13th January 1992 Day 177

The Diary
The Wet n Wild Water Park. Not quite on the Gold Coast so we had to pay $9 for a bus there and back. Mad Paul, our driver, had a father who lived in "Nottinim" and had travelled through Wales (Mad Paul, not the father). Pretty similar to Salt Lake City though probably not quite as good. Sore bums from the fast slides and a big mint choc-chip ice cream.

The wet n wild winking comm games kangaroo

In the evening we had a very cheap and cheerful Chinese and chatted to some Melburnian ex-pats. Our cheap meal was cancelled out by the the $4 drinks at the Crown and Anchor. Oh well, we'll try harder next time.


2012
In 2006 I went back to the Gold Coast with Christy, Jaden and Mia and went round all the theme parks. Much more fun with the kids than as a backpacker. Wet n Wild has improved a lot as well. 

12th January 1992 Day 176

The Diary
On to 42km of beach we trotted. 

It wasn't this built up 20 years ago

Cyclone Betsy was getting nearer and the wind was getting up. 
"Let's swim I say" (Oz), 
"It's just not my scene man" (groovy Gaz), 
What he really meant to say was....."I can't stand having sand blown all over me on a dull over-cast day"
"Learn to swim young man, learn to swim"

Ok, no more public information films. For now. 


So off I went into the centre of town. It didn't seem very big (sideways glance) but I managed to get a $4 all you can eat Chinese meal. Bargain at half the price - whatever that means. Back to the hos-tell, read more about Bill Wyman's knobbing round the world and the Stones in Surfer's Paradise and dozed off. The evening consisted of a cheap home-made meal (bought in a restaurant), stubbies of XXXX - as this is now Queensland - and a conversation about how sexist the legal system is. I think we agreed that "innocent until proven guilty" is not a sexist concept though. 

Our Canadian room-mates came in very late and true to a drunken man/woman's form, despite trying hard to be quiet, made enough noise to wake the dead.


2012
This is why you don't lie on a beach when a cyclone is coming


OK more PIFs....

I think the legal/sexist argument had something to do with a court case about a rape that we read about or saw on TV. Beth was all for naming and shaming but Oz and I were arguing that he hadn't been found guilty yet. 


Bill Wyman reference - I was reading Bill Wyman's Stone Alone which I'd borrowed from Gour and Marianne. A poor book basically just a list of all his on the road conquests and Jagger and Richards cast-offs.  Damn, why didn't I learn the guitar. Don't bother reading it, go for the much more recent "Life" by Keith Richards.