Shopper’s Paradise
January 28th, 2008 by Tiffany Miller
The name Surfers Paradise conjures up some vivid images of long, glassy waves peeling toward the shoreline with a backdrop of palm-lined empty beaches and a few grass shacks. The city of Surfers Paradise is laughable in comparison. You see it from Coolangatta and the view of the Q1 tower gets heavier as you drive into the concrete jungle. I had read that it was a party town, a trendy nightlife hotspot, a shopping mecca. But I hung on to my fantasy image until the bitter end: cruising down the Gold Coast Highway (now called Surfers Paradise Drive). Passing by a succession of kitsch tourist shops, real estate agencies and luxury designer boutiques, I was still hoping for the grass shacks to show up on the hills ahead.
Alas, there is nothing close to a shack in Surfers. There are lots of five star resorts and sky-high apartment buildings, though. The cars scream money, as do the labels on the backs of tall, bronzed models sipping lemon water at overpriced caviar burger joints. There are 14 shopping malls and arcades, glossy Louis V storefronts, and a couple of corner Starbucks. What the…
The next day I ran down to the beach after work to see what all the hype was about. The sand is definitely white. And soft. And abundant. The water is warm and glistening. The waves… well Im not sure I would say paradise, but there is some potential. All I saw were some gentle Waikiki-style rollers with about 500 bodyboards flailing in the whitewash. It may have just been a small day. I dunno. But now I imagine that those surfers you see walking through intersections check to see who’s looking before waxing their boards.
Im gonna take a wild guess and figure I can find much closer to my kind of paradise somewhere else along the coast. With world-class surf in either direction (Kirra was beautiful the other day), smaller crowds, and cheap burritos, I think its feasible. If shopping and people watching is your thing (and that’s cool too) this may be the hedonistic playground you would love. The nightlife is excellent. The girls are skimpily clad and sociable. The drinks are expensive.
I’m going north.
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