OZtralia.tv Blog

Australia’s Playground

By: The OZtralia Producers

Australia’s Gold Coast is often referred to as the “party playground” of Australia. Situated on the southeast corner of Queensland, tens of thousands of people travel to the Gold Coast to vacation each year. Known for its subtropical climate, beaches, night life and skyline, we recommend the Gold Coast as a great vacation destination.

Tourists started coming to the Gold Coast back in 1925 after Mr. Jim Cavill opened the Surfers Paradise Hotel.

Today, the main city on the Gold Coast is Surfer’s Paradise. The city recently received international acclaim with the opening of the Q1 tower, which was for a time the world’s tallest residential building.

What we enjoy most about the Gold Coast is the diversity of activities. You can enjoy the amazing beaches, then have an great dinner in Broadbeach, then go and dance the night away at a trendy club.

Not an urban person? Head out and be delighted by the Hinterland just outside of Surfer’s Paradise. When you go to the Hinterland, be sure to check out the “Best of All Lookout.” Here you will see the the best view of the Gold Coast.

They call “college” here “Uni.” At first, I did not get it. Soon, I was fast enough to derive the conclusion. School does not start for a couple more weeks. Next week is “0″ week followed by week one. During 0 week, we have get-to-know-ya games and the like. I am going on a surfing adventure that the college offers and a wet and wild adventure.

The Australians are a nice bunch. I live about 10 minutes, by car, away from Surfer’s Paradise. Do I have a car? No, but I have bicycle! A jolly ride on a bike to Surfer’s is over an hour.

If I receive nothing else from my time in Australia, it is respect for bicyclists. A friend in New York was the one to propose the idea to buy a bike. “Gunnar, you should really get a bike and explore,” he said.

I remember in Idaho, mother and I would be driving the van in some place like Lewiston, and I would poke fun at the bicyclists peddling their heart out alongside the road. I would try to sing the instrumental part of the Wizard of Oz hit, when the witch is riding her bicycle. “Dundantan dundantun da dun, Dundantan dundantun da dun, Dundantan dundantun da dun…”

Now, I am the proud owner of a bike. “One, and two, and three, and four,” I count to myself as I trudge up a hill. It is always best to have rhythm, right? “One, and two, and three, and four” and then some person thinks they are a barrel of laughs and passes me going 120 kph on their motor bike, and I am left to watch them cruise up the hill. Still, there is no better feeling of accomplishment than when I pass over the crest and am greeted with a cool breeze.

One could really get himself hurt here riding a bike. They have things called “roundabouts.” We have them back in the states, but they are few and far between. Here, you cannot go more than a half mile before coming to a darn roundabout. Riding a bike through a roundabout is hard.

Traffic is coming and going, and then horns honk because you are in the way…but I have managed to get the horn honking down to a minimum as I figure the system out.

It is very interesting to be watching the news in the U.S. right now. It makes me feel proud to be from there, but also very dismayed. Namely, the talk of gas prices gets me. Sure gas prices are bad back home, but here they are a lot worse, equivalent to over four dollars a gallon. Australians just go with the flow and are not complaining about prices too much, because gas here has always been expensive.

Maybe if they got rid of some of the roundabouts though, they could save on gas, as a straight line is the fastest way to any given destination, but that is not the point.

Bond University is ranked the number one university in Queensland, and it is said, arguably of course, that it is the best university in Australia. I did not know this when applying. I just wanted to go to Australia. A lot of the American students were just like me in not knowing what they were applying for. It is evident by their actions.

My first week of classes at Bond University has blown me away. It is the passion. Passion for teaching equates to passion for learning in my opinion.

Anyone who has set foot in a lecture hall to attend a class initially makes judgments about the professor. Students will examine the professor as he walks into the room, looking him up and down trying to decipher any one clue that might be able to determine whether the semester’s lectures might be boring or exciting.

When a professor opens her mouth and the student can feel her passion for the subject, it is quite obvious that the lectures will be exciting. Judging by this first week, I am actively trying to figure out how I can bottle up this passion and use it to the full extent I can. I felt the same way at Albertson.

Being abroad, sometimes I miss ACI. There is a young woman here at Bond also from ACI. The other day she and I were reminiscing about the Taste of the Harvest festival and the like.

As I said before, I came to ACI quite by mistake and was blown away by the passion being professed. I now have come to Bond through some twist of fate and have experienced the same situation.

Last summer during a meeting in New York an executive said, “In our business all the great things happen by mistake.” Well, at least I know I am on path in the business.

I had seen dolphin trainers on TV splash the water lightly with their hands. A dolphin would magically appear out of the water. I stuck my hand through the fence, and started to do what I had witnessed on TV. At first, Max and Jan laughed, but in no time, something came out of the water. I rubbed my hand along the head of the dolphin. It soon realized that I had no fish, and swam away a bit disappointed.

Sea World on the Gold Coast offers exciting adventures where visitors can interact with some of the sea’s most exciting creatures. On this day, Max, Jan and I were to swim with sharks and dolphins.

There were two tanks filled with the sharks. When I say tanks, I mean habitats that are quite plush for a sea creature. In one tank there were humongous sharks, the kind that you see in the movies-large, and mean looking. I was quite unsure what tank we were to be snorkelling in, but soon I was flapping my flippers in the other tank swimming with stingrays, and small reef sharks. We were not supposed to touch, but I snuck a quick feel of a stingray. It felt like a soft sponge. It turned around and looked at me and I think he or she gave me a smile.

After riding some roller coasters and water rides, we moved on to our dolphin adventure. Swimming with dolphins was listed as one of the 100 things someone should do before they pass on, so, I was able to justify spending a foolish amount on the experience.

The dolphins feel like rubber, a soft malleable rubber. Our dolphin, Sparky, was quite a funny fella. Just over two years old, his mother was born at Sea World and he now takes to the family trade of entertaining guests like myself. He did flips, swam around me, jumped over me, let me touch his belly, and even gave me a kiss…all captured in photographs, naturally.
It was quite fun, swimming with dolphins. I will remember it for the rest of my days. Dolphins have a unique aura that surrounds them and rubs off as they let you touch their soft skin.

When it comes to riding the waves, I am not the best out there on the open water. For me, it is more about getting up early, sometimes at six, and making my way to the beach with my mates. I usually lie on my board and roll around on the waves. If I lay parallel to the beach, on one side of me is the great blue South Pacific, and on the other, is the white sand beach it is relaxing. Once in a while, I will get all excited, and paddle to catch a wave.

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