Things to See in Gold Coast

A huge aquatic theme park, Sea World has loads of animal performances, including twice-daily dolphin shows, sea-lion shows, shark-feeding, dugongs and the real crowd-pleasers - resident polar bears. You'll have to set a schedule though - the waterslides and rollercoasters are agonizingly addictive.

There are three wildlife sanctuaries in the Burleigh Heads area. Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is an excellent spot to see Australian native animals, including tree kangaroos, koalas, emus, wombats and other cute and fuzzies. They're joined daily by flocks of brilliantly coloured rainbow lorikeets, which take great delight in eating out of your hand.

Springbrook national park is perched atop a 900m (2952ft) high plateau, which, like the rest of the McPherson Range, is a remnant of the huge volcano that once centred on Mt Warning in NSW. The park's vegetation is cool-temperate rainforest and eucalypt forest, with gorges, cliffs, forests and waterfalls, numerous walking tracks and several picnic areas.