Gold Coast and Murwillumbah (4 - 7 April)

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After setting up at the Tallebudgera Tourist Park in Palm Beach, Thomas and Annelies went for a swim in the creek that the park backs onto. On Sunday, it was Thomas' birthday and he requested French-toast for breakfast and also wanted to spend a day at a Gold Coast theme park (our main reason for being on the Gold Coast before Byron Bay). The forecast was for rain to develop but it was starting out fine and sunny, so we thought we'd head up to White Water World for the day as there was no telling what the weather would do on Monday when the rain (which hadn't developed yet) was forecast to ease into showers. But when we arrived we could see from the car park that the queues were a mile long, so we decided to go on the next day when hopefully the crowd wouldn't be as bad seeing it would be a week day. We had a look at the Qdeck, the world's tallest residential tower, and then had lunch (pre-made sandwiches) at Surfers Paradise. That evening we went out to a sushi-train restaurant for our traditional birthday family dinner.

The forecast rain finally came overnight Sunday and when we woke up to another deluge on Monday morning we thought we had blown our chance of at least a moderately nice day to spend at White Water World. However, Mark turned on the laptop and checked the Bureau's radar and discovered that the rain we had been having was very localised, looked like easing, and was mostly clear further north. So we decided to go back to White Water World in any case, and we spent the day enjoying all the rides under mostly clear skies. Thomas' favourite ride was the BRO (Blue Ringed Octopus), while Annelies' was The Rip and Mark's was The Green Room. Alex preferred the slightly less scary rides of the Temple of Huey (click on the link above for information on the rides). By 3pm, the clouds were beginning to build, but by then we had had enough and headed back to the tourist park.

On Tuesday we drove up to Murwillumbah for a night and stayed at the Greenhills Caravan Park. That night we went to the local RSL club for dinner and catchup with John, a friend of Mark's from primary school in Perth. On Wednesday it was into Byron Bay for a week over Easter with our main aim to attend the East Coast Blues and Roots Music Festival.

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Photos

White Water World - BRO
Mark & Thomas in right 2 lanes

White Water World - The Rip
Annelies & Mark

White Water World
The Green Room

White Water World - BRO
Annelies is 3rd from right

White Water World - Cave of Waves
Dark clouds are looming