Hello, Sunshine!

I just arrived in Gold Coast Australia this morning. At 7.15 am, I was greeted with a warm 24 degrees air, with soft breeze and bright sunshine! Ah...yep, definitely on a holiday!

My host, Brendon, met me at the airport because he was flying in from Melbourne and was arriving at the same time too. He's a nice guy, but I haven't talked to him much yet. He's away at work at the moment, but we're gonna have dinner later. He works in a gym! =)

The first number on my to-do list was to get a sim card. So when Brendon went off to work, I followed him (to get something to eat too, because I was famished). His gym is in Robina Town Centre which is an amazingly huge shopping mall, much like Pyramid, and very modern looking. Also, right smack at the entrance was was a HUGE christmas tree (like the one in Singapore) and Max Brenners. YUM. Such a huge change from Auckland. But because its a Sunday, most of the stores aren't open yet. It was only 9 am, and I had to wait till 10.30 before I could start shopping. But I managed to get myself a salmon wrap from the food atrium (much like the one in KLCC, I swear). The last time I ate was at 4.45 am Auckland time, which was aeons ago.

I was kinda sleep deprived because I've had about 6 hours of sleep in total for the past 2 nights, with going away drinks, and Christmas (early) parties. And my extremely early flight this morning. So yeah, I was pretty knackered. I just needed to get the sim card. After asking around and doing some simple math in my head, I opted for Virgin Mobile because they gave me good data plan and credit expiry for 180 days. =)

Then I hopped onto a bus to come back to Brendon's flat. $3.40 was the bus fare. That's ridiculously expensive!! That's like a 3 stage fare in Auckland!! And I was only going 1 stage! Oh wells, I guess I'm walking there tomorrow morning. Looks like a pleasant 3km walk.

I came back and had an hour's nap because by now my head was throbbing from the heat, and the dehydration and the lack of sleep. And now I'm just waiting for dinner. =)

So my virgin couch surfing experience, Day #1, has been quite pleasant so far. We'll see what tomorrow brings! =)