We had the absolute pleasure of staying with our great friends Rob and Jules Scullin on the Gold Coast this weekend. It rained all weekend (as is the case down most of Australia’s East Coast at the moment), but it was a lovely time, and apart from getting three hours sleep on Saturday night (as it was my turn to get up with the boys,) it was great hanging out with great people, drinking excessively and laughing. Something we haven’t been too successful at doing in Noosa, unless friends come to visit.

Anyways, Rob and Jules have a gorgeous home in Runaway Bay on the canal. Jules is the brainchild behind the design and it’s a magnificent house – this woman has incredible talent! But they won’t be there for long, as they’ve bought a much bigger house on Sovereign Island, and this is going to be spectacular once done. It’s bloody massive and made our seven bedroom house in Noosa look tiny by comparison.

After we viewed the new house in its gutted state, they took us on a drive of the surrounds and my god, you should see these places. There was The Castle, which is designed like a castle (doh!) and boy is it nasty. Then there was the Venetian themed home – replete with full sized silver and gold horses in the driveway, along with golden adornments everywhere – crikey. There were Tuscan themes, French themes, modern garish designs and one massive home that looked like a convention centre. I’ve got to say, many of the houses are monstrous, tasteless and huge, but I couldn’t help but admire the balls of the people who designed and live in them. Although, please note, Rob and Jules’ house does not fit in the garish or vulgar bracket – there’s will be all class, as were many on the Island.

Coming home to Noosa Waters, which is very much a retirement village by comparison, it felt mildly disappointing as everyone tends towards the conservative and the tame. Bland colours, smaller scale, no big statements….

Not to mention, everyone in the Waters has very small boats – but maybe they don’t need to compensate up here? The boats on the Gold Coast were gargantuan. In Noosa, most people drive around in pontoon boats, while on the Gold Coast, many of the boats are bigger than most people’s houses.

I am definitely appreciative of people who aren’t embarrassed about showing off their money – no matter how garishly – because why should they be? They earned it after all! But as a general rule, Australians don’t tend to be huge fans of ostentatious displays of wealth. I personally love it and the Gold Coast is the place where it is on show for all to see. People drive purple Bentleigh’s, Ferrari’s were a common site, as was every other spectacular sports car imaginable. Noosa Waters’ folk tend to drive 4WD BMWs or Range Rovers in beige, white, black or silver – boring.

There are pros and cons to everything. Noosa is stunningly beautiful and it feels like a town, whereas the Gold Coast is built up and it doesn’t feel like it has any heart or community. The way we’ve been feeling about Noosa lately, the Gold Coast wins, but that’s just because we’re not supposed to be here. We’re not supposed to be on the Gold Coast either.

We definitely know we’re not ready for the settled life in Noosa or even the Gold Coast, but if I was going to build my dream mansion, we could do worse than the spectacular surrounds of Sovereign Island, not to mention Rob and Jules would be there – bonus. I could definitely get used to excessive champagne consumption while on a boating trip.

In the meantime, while we’re still trying to work out what our future’s going to look like, we’ll just have to visit the Scullins and party like rock stars whenever we can. We might need to hire a babysitter for the mornings though…

Yours, without the bollocks
Andrea