The Last Supper…

Well Friday saw us preparing to go home and due to the time that we were going to be arriving in Christchurch we weren’t going to have time for the last supper – But lunch would definitely be in order at Pacific Fair.

After walking down to this popular mall we did a spot of retail therapy (yet again) and then had lunch at the food court before catching the bus back to the units.

Because we still had a bit of time up our sleeves before our shuttle transfer to the airport we spent some time soaking in the Vitamin D on the beach. Although I was the only one wearing shorts as all the others couldn’t be bothered changing once they got to the airport into warmer clothes as Christchurch according to the weather forecast was due for another sub-zero night.

On the way to the airport we got a chance to see some of Brisbane’s inner city due to one of the others on the shuttle being dropped off at the Casino (hard to imagine that not so long ago many parts of the central city were under water due to the floods they had here).

And so the great escape comes to a close as we head back to the cooler temperatures of New Zealand – We have all had a really kool time away from the everyday hassles… I wonder where we’ll be heading for our next major overseas excursion – SUGGESTIONS anyone!

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Movie World Revisited…

Thursday saw us returning to Movie World to do all the rides and shows that we missed out on last time. And for others to experience for the first time some of the rides that they weren’t to sure of first time around…

No sooner had we arrived and the first stop after dropping off our bags to the lockers was the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster. This ride had to be the most utilised ride in the theme park, as the younger ones loved it and pretty much after every other ride came back to Scooby for another go.

We then headed over to the Hollywood Stunt Driver arena as the first time around we missed this show due to the amount of people that were queuing up. However, today the crowds were a lot less and we were able to walk straight into the arena and got a front row seat. Grace even got to star in the show…

The show featured plenty of car chases (as well as a motorbike doing wheelies), gun shots and a spectacular explosion at the end. During the show one of the police cars split in half and as it was being chased one of the race cars went airborne, jumping from one roof top to the other before exploding into a great ball of fire.

We then moved on to experience some of the other rides around the park.

Emily at one stage in the afternoon came to Annette & I beaming as she had just done the Batwing Spaceshot, a rapid 4.5G vertical launch up a 60 meter tower. She ended up doing this ride at least 3 times, loving every second of it.

As the day wore on I even coaxed Annette into experiencing the Superman Escape which is according to the Movie World website “an unprecedented rollercoaster ride experience which travels 0 – 100 kilometres in just 2 seconds! With 760 metres of vertical climbs, weightless drops, head spinning twists and giant G-force turns, SUPERMAN Escape completely redefines the coaster experience.” Annette had done it but she was visibly shaking when she got off the ride for about 10 minutes afterwards vowing to never do it again…

This time around the whole group of us did the BATMAN Adventure – The Ride 2 which was an interactive adventure through Wayne Manor’s Library, the Bat Cave, and then into a computer generated flight simulator where we took on the villainous Catwoman, Mr. Freeze and The Joker.

As the day came to a close we watched the Parade and had another ride on some of our favourite rides before heading to catch the bus back to the units. So in the words of Bugs Bunny – that’s all folks! Well at least until the next death defining experiences that we get to enjoy…

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Rest Day – Well sort of…

Wednesday we had a bit of a rest day (well sort of) as the intention was to hang around the pool or down at the beach for the day and do pretty much nothing all day as since we have been here we’ve been on the go more or less every day.

However, this didn’t really eventuate… In the morning we had quite a lay in, but as the morning progressed it was a case of what are we going to do today??? So we headed into Surfers again as the girls wanted to do a bit of retail therapy at the Outlet Store, as they had seen some really cheap clothes that they liked the look of.

After what seemed like an eternity for us guys as we waited outside we headed back into Pacific Fair to have a good look around and to get some much needed supplies to see us through for the next few days.

