lala @ Sunday, December 16, 2007
im back from gold coast!! yay! it was a great holiday! yoo all should visit gold coast.. and it's not for small kids only. in fact, i think older kids like us will enjoy it even more!
here's wad ive done over the past week.
1st day
this was quite disappointing because of a flight delay due to maintenance requirements.. shouldn't they already have anticipated the maintenance issues and set away sufficient time for maintenance? and guess how they compensated us for the flight delay? $20 meal vouchers at changi airport for each person 1 hr before take off. some compensation. and because of this flight delay, the first day is essentially wasted cos my flight was orginally scheduled at 11pm.
2nd day
after we touched down, we proceeded to direct factory outlet for some shopping and guess how much time we were given.. 45 min!! it's not even enough to walk ard the entire factory outlet. there's like 4 malls connected and i only managed to walk ard 1 mall.. and we weren even realli shopping, we were jus rushing abt and racing against time. after that we went to have some wine tasting.. im not reallie a wine lover, but still can take a bit la.. so we tried different kinds of wine they produced, red wine, white wine, the whisky, the bailey.. cant tell the diff much. haha. australia turns dark at ard 6pm and most shops close at 5pm.. so theres not much to see then. at that point i was kinda disappointed with the trip and i tot the rest of the trip was gg to be boring. but the fun begins on the 3rd day.
3rd day
we visited dreamworld. ok, i must admit that theme parks and crazy rides are not my cup of tea, but my cousin and sis were so excited abt the rides so i jus followed. we did all the rides which were considered to be the most thrilling except for the vertical drop cos we didn have time.. i must say the queues are kinda long. anyhow at dreamworld, besides the rides, there is the wildlife experience, it's sort of a mini zoo, where we can see koalas, kangeroos, parots, tigers etc.. i even carried a koala and took a photo with it!! the last time i carried a koala was abt 13 yrs ago!! and i didn even physically touch the koala then cos the koala was sitting on a cushion and i merely cuddled the cushion. but this time, it was hugging me!! it was so comfortable cuddling her, her name's lola by the way. so after we left movie world, we went back to the hotel situated in surfers paradise, which is along the coast. did i mention how beautiful the waters are? i see the horizon and theres nothing in the sea, no ships, no ferries, no islands across, only people along the beach and people surfing in the sea. awesome view!
when we're left on our own, we went shopping ard the area and we had to settle dinner on our own. guess wad kinda food they eat.. pizzas, pasta, fast food.. poor me, cant take pizzas. and we had to eat fast food everyday!! oh man, can you believe it?! im so sick of western food now.. never gg to touch fast food for at least 1 mth. haha.
4th day
we left gold coast early to travel to moreton island to stay at the tangalooma resort.. (think it's spelt this way). we went for a 4 wheel drive on sand, trust me it's a real bumpy ride. all the kids on board were enjoying themselves so much at the bumps... we travelled all the way to the desert!! ooh la la. you would have been awed by the surroundings. everywhere was sand, and mountains of sand. vv vv little grass or plants grow there. of cos, it's a desert. each of us was given a wooden board and we waxed it smooth and carried it up 80m high of the 'sand hill' and we slide down lying tummy flat on the board.. it was so fast and exciting that i tried it twice. this is called sand taboganning. (spelling again is uncertain). but anyways, i was travelling like 60km/h. and down the steep sand hill.. how shiok is that?! it had been tiring climbing up the hill and everything was worth it for that 10 sec of thrill. ill like to try it again!
sand taboganning ended at ard 3pm and dinner only started at 530pm, so we jus hung ard at the beach.. after dinner we tried dolphin feeding. at ard 7pm, dolphins automatically swam ashore and thats where we walked up to them and fed them with small fish. the dolphin i found was silhouette, shes only 3 years old and shes so pretty!! that was the most exciting day for me!!
5th day
we visited movieworld this day and it was another day of thrilling rides. this world had more exciting rides than dreamworld.. but first we went to catch shrek 4d and the police academy stunt show.. they were pretty good.. and we also caught the parade where stars and movie characters like catwoman, batman, shrek, looney tunes etc paraded down the main street. they were so cute and sooo real.. finally we went to queue for the rides.. but due to the lack of time, we didn try many.. thereafter, we went for dinner at this malaysian restaurant before we were left on our own again.
6th day
this was a free and easy day for us, so after some checking out at the hotel, we took bus 750 to pacific fair (a shopping mall).. the bus driver was soo polite and the passengers too. they greet the bus driver everytime they board and thank the driver as they alight. they tell the bus drivers their destination and the drivers tell them the bus fares, then they give the money and the bus drivers will issue the ticket and return the change. but because australia is quite sparsely populated, the buses aint crowded. we chose to take bus cos taxis are super ex in aust! the meter jumps at nobody's business!! inside pacific fair was all the branded stuff and we didn manage to get anything!! we managed to find some stuff in the shops situated outside the mall.. some of the clothes and shoes were reallie cheap!! like $10 Aussie.. not bad ar.. that's where the shopping really started for us and thats where i spent all my A$150.
at night we signed up for this glow worm tour where we travelled up to the national bridge national park and all of us were each given a torch to shine on the ground to guide our path. when we reached the cave, we were amazed by the beautiful sight. we were told to switch off the torches so that we can see the glow worms better. they are so small, like stars and they shine brightly in luminous blue. can you believe it.. blue light!! and so numerous! these glow worms can only be found in australia and new zealand and they are vv fussy abt their living conditions, the temp, the moisture must be right.. and they shine to attract insects for food. so if we shine light on them for some time, they will disorient and cannot differentiate day from night. and if they didn know when is nighttime, they wont glow and wont be able to find food as a result. then they die of hunger. so poor thing!!
7th day
return flight to sg.. i watched like 3 movies on board etihad airlines. didn like their food at all, but i jus glued myself to the movie screen. i watched high sch musical 2, stardust and transformers again.
it had been a great trip and im definitely gg back to gold coast again!! :)Labels: gold coast trip
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