On Monday we went up to the viewing deck of the Q1 tower, the worlds tallest residential building. The tower stands right by the beach in the heart of Surfers Paradise. The viewing deck is on the 77th floor so I thought it would take a while to reach....but it only took 43 seconds! The lift is so fast you feel like you're being pressed downwards while you ascend and has a digital readout of which floor you're on which climbs so fast that at one point we couldn't make out the numbers! The views from the top were spectacular, we could see to Brisbane on one side and Byron Bay on the other!
In the week a few of us went to Big Brother again. This time it was for nominations and instead of being in an audience of about 300, we were among about 50 people who managed to get tickets. We got to sit on the stage while the nominations were being made, and were only 5 meters away from the newly evicted housemates who were being interviewed!
Finally, I got to do one of the things I've been looking forward to the most since I came to Australia - go whale watching! Our boss at the hostel managed to get some free tickets so we hopped on a boat and cruised around the river to the sea in search of whales! On the way we were given commentary on buildings we passed on the way. This area has a lot of multi-millionaires with amazing houses right on the river. After seeing a load of houses with boats parked outside, the guide pointed out someone who'd opted for a different mode of transport...a helicopter!
Once we were out in the open sea we cruised around a bit in search of the whales. Suddenly, someone pointed out something on the horizon and we burned off in that direction. As we got closer we could see 3 shapes which got bigger and bigger, One of them spurting out a load of water from its blow hole! When we got near the whales, they swam over to the boat, dived and surfaced and even swam upside-down under the boat!
We cruised around and saw another few pods of whales, all humpback whales, and I was amazed at how big they were! After two hours I was feeling quite sea-sick so was quite happy when we finally headed back to land, but it was great to see whales!
I'm finally leaving Surfers Paradise today, gonna go to Springbrook National Park then head back to Sydney where I'll sell the car and hopefully make my way to Canada (not that I've booked anything!).
The view towards Brisbane from the Q1 Tower
The view towards Byron Bay from the Q1 Tower
Looking back over Surfers Paradise
These 'skyscrapers' used to rise above everything else
Sunset over the mountains
Me on the Big Brother stage!!
Surfers Paradise from a couple of miles out to sea
The first glimpse of whales!
A whale fin
The whale's head was huge!
The whale waved at us with its tail before diving down
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