Ok, so here is a condensed summery of my holiday if anyone is intersted. The short version is: my mate invited me to go with him to the Gold Coast theme parks.
This is the long version:
Day 1- Sunday 14thI had just finished a late night of simming and got to bed around 2am, when I was rudely awakened at 4am by the doorbell. My mate had come over to pick me up for the flight to Coolangatta, and I hadn't even packed as I thought we were leaving on the next day! I hurriedly stuffed all my stuff into my case and we rushed down to NZAA, made our way though customs and boarded Freedom Air flight SJ907 just as the gate was closing at 6am.
I had a window seat but didn't see very much with clouds covering the North Island up from view on departure, and the only interesting sights were Lord Howe Island surrounded by a big reef, and the beach views over the Gold Coast as we descended into OOL at 7am local time.
Upon disembarking ZK-OJA (a Zeal 320 airbus A320 in Air New Zealand colors), it felt like someone had wrapped me in a hot damp blanket as I walked across the apron to the fairly small International terminal at OOL.
My mates dad picked up our bright yellow Hyundai Getz rental car (lmao), and we drove up the Pacific Expressway to Surfers Paradise to get a nice cooked meal from the famous "all day breakfast' place next to the Q1 tower.
After stuffing ourselves full, we drove up the coast a little further to Southport and dropped our luggage off at our hotel, the "Crystal Bay"Â on the waterfront, then went over to the Australia Fair mall to do some food shopping. It got dark around 7pm which was pretty odd, as Queensland has no daylight saving, then had dinner and went to bed, after an exhausting long day.
Day 2- Monday 15thThe next day we went to the Warner Brothers Movieworld theme park in Coomera and spent the day riding the rollercoasters which was awesome. My favorite was the Superman ride which boosted you off real fast from the station pulling about 4G's of force!
Day 3- Tuesday 16thWe purchased a 2day pass from Movieworld the day before, and used it to visit Seaworld (which we could see from out hotel balcony just over on the spit). I really wish I had taken my camera to this one, because aside from the few "theme park"Â styled rides, there were heaps of dolphins, sharks, rays, pelicans, and even a polar bear on display, plus Australia's "first giant observation wheel"Â which was very similar to the London Eye. My favorite exhibit was the dolphin show where we sat in a stadium with a huge pool in front of it, and a team of eight dolphins swam, jumped and flipped there hearts out, and performed tricks with there trainers which was spectacular.
Day 4- Wednesday 17thOn Wednesday, we decided to take a break from the theme parks and my mate's dad took us out on a drive in the hinterland countryside which was a very pleasant treat. We headed out to Springbrook and walked through the rainforest to the natural bridge waterfall cave and checked out the lizards that seemed to be scutterling around everywhere. Then we drove up to the Hinze Dam were all Gold Coast City's water is held in the Advancetown Lake, and chucked rocks down the big drop and explored around the shore. We continued through the Numinbah valley over the NSW border up to Murwillumbah, and I was really amazed to see how lush and green all the vegetation was, which looked really beautiful with Mt Warning as a dramatic bold backdrop not to far in the distance.
After leaving the township, we followed the Tweed River banks up to Coolangatta again and stopped off for a late afternoon burger lunch before heading round the corner to Tweed Heads to see Point Danger. We watched the surfers and wildlife for a bit, took some photos of the state boundary then headed back up the highway home to Surfers. We passed the airport again just as a Jetstar A320 was touching down which we got a nice view of while stopped in a traffic jam!
When we arrived back at the city, we pulled over and went for a walk though a park looking at the lizards and birdlife on the floor. My mate never told me about the bats in the trees, and when I looked up I freaked out bigtime to see hundereds and hundereds of bats above my head clinging upside down on the branches! After I got over the shock of seeing them, we started chucking sticks up at them to make them fly around which was an experience I was not expecting at the Gold Coast!
Day 4- Thursday 18thWe woke up early on Thursday and made our way to Dreamworld, which is the biggest theme park in Ozzie. The rides here are much more intense than the other two parks, and a lot more fun in my opinion
My favorites were "The Claw' which is a giant 9 story high swing, "The Tower of Terror"Â which is an electro-magnetically powered kart that accelates along a track to 160 km/h in seven seconds, then turns skyward pulling 4.5 G's and climbs 38 stories high. When it comes to a stop, it freefalls backwards to the station which is a really weird/cool feeling! It was bloody hot that day and we got heaps of ice cones and slushy's to cool us down which we definitely needed.
Day 5- Friday 19thOn Friday we went out for a cruise in a North West direction, first checking out the Dick Johnson Racing museum, then got to Ipswich right next to RAAF Amberley, Australia's biggest airbase! We were just eating lunch at a nearby diner when a huge C-17 passed overhead and banked around and descended for landing. We hopped in the car and drove around to the base entrance just as it took off again for another circuit although unfortunately, we didn't get a very good vantage point from behind the "authorized personal only' fence. Because of this, we decided to go around the other side in search of a better plane-spotting-spot, and we ended up traveling all around the city before getting to the other side where we had a decent outlook, but there was no movement on the tarmac. The C-17 had landed again and taxied off into the distance, and all that was visible was the fleet of F-111's parked up facing away from us. We watched and waited for a good 30 minutes before my mate's dad went over to the gate guard and asked what was going on, and he was told that Friday afternoons are usually the quietest time of day, but apparently all the jet fighters were up and about earlier in the morning.
