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Published: June 17th 2008
View of Surfers Paradise
From a beach on 'the spit'Thursday the 5th was Megan's 19th Birthday. We woke up close to Byron Bay and drove into town to visit a pawn shop (correct spelling essential there!). It was the first time we had been in one and Adam was looking for a surfboard. We found a secondhand short board for $160 that looked in good condition, we got the price down to 150 and popped it in the van! We kept on driving to the Gold Coast and entered the northern state of Queensland without even noticing. We went to Coolangatta which is the southern end of the Gold Coast and is famous for its surf and parties in the 70's. We hired some boards for Nick and Meg from a place called Retro Groove and got down to the beach. Meg managed to get on some waves with Adam's mini lesson but didn't quite get on her feet just yet, Adam left his new board in the van for now. In the afternoon we went to a crazy golf place which had 3 x 18 hole courses and they all included moving parts. Suprising Megan won the first course and Nick the second. After this we headed to a
Happy Birthday Megan!
Adam and Nick will be home shortly to persue a career in cake decorating. campsite in Surfers Paradise and all had some showers. While Meg had hers Adam and Nick decorated the cake they secretly brought her and lit the candles (see picture for our amazing cake!). We headed out for an Italian meal then got some sleep in the camp.
Next day we headed back to Coolangatta and found that it had been taken over by Winter Sun Festival. The place was full of retro cars in mint condition, some for sale for over 100k. We hit the beach and Adam discovered that surfing his new short board was not as easy as the long board he had in Bali - learning to surf this is going to take weeks (maybe years!)! We made some sand sculptures in the nice sand then headed for some food back at Jimbob. We then cheecked out all the cars and took some photos. They seem to be able to have anything on a number plate here and we saw a herbie replica with the plate 'HERBIE' and another car with 'ZOMBIE' as the plate. We then headed out towards the edge of the Gold Coast where the theme parks can be found. All the service
The Claw
In DreamWorld! areas had no staying longer than 2 hour signs. But we found a garage with some truck parking next to it - right next to the parks. We drove in and hid between a few big trucks hoping not to be distrubed. We used the toilets in the garage and got a few drinks before getting some sleep.
Next day was the first day of our theme park marathon and we were heading to DreamWorld. It was a saturday but for some reason it was still quiet - we didn't queue more than 20 minutes for any ride - beat that Alton Towers! We went on the Giant Drop which is pretty self explanitory. The Tower of Terror was good fun, we also went on a motobike rollercoaster where you sit on a bike. Wipe Out and The Claw were by far the best rides of the day - and we didn't queue for either of them! We got absolutley soaked on the log flume (especailly Nick). We got some food (no fast food chains in here, its all themed) then went to check out the wildlife area. In here we saw the tiger show - it was amazing.
Picture of Dream World
Taken while waiting for the Giant Drop to...drop! The trainers were actually in the enclosure with the full grown tigers and we got to see the tigers climb full grown trees and jump about 7 foot in the air - not something you usually get to see at the zoo! We popped into the farm animal section and Adam and Meg did something they never imagined would happen today - they milked a cow! It was an odd experience and another funny thing to tick off the list of new things tried this year. After seeing some Koalas and Kangaroos we headed out of the park and had managed to fit in everything we wanted. We popped back to our hidden spot between the big trucks and got some sleep.
Next day we went to WhiteWater, which is a big water park that was included in the joint ticket we brought yesterday. It was right next door to our hidding spot and we got there nice and early. Again this place wasn't busy at all and we didn't queue up once all day! The weather had brighten up today and we hoped to get some sun tans back. Some of the water rides in here were crazy.
