The Gold Coast

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The Gold Coast. Possibly the most touristy place in Australia; theme parks, water parks, amazing beaches. We did it all.
We arrived on a Sunday and after looking around and playing mini golf we headed in to the city - Surfers Paradise. We found a small market on the sea front and strolled along it. We decided to go out for dinner that night. I had found a Groupon voucher for a place selling tapas close by. We drove there only to find the voucher had only been added that day and the system wasn’t ready. We found some where else for dinner and camped in the carpark.
The next day we did the tourist thing. We had bought an all in one ticket for four attractions - Wet n Wild water park, Warner Bros theme park, Paradise Country farm park and Sea World. We had unlimited entry to all of them and I feel like we made good use of them.
We spent most of the day at Wet n Wild. We got there early and ate breakfast in the carpark waiting for it to open. Around half 2/3ish we started to get chilly so after putting something warmer on we went next door for an hour in Warner Bros. Even though we were only there an hour we managed three rides. One being the biggest they had - (find out about it!!). After the park had shut we headed back to the Tapas place and had a lovely
meal.
The next day we had a few hours to spare in the morning so decided to spend them at Warner Bros; we did four rides and a 4D show. We then went to Wet n Wild where we showered before heading for an hours drive in to the country. We went for a 90 minute horse riding lesson. It was great. We went through woods and at the end, in a big field, we got to canter on our horses. After the horse riding we milked a cow by hand, had boomerang lessons, whip cracking lessons and were able to feed the goats. The whole afternoon was really good. That night

for dinner we had found another Groupon voucher for a local vegan/vegetarian all you can eat and decided to try it out. Personally I’m a meat girl but these dishes were delicious.
Wednesday was Anzac Day. Australia and New Zealand’s day to remember people lost in war. The day is a national holiday and most things are closed or only open later in the day. We spent the morning looking around the town, window shopping as most shops were closed. Sea World opened at 1pm so we headed there. We went to the penguins and watched a seal show. We then got in line for the rollercoaster. The signs said you will get wet, you may get soaked, we didn’t fully believe them until we saw people getting off the ride. They really were soaking. It was worth it though. Afterwards we watched a jet ski show and then left. We found somewhere to camp but as everywhere was shut ended up eating a subway for dinner.
We then had a beach day. We found a very quiet section of the beach and spent the day reading and swimming. Once we started to get a little chilly we drove closer to the town and found a coffee shop.
We spent part of the next day at the only place on our ticket that we had been once - Paradise Country farm park. It was a lovely few hours. We feed and took selfies with Kangaroos, goats and sheep, saw Koalas and watched a sheep shearing show and a sheep dog show. Once we’d finished there we headed back to Warner Bros. We did most of the rides that afternoon, including the ones we had already done and saw the character parade but there were still two rides we hadn’t done. We did one roller coaster where you could get a VR (virtual reality) head set and watch it while going on the rollercoaster. It made the experience so much scarier but it was well worth it.

Saturday was cold and wet so after spending a few hours in a library charging and using the Internet we went to an all you can eat place and then had a two hour nap in their carpark.
We had been in the Gold Coast a week now and celebrated by seeing Polar Bears! Sea World had Polar Bears, Sharks, Sting Rays and lots of fish. We also saw a dolphin show and went on some rides. One ride got us so wet we had to go back to the van and change half way through the day. Later that afternoon we had a slot booked on the high ropes course. It was possibly the scariest thing we had done. The ropes wobbled like crazy and we were really high up!
Laurent decided to hire a surf board for two hours and try to surf. I had decided not to as it was far too cold. I watched for a bit then went around the town. I was meant to meet Laurent back at the beach when his two hours were up but about half way through I found him in a shopping centre, the waves had been too choppy and he wasn’t able to surf. We spent the rest of the day looking around the town.
Tuesday was our last day on the Gold Coast. We were meeting the mum of the children I au paired for, for dinner in Brisbane later that night. We started the day at wet n Wild and then headed towards Warner Bros. We did all the rides and watched a car stunt show. Once the park had shut we headed for Brisbane. We found the hotel and after parking we met Alicja. She’d been to Brisbane for a course and was leaving the next day. We found a place close by for dinner and after eating went back to her hotel and stayed seated in the lobby chatting until midnight.

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