Cute koalas, jumping kangaroos, flying boomerangs, the immense Great Barrier Reef, the mysterious Ayers Rock, and the iconic Sydney Opera House—these are the things that flash through ones mind when one mentions Australia. But the so called Land Down Under is so immense, like a whole continent immense, that there’s virtually no limit to the things you can see and do around it.

Some months back, we embarked on a ten-day trip to Australia. We really didn’t have Oz in our sights, but a chance presented itself for us to go, and we took it. The country is so vast that planning to cover even just its major places would probably take months of traveling.

With limited amount of days and money, we settled for ten days, targeting the cities around its eastern coast, Sydney, Gold Coast, and Brisbane.

What to do with five days at Gold Coasts’ Surfers Paradise? A lot, if you’re into surfing, shopping, and theme parks. But we’re totally not into surfing, shopping, and theme parks. So, I was wondering myself why I booked a total of five long days here instead of stretching our stay for a day or more at Byron Bay—a town which we feel a deeper connection with.

SURFERS PARADISE FROM OUR BALCONY AT RHAPSODY HOTEL

Our first and second day at Surfers Paradise was spent on a forced staycation at the Rhapsody Hotel. Incessant rain kept us in, but I’m not complaining. With friends in tow, a cache of grocery food to cook, and plenty of alcohol, we were more than happy to stay cooped up.

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It was way past midnight when we arrived at Surfers Paradise in Gold Coast. A few hours ago, we’re baby sitting at G’s crib in Ballina, trying extremely hard to put L to sleep at their living room sofa, and now we’re on a totally different kind of living room, one seventeen stories up from the street, with a full view of the raging pacific from a floor to ceiling window. It was swanky as heck, but we miss L.

Similar to our previous lodging, Byron Bay Hotel and Apartments, we had to check ourselves in by following the email instructions given by Rhapsody Resort—input a code on a deposit box outside the lobby, take our key, access the lobby, then our room. Problem was we had a hard time finding the said box. It turned out we were at the wrong entrance, lol.

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