On Tuesday night Jobe & Shyvonne had headed out for the night to Draculas to have dinner and see the “REDRUM CABARET” which according to the brochure oozes with retro horror creatures, in a fast-paced variety show that literally leaps through the cinema screen onto the stage. They had a thoroughly enjoyable time…

Then on Wednesday night Linda, Mike, Annette & I headed into Jupiters Casino to see the international stage phenomenon “STOMP” which has had an astonishing 9 years on the West End, and 16 years on Broadway…

We enjoyed an all you can eat buffet at Food Fantasy within the Casino to start with which was absolutely scrumptious and as always I ate more than I should have but hey it was delectable… Then we went for a quick look around the Casino – I just can’t see the attraction of sitting behind a machine for hours on end hitting the same old button time and time again in the vain hope that you might win more than you put in.

And even some of the games such as Roulette nowadays no longer involve human interaction – people starring at a computer generated image on a monitor screen telling you to lay your bets on a string of numbers so you can have the chance of winning money just doesn’t do it for me…

Anyways after a quick look see we headed for our seats and the show didn’t disappoint; with our own feet stamping, hands clapping and fingers drumming we were invited to participate in the show. With the adrenalin rushing and feel-good sensations flowing and the unstoppable energy & toe-tapping exuberance being shown on stage we were taken aback by the rhythms created by modern day clutter and junk – everything including matchstick boxes, zippo lighters and the kitchen sink was used to make sound that filled the theatre.

It was definitely an explosive extravaganza of percussion, theatre, comedy and dance as the brochure and flyers promised – STOMP’s infectious rhythms and “pure stage magic” are a must-see if you get the chance. And it was an awesome pulsating, witty, utterly irresistible theatrical event that you just had to clap and ‘stomp’ your feet too…

WE JUST HAD TO GRAB A COPY OF THE DVD!

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Water slides galore…

Ok maybe not quite as many as at “Wet ‘n’ Wild” but still enough to have plenty of fun at – Tuesday saw us take on the thrills & spills of the water slides at WhiteWater World which is located right next door to Dream World so with our 2 Park pass once we got tired of the water slides or wanted to warm up a bit and explore Dream World again we could…

Once we had all changed into our togs the first water slide that we challenged ourselves with was ‘The Rip’

We were “launched from the 16 metre tower into 12 metres of pitch blackness before being blasted into a massive whirlpool of high speed revolutions, we were eventually sucked into the corkscrew core and blasted through a huge curtain of water to experience a momentary weightlessness before plunging into the pool below”. Emily to start with wasn’t too sure of this ride but no sooner had we reached the bottom she was ready to go again.

We then headed across to ‘The Bro’, the Blue Ringed Octopus gave us the opportunity to go head to head in a competitive high speed race to the finish line at the bottom. Emily held on with all her might and appeared out of the tentacles first but Christina, Annette & I whizzed past her on the final sprint to the finish as we had a much heavy body mass.

We then took on the ‘Super Tubes HydroCoaster’ & ‘The Green Room’ which were both really kool! But by this time Emily was starting to get just a tad cold although the sun was shining the breeze was quite cool…

      

So while Annette took Emily to get changed into something warmer I took Patrick & Christina across to ‘The Temple of Huey’ & ‘The Little Rippers’ where we took on the ‘Screamin Right Handers’, ‘Broken Headz’ and the ‘Cut Snake’.

The others had all headed back to the changing rooms and it wasn’t long before Patrick followed suit so it left Christina & I to take on ‘The Wedgie’ (Jobe had already done this one earlier on in the morning but he was the only one game enough to take it on)

I got Christina to go first so that she didn’t chicken out and no sooner had she stepped inside the chamber, crossed her ankles and put her arms in the brace position she was gone plummeting down five storeys at breakneck speed emerging out the bottom with a splash.

Then it was my turn to experience the wildest drop of them all! No wonder they call it ‘The Wedgie’ at the base in the “splash down pool the Aussie Cossie braking system kicked in” and the rather fast tug on the butt-cheeks told me how this water slide got its bold name.

We then had a couple more goes on the Green Room and the Hydrocoaster before heading off to catch up with the others who had gone through to Dream World where we spent the rest of the afternoon going on some of our favourite rides from the other day.

