Sunshine Coast vs Gold Coast

Before coming to Australia, I had heard of the two resort areas - Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast. I knew that one of them was north of Brisbane and the other South of Brisbane. But for the life of me I could not remember which was which. And when my brother told me that he had moved from Brisbane to Maroochydore on Sunshine Coast, I had to keep looking up the place on google maps to remind myself which beach it was.

Now that I am here, I don't make that mistake any more. I know that Priit lives on Sunshine Coast and that he prefers it to Gold Coast. So what is the difference between these places? After all, when I go to the beach here, I see sand and it continues all the way down to Gold Coast and from there on another thousand kilometres or more to Sydney - the whole coast has only sandy beaches. The sand is so fine that it "sings" under your feet.

Well, the difference is that Gold Coast has been built up with tall buildings. They have the tallest residential building in the world called Q1 right in the middle of Gold Coast, and it does not even look out of place with all the other tall buildings next to it. Sunshine Coast, on the other hand, is more quiet. There were some taller buildings built here at one point, but now they have a regulation that says that no building can be taller than 10 storeys. It gives the town here a resort-like atmosphere and makes it not as touristy and busy as the Gold Coast.

On Monday, we went to visit a friend of mine, Tanja Tuovinen, on Gold Coast. She lives in Canberra, but was visiting her grandmother for the holidays.

 They still had their Christmas tree up. :)

We went to the beach near a place called Surfers Paradise. The highest tower in the background is the Q1. It stands at 322.5 m.

After late lunch, we decided to go back to Brisbane to see the city and to feed some opossums in the park when it got dark.

Brisbane is beautiful! The city government really looks after the people living there. Even though it is really warm there all year round, it is lovely and green in the city centre.

 There is a embowered walkway snaking through the heart of the city. Actually, there is much to learn from the city government of Brisbane. Although, I wouldn't recommend sending Tallinn city councillors to Australia for our tax-money, they're so thick they would not learn anything anyway.

There is an area in the centre with trees and pools and lots of rocks for lizards.

An ibis.  Nearby cafe tables have notes on them prohibiting the feeding of these birds as they are as common and as plentiful as pigeons in Europe. Although, they have pigeons here as well.

Since Brisbane is not on the coast, but the weather is warm all the time, the city provides open-air swimming places for all its citizens. There is a river that runs through Brisbane, but people do not swim in the river as there might be crocodiles there. So, there are safe areas next to the river where the water from the river is guided to. These areas are separated from the rest of the river by bars which stop crocodiles swimming through. There are real sandy beaches, lifeguards on duty and smaller pools for kids with fun water activities such as the one above.

 In the city centre there is a huge park with different plants and trees and wildlife in it. We went there to feed the opossums.

It took us a while to find them as it was still early, but Priit was an expert in finding some bolder ones who dared to come and eat from my hand.

There is a myth that they bite you. Actually, they just bite the highest part that is placed in front of them. If it is your finger, then they do bite into that, but if you have put nuts on your fingertips, then they eat these.

If you are afraid of biting, or if the opossum you are trying to feed is too shy, then leave them some nuts on the ground. They are so cute. :)

There were some other creatures that I tried to get photos of as well, but that was impossible. I am talking about flying-foxes. These are the biggest bats in the world. Their wing span can be about 1 metre. They are harmless, as they eat fruits only. They come out at dusk and you can see their huge forms swoop silently towards trees. Once in trees, they make a lot of noise rustling the leaves while eating fruit, they are easy to spot. However, since they are black and it is dusk or dark outside, it is difficult getting photos of them, not to mention trying to capture them on film when they are flying. They are really quiet and fast. It is a beautiful sight!

Brisbane at night.

We got home really late and discovered that we had got too much sun. So we put lots of aftersun lotion on and made plans to stay indoors on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, we spent most of the time indoors, went to the shop once to buy some shoes for Priit. He needs to wear smart trousers and dress shoes at work and his previous ones had been completely worn into pieces.

The strange thing here is that all shops close at 5pm. It is only on Thursdays that shops are open later. So, if you need to buy anything and you work full time, then Thursday is your shopping night. I like the idea, that shop assistants are also human and want to go home at 5pm every day. At weekends the shops are open even less time, as everybody wants to spend time on the beach.

In the evening we took a walk to the ocean shore. It is only about 20 minutes' walk from Priit's house. Here, as in Brisbane, there are public BBQ places in the parks. That means, that there are grills, free of charge, and tables for anybody to use. During the walk we saw lots of families having their evening meal outside. What a simple idea to make people happy and content and enhance their lifestyle.