The drops felt like they were straight down and on some of them you emerge into a big bowl which you swirl around until you drop out the bottom - all good fun when there is 3 of you in the giant tube! Most of the rides you could do in a single or double tube and a few of them were 4 person ones - very useful so no one is left out! The wave pool was huge and you can actually take surfing lessons in it on certain days. We had done everything by 2pm so we popped out to the carpark for some food in the van, then headed back into DreamWorld again - our tickets ment we could go back and forth for 2 days. Adam and Nick went on The Claw and Wipeout again while Meg tried to get a few photos. We then went to the IMAX cinema inside the park as it was also included in the price. We watched a program called Space Station that was a documentary about the space station and how it is all been put together. See them all floating about in there on the big screen was
Adam...
Milking a cow, never thought that would happen! amazing and we all left the cinema wanting to be astronaughts! After this we drove Jimbob back to his hidding place and went to bed - hard work doing all these rides!
Next theme park on the list was Movie World - apparently Hollywood in Australia. They had some good rides including 2 Batman ones that were very good. All of the rides were themed very well with fun stories as you went along. We saw a Batman show on the main street and he appeared in time to save the day and beat up the bad guys! Sadly the western shoot out show that we wanted to see wasn't on today - but the cast were around for any photos people wanted with them. The highlight of the day was easily the superman ride which we went on twice. It is set on board the MRT Subway and you go through a long story as you ride and become stuck in the underground, Superman then appears to push you out of the ride and up into the sky - the speed of this thing on the way out was crazy, unlike any other rollercoaster we had been on.
Watersides in WhiteWater
We flew around inside that bowl! We went to watch Shrek 4D after lunch which was in amazing 3D and when Shrek sneezed we were sprayed with water and they had some good wind effects in there too. After this we headed out the park and back to Surfers Paradise where we planned to go to SeaWorld tomorrow. We went out to eat as it was takeaway Monday and found a Nandos (not as good as Milton Keynes).
We woke up on SeaWorld day to some bad weather and a bit of rain. Seaworld has a lot of outdoor shows and a water park so we decided to put it off until tomorrow incase we missed anything. We headed down to 'the Spit' which is an area of beach at the northern tip of Surfers. The beach was quiet and Nick and Meg read there books while Adam practiced on his board - and actually managed to stand up on a broken wave. Some progress at last. We had some vouchers for bowling so we did that in the afternoon and Adam won with a record score of 168! After this we played 2 games of pool and Megan some how managed to beat Adam
and Nick back to back. (Adam would like to add at this point that potted the white and the black when meg had several balls left - Nick was just rubbish!). After this 2 of us were forced by the other (no names - you can guess!) to watch the new Sex and the City film. It was rather long and Adam and Nick spent most of the film bemused at what everyone was laughing at! We headed back to Jimbob and went back to the campsite for a night - we had some clothes washing to be done!
Wednesday was an early start and we got into SeaWorld just as it was openning. First stop was the dolphin show we had heard so much about. It was great. The dolphins did front flips in the air, pulled the trainers through the water, waved to the crowd and one of the trainers even surfed along two of the dolphins. We all wanted to be dolphin trainers now. After this we watched the Seal Detectives show. It wasn't as spectacular but did have a strong theme about sustainable fishing (something you should all consider!). We were sure the dolphin show
woulod be the highlight of the day but it was beaten - by the 2 polar bears that live at seaworld. Watching these animals was amazing and they were much bigger than we expected. They were play fighting in their massive enclosure and we watched for a looong time. The water park was closed but we did ride all the rollercoasters they had - all 1 of them! It was pretty tame and Adam managed to film the ride on his camera while riding it, we'll try and get the video up. We were done by early afternoon so headed out to our nice spot of beach at the spit and relaxed. Adam spent more time with his board and is getting a bit more confident. From this bit of beach you get a great view of the high rise buildings along Surfers Paradise and it is much quieter than the main beachesthat are a bit more south - we recommend here!
