Day 4 of the #powerTrip360 saw us crossing into the state of Queensland from New South Wales as we rode around 100 kilometers from Byron Bay to the Gold Coast. Gold Coast is the 6th largest city in Australia, which also makes it the largest non-capital city and the second largest city in the state of Queensland.
Riding wise, it was one of those forgettable days as there was nothing but just an hour and a half of riding on the boring highways. It is just amazing how dangerously boring it can be to ride on the motorways here in Australia. Falling asleep while riding even at 100 kmph is very much a possibility and frequent breaks are highly recommended to break the monotony.
Gold Coast was earlier known as South Coast because it was south of Brisbane, but the rising cost of real estate and the overall cost of living gave it the name “Gold Coast”. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Australia, famous among the tourists for its surfing beaches.
You go to any of its beaches and you’ll find it full of wave surfers, beach goers, people enjoying kite surfing, and the people just chilling out in their sail boats. The ‘good life’ as they say in general.
And once the sun sets, the city comes alive once again as the locals and the visitors head to the nightclubs. Yes, Gold Coast is also famous for its nightlife.
Apart from the above, the city’s identity is its skyline dominated by high rise buildings, which once lit up post sunset looks like a diamond studded crown.
Also interestingly, Gold Coast is the largest film production hub in Queensland and as per Wikipedia accounts for around 75% of all films produced in Queensland since 1990s. And it is also going to host the Commonwealth Games 2018.
And Day 5 was another low yield day in terms of number of kilometers covered riding. It was just around 100 kilometers of riding from one large city to another – Gold Coast to Brisbane, the capital city of the state of Queensland. Being the capital city, it is bound to be densely populated. In fact, Brisbane is the third most populous city in the entire country. But then when you compare that population to cities back home like Delhi or Mumbai, you would start laughing.
But we took a bit of inroad via Mount Tamborine which provides mild respite and cornering allowance to people living in either of these two cities.
We got out first ‘rest’ day here in Brisbane as we decided to explore the city rather than paying just a touch n’ go kind of visit. And that extra day paid off. We got some memorable moments of this roadtrip so far in this city, particularly related to its motorcycling culture; however, that deserves a separate blog post. So keep watching this space. We will share our Brisbane memories with you soon.
