Regardless of which part of the Queensland coast you are officially on, the coastline itself is stunning. After leaving Tweed Heads we drove north from Coolangatta as close to The Gold Coast as we could, 50km of endless sunny beaches, increasingly expensive beachfront properties and world class waves. Unsurpringly, we heard that this is Kelly Slater's favourite patch of sea.

Surfer's Paradise (named by a clever hotelier who lobbied to for a name change from the less marketable 'Elston' in the 1930s) was a strange place. We've heard it compared to Miami, but in my opinion this does great disservice to my friend Shan's hometown. Surfer's has none of Miami's slick and sexy glamour - it felt more like a town on the Costa del Sol. Aside from its near perfect beach and abundance of strip clubs, we found no reason to be there. We stopped in for a coffee and some internet time in Maccers (McDonalds – the only place in Oz with free Wifi and cheap coffee), just in time to see a junkie evicted from one of the booths by the police.

From Surfer's we headed inland and skirted around Brisbane to Mooloolaba and the start of the The Sunshine Coast. Everything changed. The coast was just as incredible, but suddenly the comparisons to Florida made sense. Palm trees, strip malls and 2 lane highways everywhere, drive-through McDonalds and the average age jumped to around 65. East Coast Americans retire to Florida, East Coast Aussies to The Sunshine Coast.

I hoped Noosa would be nicer...