Belated Gold Coast Photos

It took a while but we finally got them done. As you all know, we spent Christmas at Gold Coast Australia. Since we’ve been there before – when Tasha was about 18 months old – we did little to no planning before this trip. That was not a good idea at all. No planning = Not doing much. So, we pretty much have an extremely relaxing holiday!

Gold Coast is full of theme parks – Geoff’s nightmare!!! So, after taking Geoff’s preferences into consideration, we ONLY went to 3 theme parks.

Dream world – it was our first and kids had a great time, especially at Wiggles World – they went on the Dorothy Tea Cup and the Big Red Car multiple times! Tasha was conned into a couple of more adventurous rides – she didn’t appreciate that at all!

Movie world – this was the next theme park we went to (not the next day though, Geoff needed time to recover). Unfortunately the weather was terrible on the day we visited, it rained the whole time we were there. They even cancelled the parade. What saved the day were the Police Academy Stunt show and the Shrek 4-D show. Tasha was really braved (many of you have heard of her “movie phobia”), she went (after much encouragement of course) to see the Shrek show with me and didn’t freak out. I think she even enjoyed it a little.

Sea World – after the disaster at Movie World, we considered not going to any more theme parks. But we were glad we went. Kids loved it, especially Tasha. We enrolled her into one of those close encounter adventures - The Shallow Reef and Ray Adventure. They took her to the reef area, explained stuff to her and she got to touch the reef creatures. She had such a great time, said it was the best moment of the entire trip. I am sure glad we went to Sea World!

Other than theme parks, we also managed to squeeze in a couple of rides in the Zorb. Zorb is the big ball thingy you see in the Amazing Race. For the hard core thrill seekers, they strapped you in standing up inside the Zorb and roll you down hill. For the faint hearted like us, they put some water inside the Zorb and you just slide when the Zorb rolls down. What we did wrong was we told Tasha all about this Zorb thingy BEFORE the event. She was such a worrier. She was thinking about it before she went to bed, when she woke up, on the way there…..you know what I mean. On that day, Geoff and Tasha had the first go. According to Geoff, she started crying even before the Zorb started to roll down! Seeing her reaction, Andrea (who initially wanted the next ride with me) refused to get on. So, I went by myself. I thought it was great fun.

Other times, we just hung around - the beach, the playground, the pool and, of course, the shopping centers. The weather was ok when we arrived but got worse with time. At one point, we were told that a cyclone was due to hit Fraser Island on 29 Dec. Lucky for us, the weather held up pretty nicely, raining mostly at night (except the day we went to Movie World). With the rain, it felt cold in Gold Coast even in peak summer. Tasha is the only one who enjoyed swimming despite the cold - may be coz she got the new swim suit she wanted! Both Andrea and I hid in the warm jacuzzi.

It was a fun trip but an expensive one – the Aussie dollar is very high now. I guess we won’t be going back for some time. May be the US next.

For photos, go to:
www.pbase.com/gztlee/gc08