The Gold Coast

"This is Australia's Florida"

      "Nearly Everyone you meet in Australia will tell you, 'Oh, you must see the Gold Coast. It's awful.'
      'Really?' you say, intrigued. 'In what way?'
      'I don't know exactly. I've never been there myself. Well, obviously. But it's like--have you seen Muriel's Wedding?'
      'No.'
      "Well, it's like that. Just like it. Apparently."

-Bill Bryson, In a Sunburned Country

      "The Gold Coast is a little more than a life-support system for a 35km strip of beach running north from the New South Wales/Queensland border. The coastline is one continuous landfill of holiday apartments and cheap motels, punctuated by clusters of convenience stores and cheap restaurants.
       This has been a holiday spot since the 1880's, but developers only started taking serious notice after WWII. These days more than two million visitors a year roll in. The major draw is still sand and sea, but this is now backed by a glitzy nightlife and a slew of artificial 'attractions' and theme parks.

- Lonely Planet Queensland 2nd Edition 1999

Say whatever you want about the Gold Coast, but don't say it until you have been there. It is an amazing place. Yes it is gaudy, yes it is a tourist trap, yes there are bikini-clad metermaids in Surfers Paradise that will feed the meter if you forget. Surfers Paradise was my dreamland, but there is one thing I wish they would have told me before I left and that is this - if you want good surf, then you have to head farther south to Coolangatta or Kirra Beach. The Gold Coast has two university's, or just "uni's" as they say in Australia, Griffith University and Bond University. Both are very good schools.