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Thousands of Kiwis packed the Oz Jobs Expo this week. There were queues at the Australian consulate's new expanded immigration counter. But the Aussie dream portrayed by The GC television show has a darker underside. We discover all that glisters is not gold.

Kiwi reality stars Jade Ruwhiu and Rosanna Arkle are hurrying along The Esplanade at Surfers Paradise. They are running a bit late and Ruwhiu is apologetic about the way he looks. He's come straight from the office, in a dark jacket and long trousers, and knows shorts would have been better for the photos.

His tattooed arms are covered by a smart striped business shirt, open at the collar. The 24-year-old moved to Australia about five years ago after a tilt at playing rugby in Italy didn't work out because of injury and homesickness.

"I went back to New Zealand, got a job as a farmhand in Hawke's Bay," he says.

"I loved it, but I knew I wanted to do more with my life." Now, he owns 11 investment properties and has set up a few of his expat friends from The GC as well. And he's still got time for a walk on the beach.

It's a perfect autumn day for the beach: a clear blue sky and just a slight breeze. The tourists are out, a couple of meter maids in gold bikinis and high heels stroll along the beachfront promenade and the high rises look down on a few surfers. This is Surfers at its best, without the summer crowds.

Arkle, 23, is in short denim shorts and a vivid blue singlet top. Her long hair, blonde in the TV show, is closer to her natural dark brown. She's edgy for the photographer to finish as she'll be running late for another appointment but, like a professional, she doesn't complain and takes up another new pose. It's only last week, she says, that the girls from the cast were here for a "Kardashian-style" photo shoot on the sand.

The beachfront highrise apartments that form the backdrop to the beach may be the stereotypical face of life on the Gold Coast but the influx of New Zealanders to the region includes families who set up home in the sprawling far-flung suburbs, away from the beach and the nightclubs.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, most New Zealand born people living in Australia - about 38 per cent - set up home in Queensland and they are three times more likely to live on the Gold Coast than other Queensland residents are.

Popular areas - where about one in 10 residents are New Zealanders - are Surfers and the inland suburbs of Pacific Pines and Gaven. Just down the highway from Surfers, Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach also have high Kiwi populations, as well as those more removed from the coastal strip, Coombabah, Kingsholme-Upper Coomera and Robina, where The GC gang live.

Over coffee and toasted sandwiches Ruwhiu and Arkle are adamant they still call New Zealand "home". But for the foreseeable future they are determined to make their fortunes across the ditch and they're upbeat about the opportunities they've found on Queensland's "Glitter Strip".

Arkle came to the Gold Coast about four years ago, after earning just over $11-an-hour as a junior in the sales team at the Northern Advocate newspaper in Whangarei. She says her move was for the Gold Coast lifestyle - the beaches and weather -and she found it easy to find work as a receptionist and office worker.