Tuesday, 9 March 2010 - here we come Byron Bay

Today we went for a drive and swim at Byron Bay in New South Wales – not far from the Queensland and NSW border. The drive was about an hour.

Byron Bay is totally different to Surfers Paradise. There are no sky-rise apartment buildings in Byron Bay. It has a more beachey atmosphere and the apartments are only two or three storeys high. Our first stop was the Byron Bay Cookie outlet –yum!!

The weather was hot but no humidity at all. The beach was great and we spent a lot of time playing in the water. The sand under the water was hilly and we kept tripping whilst playing in the surf. There were plenty of waves and the undertow was strong. The water wasn’t very deep even though we were far from the shore.

Afterwards our aunt and uncle drove to a hippie town called Nimbin. It was very strange and everyone was very laid back. The buildings are old and brightly painted. We had smoothies and frappes. After a bit of a walk around we decided it was getting late and to head back to Surfers.

It is strange as we were back on Victorian time in NSW but as soon as we crossed the border back into Queensland, we put our watches back an hour. So we were gaining and losing time all day.

When we got back to our apartment in Surfers it was straight to the pool for more swimming.

Dinner was at our favourite eating place – the Surfers RSL. Tonight there was a magician who was walking around the tables doing tricks. He performed card tricks at our table.

It is our last night in Surfers Paradise and we fly home tomorrow late afternoon.

Monday, 8 March 2010 - swimming with Sharks!

Today we visited Seaworld. We went on the monorail and the Skyrail (chairlift) which gave us a good view over everything.

We went on lots of rides including the Viking’s Revenge Flame and the Sea Viper Rollercoaster – the latter which we went on twice.

We also were allowed to go snorkelling in Shark Bay. We saw lots of gropers, stingray and shark (obviously not the man-eating variety). We had to wear full wetsuits, shoes and fins with our snorkelling mask with breathing tube. It was great fun snorkelling in 3 metre deep water. Our uncle and aunt could see us from below from an underwater viewing window.

A couple of times we went to see the resident polar bear hoping that he would be in the water, but unfortunately today, he was lonely as he was on his own and just moped around lying on the rocks. He looked sad which made us feel sad too.

We visited the Ray Reef where there was a big pool under cover with lots of stingrays of all sizes which we could safely pat.

After we left Seaworld, we went to the Main Beach in Surfers Paradise to watch lots of surfers. We played in the sand, then Jack and Selena ran into the surf.

Upon arriving back at the resort, we all went swimming in the pool for awhile. It cooled us down greatly as it had been another steaming, hot and humid day.

We were exhausted but still we went out for a huge Mexican feed.

Sunday, 7 March 2010 - Crocodile Hunter territory!

A sleep-in today to 6.30 am!! We had a long drive, about one and a half hours to Australia Zoo in Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast. It was a good drive and the three of us had a bit of a sleep on the way, waking up just before we drove through Brisbane. Again, our aunt and uncle got lost in Brisbane - they told us evrytime they go to Brisbane they always manage to lose their way - even their TomTom got all confused!

The skies were dark an overcast as we drove past the picturesque Glasshouse Mountains. We didn't stop to take photos as there was some drizzle, and anyway, we wanted to get to Australia Zoo.

We finally arrived and headed straight to the Crocoseum to watch Murray the 13 metre crocodile do his bit. They also had some black parrots and other tropical birds fly around the audience. We were lucy that it didn't rain. We have been pretty lucky so far weather wise ....

Lots of reptiles, animals and birds we saw. We got up quite close to the three elephants, saw a tame Cheetah going for a walk, patted various animals including kangaoos, wombats, piglets and goats. The kids (goats) were funny as they were standing on blocks and it looked like a podium!

We saw the three tigers up close and had fun watching two red pandas playing in the trees. We then went straight to see two otters we had heard about earlir. They also were waiting impatiently for their keepers to come to feed thenm. They were sisters, Bonnie and Maria and very close. Otters are very activ and you cannot have them for pets as if they get bored, they apparently are very destructive.

It was a fun day and on the way back to Surfers Paradise we stopped to buy a fresh local pineapple and bananas.

