memory card. Hahaha! I still can remember how fun we chased those fishes! Cute!

Until we got tired, we went back to the beach. We snapped few pictures including some sexy locals! Hahaha! The good thing about this place, the sand was white and clean. I believe locals don't picnic here, or even they are, they will definitely keep the area clean. We then took a shower but the funny part, we had to hold the lever! Or else, the water will stop! Hahaha! We got changed our clothes in the car and continued our journey, for lunch.

We headed back to the small town just now and saw fish and chips restaurant. But unfortunately, they sell bacon too. While walking along the shops, hubby finally bought one garlic bread, enough for two as it was really BIG! Then we headed back to the car and we suddenly noticed that Meor, again, missing!!! OMG! We made one round turn and looked for him. Zam again went off and we told him to meet us at the parking lot, regardless he met Meor or not. Haihhhh! Lucky we found him!

When everyone was ready, we went back to Surfer's Paradise, using the same highway. This time, Cawan drove. Everyone was sleepy and already slept but I still needed, to read the map. We stopped at Pacific Shopping Fair and saw Wax Museum and Dracula House from far. We didn't went in and straight headed to the mall. We looked for food court and looked for any seafood resto. All sell bacon except for Ariel Seafood. So here we were, eating fish and chips, AGAIN! HAHAHA! Na's eyes still swollen. Next to us, there was a group of local kids who without manners, took Meor's chair when he left to find food. But Meor came back and took back the chair and we scolded them in Bahasa! Hahaha! Stupid! They didn't understand what we were saying, and it was darn funny!

After dinner, we split and shopped. We agreed to meet back at the parking area around 9pm. Nothing much to buy. Hubby and I then saw one press conf for Quicksilver sponsored surfers. There were 4 guys and 4 gals at the desk for autograph session. They distributed free caps and people queue like mad! We then went into sex shop, party shop, brand outlets, and went back to the parking lot at 9pm. This time, Na and Cawan weren't there! They got stranded at one perfume shop and they shopped like a mad cow! Crazy cheap!

When everyone was already there, we moved on to Surfer’s Paradise Boulevard. We wanted to see HRC. There was one extreme park that opened at night, and offered bungee jumping and some extreme rides. We then walked towards the HRC but then too tired to continue. So we stopped at Condom Kingdom, who praised our couple-T and told us how sweet we were, wearing the same t-shirts. Hehehe! We waited for the rest near the extreme park. OMG! They shopped like hell! Magnets, koala bear, postcards, hahaha!

We then went back to the apartment and cooked instant noodles. We took bath and slept. To recap, Byron Bay was pretty awesome, I can't lie, what we see in the internet, is what you get in the real life. IT IS BEAUTIFUL!

---> Click here for Day 3 photos.