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Off to see the Sea…

On Monday morning we headed off to see the Sea World attractions…

One of the first stops along the way was to look at the Pelicans – these magnificent birds of the sea sure smelt though, must be all the fish that they eat.

And then we followed the crowds that started to amalgamate at one of the many outdoor theatre’s to see the Fish Detectives an adventure comedy staring two Sea Lions called ‘Buddy’ and ‘Clawde’.

“‘Big Al Baloney’ rules the wharf and operates his fish store ‘Alota Baloney’ making big profits by depleting the harbours fish supply. And the time has come for ‘Detective Sam Sweetlip’ and his dedicated team of crime fighting sea lions to band together to bring ‘Baloney’ to justice and save the fish in the harbour.”

It was a very entertaining show and we laughed along with the crowd as the clever sea lions solved an environmental crime…

We then headed to the Penguin Encounter to see a couple of varieties of penguins; the world’s second largest penguin species, the King penguin which stands almost one metre tall. As well as the agile Gentoo penguin with its distinctive bright red bill and long tail. While here we experienced first hand the reason why you don’t eat yellow snow…

Then we headed off to explore the Jet Rescue and the Sea Viper rides but unfortunately because Emily only had her jandels on she was too short to go on them which was a real shame as she would have really enjoyed them.

We could have spent hours watching the many varieties of fish, rays and sharks in ‘Shark Bay’ which by the way “is the world’s largest man-made lagoon system for sharks and houses some of the most awe-inspiring of the species”. We all had the opportunity to touch one of the many rays on display at ‘Ray Reef’.

By this time the older children and gone their own way but Patrick some how had been left behind so he tagged along with us until we met up with the others much later in the day. He was fascinated with the fish and took many stunning photos.

We joined Mumble on a journey of courage and bravery as he discovered that his toe-tapping talent isn’t a burden, but a gift to be treasured – and that his dancing feet ultimately saves his endangered colony in the Happy Feet 3D Experience…

We then headed on the ‘Sky High Skyway’ for a unique bird’s eye view of the park before Annette & I went for a relaxing ride around the park on the Mono Rail while Linda, Mike, Grace & Patrick headed off to find the others. The Sea World Mono Rail was the first mono rail system in Australia.

We all met up back at the rides and me being the big kid I am along with Christina & Patrick got to have the last ride  on the Sea Viper before they closed for the day (or should I say rides as I think we had at least 4 in a row).

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Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

The Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary provides a rare opportunity to see and experience Australia’s amazing native wildlife. Nestled among 27 hectares of lush eucalypts and rainforest you’ll find a place where you can enjoy exciting, interactive displays and presentations of a wide variety of native Australian animals…

Sunday saw us exploring the wonders of God’s creation in this menagerie complete with a variety of Wombats, Koalas, Kangaroos, Potoroo’s, Bilbies, Wallabies, Bandicoots and a Tasmanian Devil to name just a few…

The highlight of the day was the ‘Free Flight Bird Show’ in which we had a variety of birds flying overhead as the presenter explained a bit about how some birds have learnt to adapt to the changing environments while others have been badly affected by them… To feel the downwind of the Wedge-Tailed Eagle’s 2M wingspan as it flew close enough to nearly knock the cap off of the child’s head in front of us was awesome!

The Gold Coast Titans Rugby League team were onsite throughout the day assisting with the shows and during the close encounters of the reptilian kind one of the players was just a tad uncomfortable as one of the larger snakes kept on turning to face him. Emily & Christina along with Grace had their photo’s taken with some of the smaller snakes which they thought was quite kool! They also had some photo’s taken with a baby crocodile and a Koala called Yvonne which we’ve got a photographic keep sake of…

As the day wore on we along with everyone else were able to spend quite a bit of time feeding the Kangaroo’s and Wallabies before heading off to see the Aboriginal Dancers.

If you get the chance to come and visit the Gold Coast the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is well worth a visit.

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