Sea World Gold Coast

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Day 8 – Sea World – 14th of June

For my final day in Gold Coast I was undecided at first what to do, I had found a birding location that I wanted to visit, however my aunt completely refused because she was scared that we would get lost. So instead I had to choose between two half-zoo half-theme park places, either Dream World or Sea World. In the end we went for Sea World.

We had arranged for the same taxi driver to come and pick us up, but he didn’t show up so we got a different taxi driver instead who agreed to charge us the same cheap price. It seems like there are way more taxi drivers around than there is demand for, there were loads just lining up outside the hotel and waiting despite there being no one arriving while we waited there (and also on a long wait the next day which I will cover then).

As we drove to Sea World I was able to add one species of bird, a pair of Masked Lapwings on a verge, and in the car park when we arrived there was a Kelp Gull in the car park amongst the many Silver Gulls, though of course it flew away by the time I had taken my camera out of my bag. The taxi driver gave us his number and told us to call him half an hour before we wanted to be picked up, I’m not sure how much other business he had that day because, unusually for a taxi driver, he was there to pick us up early. Anyway, there was a surprisingly short queue to enter Sea World (I was expecting a much longer one, and they had the space for lots more people to be queuing up) and buy the (expensive) tickets. Upon entering, the view was rather impressive

with a huge area of water for their Jet Ski shows, though of course my main reason for visiting was to see the animals. The first animal exhibit we came to was their main penguin exhibit containing King and Gentoo Penguins, Penguin Encounter. From outside this was a white cube and it had signs about being a quarantine facility. Inside it was a fairly standard indoor penguin exhibit, though, as with all indoor penguin exhibits that I have seen, I thought it was a bit small.

After that we had a look at their ‘Dolphin Nursery’ which was several pools with several dolphins in each one, and as well as both species of Bottlenosed Dolphin, one of the pools had the main species that I wanted to see at Sea World, the Australian Humpback Dolphin.

What a cool looking animal. After a little while watching it, we decided to head to the dolphin show area via a slightly roundabout route. Whether you like animal shows of this kind or (as in my case) generally don’t, when you visit a place like this you’ve got to see the main attraction, the dolphin show. We had a little while before the show so we wandered around a bit on the way, passing some rather cool large models of various (extinct and extant) sea animals, and went through and around the bit with rides which is in the middle of Sea World. The place wasn’t so busy since it wasn’t school holidays and the weather was perfect, which is good.

We got to the ‘Affinity Dolphin Show’ a little before it started in time to buy a horrendously unhealthy drink and to have a good look at the dolphin pools.

The show stand overlooked the main pool which was very large and seemed to be fairly deep though I couldn’t really tell (the Sea World website says eight metres) and behind were several off-display pools also housing dolphins which could be connected by gates. They seemed to have a lot of dolphins. The show itself was fairly good, not demeaning for the dolphins with an overall education and conservation message given accompanied by jumps and stuff like that with dolphins.

After the show, we explored the other parts of ‘Dolphin Beach’ which was several more pools with even more dolphins. The Sea World website describes it as a “large natural sandy bottom lagoon system for dolphins” and it’s not bad.

I suppose their location allows them to keep dolphins in good enclosures very easily. Also in this area is the rather un-noteworthy enclosure for Little Blue Penguins as well as their sea lion and fur seal exhibit, ‘Seal Harbour’. This rather nice exhibit is an extension of the ‘sandy bottom lagoon’ that is partly inhabited by dolphins by the seal section has various boardwalks and partitions separating it up for New Zealand and Subantarctic Fur Seals and Australian and Californian Sea Lions.


After some time enjoying the dolphins and sea lions, we went to ‘Stingray Bay’ which is, as you would guess, their stingray enclosure. It is just a fairly large touch tank with lots of stingrays swimming around. Though I don’t know the species as there is no signage. Next to ‘Stingray Bay’ are ‘Polar Bear Shores’ and 'Shark Bay’. The Polar Bear exhibit is fairly good with a sign giving the layout of the different off show areas, etc. though I only saw one of their Polar Bears. After that I went to ‘Shark Bay’ which was an awesome exhibit. It starts with a touch pool with various sea cucumbers and starfish (though I’m not sure about the ethics of touch pools) which is actually connected to the main shark pool. There is a path going around the shark pool and various fish and sharks are visible from the top, however there is also underwater viewing looking into the tank through huge windows which is really nice with loads of different fish, sharks, and turtles. I didn’t spend too long here though because we went for lunch in one of the restaurants within Sea World, though we went back to have another look there later.

We then walked around a bit looking at the sightseeing helicopter coming in to land and wishing we had the $300 dollars to do a ride in it (as if!) and having another look at some of the animal exhibits. We also had a look in the ‘Creatures of the Deep’ exhibition which is a museum display with various models and some interactive displays which was small but really cool. After that we had one more animal thing to see (a Seabird Rehabilitation Centre with pelicans is mentioned on their website but there was no sign of this there. I don’t think I missed it) which was the sea lion show. The promotional material talked about overfishing and stuff but the show was really silly and childish. I suppose the name ‘Fish Detectives Sea Lion Show’ sounds a bit silly but I hoped it would be at least a bit educational. A ridiculous show.


Anyway after a look at the stingray feeding and another look at the awesome shark tank, we left Sea World at around three. Despite having my reservations beforehand, I did really enjoy Sea World. It was really interesting to visit a zoo that is totally different to anything I had been to before.

Since we had a bit of time before sunset when we got back to the accommodation, we did the short walk down to the beach just to have a look. There were lots of Noisy Miners of course, as well as Pied Currawongs and Silver Gulls too and as I was looking out to sea I spotted three brown seabirds swooping around over the sea. They flew back and forth for a long while and I was able to get looks at them with binoculars several times to be able to identify them as Wedge-tailed Shearwaters. A nice, unexpected addition to the end of the day. While walking back to the hotel I also saw a Pied Butcherbird in a position allowing photography.

Although we had already confirmed the time and place where we would catch the coach we had booked to Lamington National Park, and printed off our receipts which prominently said ‘confirmed’ on them, we called the coach company just to be sure. It’s very good that we did though because the person said that the coach had been cancelled! Apparently they only run if they have at least four people and there weren’t enough people so they had cancelled without telling us at all. We actually got sent a message the next morning at the time we were due to get the coach! Anyway they told us that a company called Mountain Coach might be able to take us and gave us their number. They phoned and said they could take us, but it would be a private transfer (just the two of us and the driver in a 4x4) and the price they quoted us was considerably more. We didn’t have much choice though so we had to go with it. They also wouldn’t be able to take us to Brisbane on the way back as they only did Gold Coast to Lamington and we had booked Gold Coast to Lamington one way and Lamington to Brisbane the other way with the other coach company so we had the added cost and hassle of a train in addition to the more expensive transfer. Of course we were refunded the money by the coach company that couldn’t take us, but we were still out of pocket paying for the more expensive one. Oh well, at least it was sorted in the end.

New birds seen:
Masked Lapwing
Kelp Gull
Wedge-tailed Shearwater

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