I was pretty gutted, but I was happy I got to see a C-17. On the way home we took a detour though central Brisbane, passing the noisy Gabba stadium were the Aussie crowd were cheering their hearts out as the pome's received a thrashing from the home cricket team
We crossed over the river and got a good view out the window of the CBD, then turned around and headed back to the hotel.
Day 6- Saturday 20thWe had also purchased a 2 day return ticked for Dreamworld and today went back to go on the rides that we had missed on our first day there, including the big log flume, the Giant Drop (a 39 story high version of the Fear Fall at Rainbows End), mounted on the otherside of the Tower of Terror, and the wildlife park. There was a special offer on that allowed you to return to the park for a 3rd day for just $10, so we grabbed one of those and then had about 5 continuous rides on "The Claw"Â which gave me a mean headache.
Day 7- Sunday 21st We had a good lie in on Sunday morning and then watched the Taupo AIGP race on TV, where Black Beauty came 3rd- not a very interesting event, although there was a RNZAF Herc doing some flybys which was shown on the pre race coverage. In the afternoon, we headed up to Sanctuary Cove marina for a posh restaurant lunch, then later on, we ventured over to the Southport Spit (which the Seaworld park is built upon) and walked up to the very end of the land out to the lighthouse which signals the entry passage into the Broadwater. Later on we went down to the beach on the other side, watching all the boats returning to the Gold Coast marina and sipped drinks in the late afternoon sun.
Day 8- Monday 22nd My mate's dad had friends up on the Sunshine Coast so we made the two hour journey up north in the trusty little Getz to see them on Monday morning. On the way, we went up over the Brisbane Gateway bridge which at the very top, gives you a great view of the main YBBN runway and we could see a Qantas 737 making a steep descent into land.
We stopped at Coloundra airport, and to my surprise my mate's dad took us to the Queensland Air Museum! It turns out that he, and his son (my mate who I was traveling with) are both complete aviation nuts, and my mate is a huge flightsim fan! Inside there were heaps of historic military and civilian aircraft, and we spent a good half a day just photographing the planes and chatting about fs
Later on, we went over my mate's dads' mate's house, who are from Auckland, then visited Beerwah, home of Australia Zoo, which was closed at the time- so we enjoyed 30 minutes of Go Karting on the country's biggest Go Kart track instead. The air temperture was 38 degrees that day, and it was even hotter on the black tarmac track, so after we finished, we were sweating buckets and the Getz provided a really refreshing air conditioning service on the 2 hour trip back to Surfers Paradice!
Day 9- Tuesday 23rdOn the second Tuesday, we used our $10 ticket to get back into Dreamworld and ride all our favorite attractions again. This time though, I paid $120 for a flight in VH-COW, a Bell 206 JetRanger III based at the park, and went for a flight around the waterways down to the city and back which was utterly fantastic. There was only two passengers, me and another guy, who had booked in for this flight at 2.15pm (my mate didn't want to come as he is "afraid of heights"Â and he videoed the takeoff and landing from the pad), so the check-in chick from Dreamworld took the spare seat, and instead of sticking to the 15 minute planned route, we flew up north on the way back and took a 10 minute detour over her house. By the time we landed I had taken over 100 photos
(more to be uploaded soon)
At the end of the day, we spent our time repeatedly riding "The Claw"Â which actually broke down and locked us in our harnesses for about 10 minutes after the park closed in the evening, but it was all good fun.
Day 10- Wednesday 24thIt was another beautiful hot day on Wednesday and we decided to spend our day strolling around the Surfers, doing a bit of shopping, admiring the luxury cars and visiting Ripley's Believe it or not museum which was a good laugh. We ended the day with drinks on the beach again and an interesting revelation from my mates dad who told us he saw a UFO over Glen Innis, Auckland when he was our age- and has other witnesses who also saw it too! In the evening we packed our cases ready to leave the next day.
Day 11- Thursday 25thYesterday was our final day in the country, and we had to be up and out of the hotel before 10am which sucked for two reasons (1. We had to leave this great fun place, and 2. we had to be up so fricking early!). In the morning we went to the mall and I got some souvenirs for my family, then we drove the Getz down to Byron Bay to see the beautiful rural beach scenery, and visited the lighthouse that marks the most easterly point of mainland Australia. After having some ice creams in the blistering hot heat, we jumped back in the Getz for the last time and headed back to Cooly. On the way, it started raining for the first time in the two weeks I had been there, and did not stop until we had checked in for our flight, SJ910 which departed for NZAA at 5pm.
I got a few photos of the other aircraft on the ramp as I bordered the A320 again, but not many good shots from the sky as no sooner had we taken off, we were submersed in clouds across the Tasman, and as we arrived over Auckland City it was nearly midnight local time. The city lights looked fantastic, and I could see my house and local shops from the window, but unfortunately my camera didn't pick up the detail all that well and I didn't get any good photos of the view.
Now I am back at home, feeling a bit jetlagged after having to get up early this morning, but now I think I will browse through the forums to see what's new, and then take a flight over the Gold Coast in my sim!
Thanks for reading!
Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:42 am
