Beaches Down Under

Sunshine Coast

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Seemed a bit more chill than the gold coast - super clean, super nice. My only regret was going there when it was right in the middle of the winter season, which albeit was still pretty warm (was about low to mid 60's fahrenheit), but not when you're wearing beach clothes.

Definitely plan on heading back again since it's warmer now.

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Stradbroke Island

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Ridiculously pretty. Was completely thrown off guard because I had spent the last two days on this island on a different part of the island that was nowhere near this gorgeous. All we did was walk around the coast for an hour before we hit this gem of a beach. There were hardly any people around and I seriously felt like I was on the set of lost haha.

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Brown Lake (not a beach but still a gorgeous lake)

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The brown color of the lake is actually not because it's dirty - the lake is stained brown by the leaves of the Ti trees around it. The cleanest, most peaceful lake I've ever seen.

The history behind this lake is pretty interesting - while officially it's open as a tourist attraction, it's actually a very sacred lake to the Aboriginal community that lives there... was sad hearing about how attractions like jet skiing, etc. are slowly polluting the lake.

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Heron Island - Great Barrier Reef

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In terms of sandy, tropical-like goodness, this was the best place by far. In the second picture, that is a shark. The sharks were swimming so close to shore we could see them. I eventually went in later to snorkel and they swam right around us just minding their own business. SO awesome. Besides sharks, we also saw sea turtles, manta rays, and other species of fish. Being such an isolated island (only about 100 members of staff work on the island) it's pretty unaffected by humans thus far and a great place to observe wildlife in its natural domain.

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Sydney

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Unfortunately I was too busy doing the coastal walk to really sit down and enjoy any of the beaches but from what I observed, there were a LOT of surfers here. The beaches here were beautiful as well - the waves seemed pretty ferocious at some points though. Glad I wasn't in the water haha.

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Gold Coast

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The sand here was ridiculously soft and fine... felt wonderful but was a bitch to handle when I got home because I kept finding more and more sand in my clothes. The only complaint I had here was that it was so commercialized - people swarming everywhere. You had to walk pretty far down the beach to get some space. The gold coast had a really good nightlife though.

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Byron Bay

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This felt like THE beach town. A majority of the people were walking around town barely clothed, some with no shoes on, etc. There were several beaches to choose from - some were mainly for those who wanted to surf (it was cute - I saw some kids decked out in pro surfing gear and apparently these kids are sponsored surfers - already starting the pro life it seems). We eventually settled at the more "popular" beach where people just go to mingle and tan. At one point there was a man standing next to us and it wasn't until he walked away that I was informed that he was the former world champion in surfing. O_O!