Morning Waters Gold Coast Australia

Gold Coast Australia, originally uploaded by Ladymaggic.

It was a beautiful morning on the beach at Surfers Paradise

Reflections Gold Coast Australia

Gold Coast Australia, originally uploaded by Ladymaggic.

After the sunrise, the low tide waters reflected the buildings at Surfers Paradise

View from Hawaian

View from Hawaian, originally uploaded by Ladymaggic.

The River is beautiful...
Boats and watercraft make patterns on the water.

Sunrise At Surfers Paradise

Sunrise At Broadbeach, originally uploaded by Ladymaggic.

Walked out onto the beach to a beautiful pink sunrise
Totally beautiful.....

Surfers Paradise

http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=surfers+Paradise&w=47552504%40N00

Surfers Paradise is in the Gold Coast and a wonderful place to visit and stay at.

Surfers Paradise (28°00′S 153°25′E / 28°S 153.417°E / -28; 153.417) is a suburb on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 Census, Surfers Paradise had a population of 18,501.

Colloquially known as 'Surfers', the suburb has many high-rise apartment buildings and a wide surf beach. The feature of the central business district is Cavill Mall, which runs through the shopping precinct. Cavill Avenue, named after Jim Cavill, an early hotel owner, is one of the busiest shopping strips in Queensland, and the centre of activity for night life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfers_Paradise,_Queensland

Buildings on the Gold Coast

Buildings on the Gold Coast







High rise buildings dominate the Coast with windows opening to the Open Sea and Sky.
The views from Q1, the tallest building show this very clearly. The Gold Coast is High Rises with stunning views of the Sea.

It was interesting seeing a couple of small cottages along the coast, one next to the High Rises.
I called this cottage a Million dollar shack, which it has to be as the land would be worth a Highrise with a sea view. I yearned to knock on the door and see if my fisherman lived there, or someone who slept in and missed the morning.

Seldom was there anyone looking out of the windows or the balconies. The apartments were virtually deserted. Only once when I was trying to get a photo of the phone number above what looked like a backpackers place, two hungover guys glared at me, and I turned away feeling embarrased to be focusing on semi dereliction, when there was so much grandeur and beauty around.

I stayed the first week at The Shore, which was located right on the beach and gave me some fantastic sunrises. The second week I stayed at the Hawaain which was more upmarket, with downmarket views, and far too much shade, on level five when I always want High Living for the Views.

To my surprise both apartments lacked Internet facilities.

Gold Coast Flowers on the Beach

Gold Coast Flowers

The shore has been planted with many new plants.
Among them the strange twisting limbs of the cordylline create stark shadows and shapes against the sand.
Also prevalent were the red and gold Bottle brushes, which the parrots delighted in.
The flowers were vivid and rich and laden with nectar.
Fences were thick with this orange creeper full of rich vivid orange. Some of the creepers climbed and covered huge trees with a mass of orange blooms.
There was salt bush and pigface planted along the sands.

The Flowers attracted birds seeking nectar..the small Honey eater, the thrush and the colorful parrots.

Birds of Surfers Paradise Beach

Birds on the Shore and Water






The seagulls walked along the edge of the foam seeking small fish and digging the sand for sand worms and shellfish.
The trees along the shore attracted honey eaters and the colorful parrots.
As you walked along the edge where the plants grew, the air was full of bird song.
The birds were quite tame and happy to coninue their business watched by my curious camera.

There were ibis everywhere. They were at the parking area of the Apartment, at the Gas Station where small gardens edged the corners, and walking the enclosed shorelines like patrolling Officers with a folder under their wing.

The birds were always busy, making mockery of indolent and unaware humans strolling past unemployed and apparently aimless. The birds were not on vacation at all. They were constantly and steadily hard at work all the time.

Q1 Views from the 77th Floor of the Tallest Residential Building

Q1 is the Worlds Tallest Residential Building
78 Floors with a lift that takes 42 seconds to reach the 77th Floor where the Viewing Area was located

At 322.5 m (1,058 ft) and with a roof height of 275 m (900 ft), Q1 qualifies as the world's tallest all-residential building when measured to the top of its structural point (spire), but is the world's second tallest behind Melbourne's Eureka Tower (roof height of 297.3 metres, 975 ft) when measured to its roof height and highest inhabitable floor. However, according to the ranking system developed by the US-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the main criteria in which heights are ranked is to the top of the spire, therefore Q1 qualifies as the taller.

