The next adventure on our whistle-stop tour of Queensland was Surfers Paradise. After a quick drive from Dreamworld with our Tourism and Events guide for the day, Jess, we arrived ready for a surf lesson and bike tour!

I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to surfing. Although I love the water I’m not the most athletic of people and the thought of hurling myself into some rather giant and scary looking waves filled me a little with dread.

You can’t really tell from this photo, but that’s a grin that says “OMG are we actually really doing this?!”

The beach was glorious, with the Gold Coast skyline just behind it. As Shauna lounged in the sun, Gala and I headed over to meet our surf teacher, Patrick from Cheyne Horan School of Surf.

Patrick didn’t seem to sense our trepidation (or if he did he definitely ignored it!) and he dived right in to the lesson. He also clearly had much more faith in our abilities than we did because after the briefest of introductions he told us to head out into the waves and give it a go. ARGH!

I glanced at Gala nervously and could sense her thinking the exact same thing as I was “Oh crap, are we actually really doing this?”

I fell off my board on the very first try. Head first into the water. Brilliant. My grand plan of taking it easy, grabbing a few Instagram-worthy shots and then bailing was completely scuppered. My hair was drenched, my make up running down my face and the oh-so-flattering (ahem) rash vest clung unforgivingly to my saturated body.

“Well if I’m gonna look as bad as this, I might as well at least try to do it properly!” I reassured myself.

Gala, on the other hand, was a complete natural. While I was Keanu (only with much less style), she was definitely the Patrick Swayze in this real life scene from Point Break. She made it look easy while I flailed around and tried not to get frustrated with my immense lack of co-ordination.

I was determined not to let it get the better of me though and with Patrick’s (the surf instructor, not Swayze) help I actually managed to stand up… for approximately one second… while he held onto the back of the board. Result!

After saying goodbye to the water it was time for something much more leisurely – a cycle ride around the beach. We borrowed the bikes from the QT Gold Coast, where we stayed for this portion of the trip.

Are you going on a beach holiday for your honeymoon? If so I’d definitely recommend doing a surf lesson – if nothing else you’re sure to giggle a lot!