Everyone was hungry so we went back to the local RSL club for a BIG feed. Madelene had lasagne, Selena had garlic prawns and Jack ordered scotch fillet. When his meal arrived, he had two scotch fillets which he promptly and efficiently devoured like a big cat in the wild.

Got to bed around 9.30 pm - we were stuffed!!

Saturday, 6 March 2010 - it's gonna be a wet day - not weather wise!!

Again we woke up early but it was around 6.30 am. After we had breakfast we watched this big fat bird who our aunt named Boris the Ibis looking for food at the apartment block directly opposite ours. We are sure Boris is the Ibis that hangs around the pool here. By looking at his size, we reckon he must get fed at every apartment block along the Gold Coast. Our aunt was thinking of various marinades and ways to cook Boris as he is so big. we took a photo of Boris with Maddie in the foreground – it doesn’t do Boris justice – he looked smaller than in real life so we haven't included it in our Blog but we have included a photo taken from our apartment towards the Gold Coast city centre - about a 2 minute walk!

We went to Wet’n’Wild after breakfast. We got their early to beat the crowds but there were already over 100 people there just after 9 am who had the same idea as us. It doesn’t open until 10 am.

Our first ride was the Super 8 Aqua Racer which we, except our aunt, went on and raced each other head first down this gigantic water slides – awesome! We worked our way around the park all day and our favourite attractions included the Tornado, Calypso River, Surfrider and Mammoth Falls. It was very overcast and there was some rain for a short time, but we didn’t mind as we were already wet.

It was a really fun day. We are knackered as we didn’t stop. Guess that our aunt and uncle would be pretty tired too. Also Maddie and our aunt and uncle got sunburn, even though they had sunblock on - lots of it! Ouch!!

We are going to the Surfers Paradise RSL Club tonight for dinner as we heard the meals are really good.

Friday, 5 March 2010 - Daytripping to Movieworld

We got up early (5 am) as we were so excited about visiting Movie World today. Our aunt and uncle weren't too impressed nonetheless. It was very warm so they decided toget the airconditioning set-up.

It was a short drive, about half an hour to Movie World. We were amongst a few already there at 9ish - it doesn't open until 10 am. We went on lots and lots of rides. The first one being the Batwing Spaceshot which is a rapid 4.5g vertical launch up a 60 metre tower, followed by a really fast drop - awesome!! We covered all rides at Movie World - with a couple we repeated as we enjoyed them so much, like the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster, the Wild West Falls ride and the Superman Escape rollercoaster. We had so much fun. We also spent sometime in the "Kids Fun Zone". Yes, we were a bit big but we sure did have some fun. Although God did punish us as we each were in a bircage in the Sylvester & Tweety ride and the rain came bucketing down. We sure did look like three water-sogged canaries!!

We saw lots of characters including Batman, Catwoman, Austen Powers, Sylvester - to name a few! The stunt show was brilliant although some of the driving stunts made us homesick as they reminded us of mum and dad's driving!

Our last adventure for the long day was seeing a Shrek Adventure in 4D! It was fantastic and made us feel as if we were there. We had front row seats too! When Donkey sneezed, we got sprayed. When the spiders came out everyone screamed as it felt as if they were crawling up our legs. Scary stuff - mum would have freaked out!!

Got back to our resort about 5pm. We were hot so us kids went for another swim with our uncle Don overseeing us. Our aunt Anne remained indoors doing domestic stuff!

We went for a drive to find the local RSL club which we had heard had fantastic food. Later found out it was only a short hop, skip and jump away! By that time we had eaten. We had kebabs tonight which we sat down to eat in the cool night in Cavill Avenue.

Off to bed - we're stuffed and need to recharge as tomorrow it's Wet'n'Wild!!

Thursday, 4 March 2010 - Here we Come!!

After a long delay on the tarmac at Melbourne Airport due to airplane congestion, we finally took off. It was a lunchtime flight, and much to all passengers dismay, limited food if any was available to purchase on the flight so we had to wait until we arrived in the Gold Coast to eat. We drov to the first McDonalds and had a burger around 2.30 pm.

Arrived at the K-Resort and then went for a walk to Cavill Avenue t get some food for our breakfast. Finally we got to go for a swim in the resort's pool! Yippee!!

We later walkedback into town and we had Italian - spaghetti bolognaise. Yum. It was a long day.