It is currently in the top 50 tallest buildings in the world when measured to its structural point, dwarfing the Gold Coast skyline with the closest buildings to Q1's height being the 220 m (720 ft) North Tower of Circle on Cavill and the under construction 250 m (820 ft) Soul building.

Q1 was designed by Atelier SDG, and its form was inspired by the Sydney 2000 Olympic torch and the Sydney Opera House. The name was given in honour of members of Australia’s Olympic sculling team of the 1920s – Q1.

It was developed by The Sunland Group and built by Sunland Constructions. The building was the Silver Award winner of the 2005 Emporis Skyscraper Award, coming in second to Turning Torso in Sweden.

The building is supported by 26 piles, each two metres in diameter, that extend 40 metres into the ground then up to four metres into solid rock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q1_(building)

Gold Coast Marathon 2009

People from the Outback escape to the Beautiful Gold Coast for Holidays.
When I was there I saw that the Gold Coast Marathon was on. Impulsively I joined the run selecting the shorter 5 kms, as I had not done any training or preparation for being in a Marathon.

Wearing my new Red participant T-Shirt, I travelled to the start in a shuttle bus, which was late, and got us to the Start at 10.25. The race started at 10.10. This meant that there were many people ahead, and one had to dodge around the walkers if one was trying to do it in a set time.

It was interesting seeing the number of people at the Marathon. There were many Japanese of all ages, and quite a few prams, and a sprinkle of juniors getting in everyone's way, as they sort of refused to move aside without looking bruised. Some would even walk in the way, and trying to pass was often hazardous when at the back of a huge line of people. I will make sure I am never late for a Marathon start ever again.

There were a few stalls with water and in the beginning the health drink which was lovely. I had a drink at every stall. There was some entertainment, but not as much as I expected. A rabbit hopping on the sidelines, two guys making Music under an Umbrella, and after the end, 2 Jazz musicians looking for a gig.

Even the cameras were not flashing as much as they could have been. I never even saw the Official camera and judging by the photos, it did not work overtime. maybe that is an outlet for some bright photographer next year..take a photo and hand out a card.

Being in the shorter walk was diferent to being in a half or full Marathon. I missed the competition, as the walk, from the time I joined it, was mostly happy friendly strollers, with only 2 groups that I followed keeping pace with me. There were even prams rolling babies along, and every smile cost me another second, and who can resist the smile of a baby, or Santa. Yes, I passed Santa in his Red Suit walking the marathon too.

There were many older people walking by themselves. That fascinated me too. I was surprised at the number of Over 60 in the race.

Bats Colonies at the Gold Coast

Bats In The Gold Coast
The Gold Coast has a huge colony of Fruit Bats that live in the gardens by the River.
I was walking along when I heard the screech of the bats in the trees.

Bats belong to the order Chiroptera (meaning "hand winged") and are divided into two suborders, Microchiroptera and Megachiroptera:-

microbatMicrochiroptera (Microbats) are
small, mainly insectivorous bats which navigate and feed using echolocation.
It is believed that microbats evolved from a shrew-like ancestor being born blind and without fur. In Australia we have approximately 63 species of microbats, that live in a range of habitats including tree hollows, caves, roofs and walls of houses, and change roost sites often to avoid predation. These colonies can consist of a small number of animals or several thousand.
Torpor
Microbats have a unique way of conserving the energy they need to sustain flight while feeding and echolocating. They are capable of going into what is called 'torpor' by lowering their body temperature which in turn lowers their breathing and heart rate. They can appear almost lifeless as they barely move and are cold to the touch. This happens frequently in colder months when food is scarce.

The system known as echolocation is a highly sophisticated method microbats use to generate information about their surroundings. It is achieved by emitting high frequency sound waves through their mouth and nostrils, and listening for the echo bouncing back from surrounding objects. These can be solid objects they are navigating around or tiny fruit flies they are hunting to eat. It is difficult to imagine how microbat brains interpret this information to form a perfect picture of their environment. For example, the echoes bouncing back can tell them the distance from their prey, the size, shape and even the speed it is travelling. The sound waves need to be high frequency to get the detail back they require, so is above our hearing range. There are some very elaborate facial features on microbats such as noseleafs that direct echolocations calls. It is truly an amazing feature and is the subject of a great deal of study. Different species have different frequency calls, thus specialised equipment known as bat detectors have been designed to record these calls and identify species.
http://www.batrescue.org.au/index.php?option=content&pcontent=1&task=view&id=22&Itemid=56

There have been numerous articles about bats biting people and being pests.

Today I learnt that aborigines love to eat the fruit bats as they eat mainly fruit and their flesh is very sweet. Sounds nice.