Next day Adam discoverd he had somehow lost his wash bag - for the second time. This was becoming expensive! We headed to the biggest waterpark today - Wet n Wild. It wasn't as good as we
hoped and most of the rides were the same as WhiteWater. The wave pool wasn't as good as the previous either. It did however have a good water rollercoaster which sprayed your tube up the 'up' parts of the coaster. Most of the rides here were 2 person rides which made it a bit annoying for a group of 3. They had a big racing coaster which was fun, Nick won, Adam claims that racing on mats isn't a talent and its all about weight. We spent the afternoon in the hot tubs and had one all to ourselves. We decided to get out once we had skin like old people! After we had finished in the park we started our drive to Australia's number 3 city - Brisbane. We drove into Brisbane Forest Park were we stayed for the night. It was very dark and Megan banned Adam from telling his ghost that he had started!
We woke up safe in the lookout car park and thankfully we weren't distrubed by the missing park ranger Adam made up. we were woken up by a ranger though - who should make less noise in future with his leaf blower!
First on our list of things to do today was unblock the vans sink. We drove into Brisbane and got some Mr Muscle. This stuff took ages and didn't really work. Adam rammed some curtain wire down there to finish the job off and unblock it. Rice was the problem for anyone intersted in knowing! Our next problem and what turned out to be an even bigger one was parking. Jimbob is 2.5m high and almost every parking in Brisbane is a multistory or underground all with 2 meter limits. All the roadside parking was expensive and only for 2 hours max. It took us a good hour to get parked up and we saw one multistory that was $17 per hour - thats about £9! We met up with Jamie and Dane who Adam and Meg know from back home. we caught up and then went for a night out. Apparently Brisbane is one of the best nights out in Oz and it was rather good. We went to Down Under bar first then on to a place called Victoria. It was a good night and we saw some live music and got to meet some of the people
Polar Bear
Relaxing at Seaworld! Dane had worked with in the north. Adam was the designated driver and we didn't get back to the van until 5am. We drove back to the darkness of the forest for a sleep.
We awoke in a rest area carpark, with 2 hangovers and one sugar rush from too much cola. Again we had parking problems on the way into Brisbane. We eventually parked up and met Dane and Jamie at the hostel they both work/live at. In the hostel they have a big cinema room with a really big tv and lots of comfy chairs. We spent the afternoon in there and watched Jackass and Dirty Snachez. It got late and we said our goodbyes and tried to figure out hen we would all see each other again. We then started our drive further north to the Sunshine Coast, we found a rest area close to Australia Zoo and set up for the night.
Next day we drove to Australia Zoo nice and early. Australia Zoo was home to the late Steve Irwin, and thankfully the only sting here was the entry cost! $52 was more than we had paid for some of the
theme parks we went too! The Zoo is still owned by the Irwin family adn there is a Steve Irwin tribute and his face is still everywhere inside the Zoo. We had seen most, actaully all, of the animals in here elsewhere on the trip. The live show was quite good and there was birds flying everywhere and elephants, the highlight was when a couple of Steve Irwin wannabees did the croc show making them jump up for the meat. This was nice to see as usually crocs are dead boring at the zoo and don't move! We also saw more dingos, koalas and kangroos, plus a couple of really old and really really big tortioses. There was also a model of how big a croc can suposedly grow too, it was crazy big and we failed to believe it!We continued our drive up the Sunshine Coast to Caloundra. The town looked really nice and seemed to have a lot to do. Moffats beach was great for surfing but also very busy in the good spots. The town was mostly shut due to it being a sunday so we headed to check out the rest area where we planned to
stay - it was the nicest yet. It had camping areas, toilets and decent lighting. Seems we are going to like this place! We stayed in the rest area for the rest of the night and read our books...Nick: Surfers Autobiography, Meg: The Game and Adam: East Coast lonley planet.
We plan to spend the next 4 days or so exploring the Sunshine Coast area, hitting some beaches and riding horses and bulls in a place called Noosa. Jimbob has now clocked up over 2700km since we got him and is still going with no problems! We are all still in good health and enjoying ourselves, and the weather is slightly improving!
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Adam Gibson and Nick Burke
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Golden Oldies
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Good read once again. I was "worn out" by the time I got to the end, happy birthday to you Megan. Drive Carefully.