A New Month, a New Adventure

Well May has begun and we have just arrived at Rainbow Beach on the Sunshine Coast after having spent 4 and a half very entertaining days on the Gold Coast.  Paul and I thought we would give the kids a bit of fun at Dreamworld and Whitewater World, but in the end it was very hard to tell who enjoyed themselves the most. 

From Broken Head to the Treasure Island Holiday Park it was only a 2 hour drive and after a record pack-up and even faster set-up we surprised the kids with a visit to the parks on our day of arrival.  They took us straight to the Hydrocoaster, a cross between rollercoaster and water slide (as its name suggests) and it was an hour of fun from there on the 'Bro' - much like the aqua-racer at Adventure Park and the Rip (my favourite).  Whitewater world closed at 4 so it was across to Dreamworld to get a quick glimpse of what we were in for.  The front looked exactly like I remembered it from almost 30 years ago and the shops inside too.  Unfortunately the only ride I remember (the Log Ride) was closed for maintenance but it did look as though it needed it.  Every thing else looked fresh and new and got the blood pumping for a bit of an adrenaline rush.

The next day, Friday was raining but we were undeterred, equipped with raincoats and umbrellas we arrived at Dreamworld as it opened and got straight into a few rides.  The rain worked in our favour as the queues were almost non existent and we enjoyed the Mad Madagscar Jam, Dodgem cars, Avalanche, Laser Skirmish, Reef Sea Diver and Emma braved the Cyclone rollercoaster and the Tower of Terror II with me.  Swore she was never doing that one ever again (but it was a pretty good buzz).

Saturday was one out of a box! It was bucketing down in the morning but again undeterred we figured we were going to get wet anyway so we donned our bathers and set off to WhiteWater World.  The conditions were so wet that at one point we were the only people in the whole park - and we had an absolute hoot!  We were racing from one ride to another and in almost 2 hours we had been on everything several times and decided we needed a warm shower.  Our favourite ride was the Green Room (Paul, Emma and I) and the Rip for Ben.

That same afternoon we made our final adjustments to our tent and headed to Brisbane to watch the footy.  We got drowned getting into the ground despite ponchos but had undercover seats to watch a great display by the Cats.  I felt slightly (or a lot) ill during the third quarter when I had a quick look at the radar to see that the Gold Coast had received 100mm of rain during just the last 3 hours.  The drive home through more torrential rain was a little daunting as we had no idea what state our tent would be on our return.  We couldn't believe that all was well when we got back at midnight, and we were so impressed with our tent and tarp set-up managing to withstand the Gold Coast's heaviest falls in the last 7 years that we had to have a drink to celebrate.

Sun was shining again on Sunday and on Monday (what's going on?) and we were back to the Parks both days.  My highlight yesterday was watching Ben and Emma on the Flowrider where they were riding an artificial wave and did a great job on body boards, cutting some moves!

A three and a half hour drive today got us to Rainbow Beach where we will have very different experiences but hopefully some fun times.  Paul Ben and Emma have already had a swim in the beach and we should be able to sneak another one in before the rain is expected again on Thursday....

A couple of photos from Dreamworld (none great as I didn't take my proper camera as I knew I would be too busy going upside down to take any photos)