Gold Coast, day 3
Thought I'd use the internet cafe in our hotel, and let everyone reading know how my holiday with Al is going. Yes, we're here on the Gold Coast, and having a wonderful time!
We flew in Tuesday evening, and had a ... challenging time finding our way to our hotel. I'd pre-booked a rental car, which we collected from the airport, and found our way from Coolangatta to Surfer's easily enough, but were stymied finding the hotel entrance and carpark! One phone call later, we'd figured it out (the problem with hotels on a street corner, we discovered, is that they have two sides), parked the car, been through reception, and were up in our hotel room.
We're staying at the Islander Resort, and we have a nice wee room on the 11th floor (the top level, except for the penthouse). A balcony, an astonishing view - mountains, river, high-rises, and a little bit of the coast. The room's not very big, but we have two beds (Al claimed the double), a fridge, a TV, a massive air-con unit that's pretty crap, and a lovely shower. The balcony really is the highlight. We had no air-con the first night, as they were working on the hotel system, so we slept with the balcony door open and a fan - quite pleasant, really.
However, whomever said that the Gold Coast has a dry heat was quite mistaken! They had a storm the day before we arrived, and a lightening storm our second night, and it's been appallingly humid. My head gave me grief the first few days, and I have been very pleased to have my painkillers with me.
Our first full day we took it easy, sleeping in, eating in the hotel restaurant (cheap, and very good food), and ambling around the block to check out the shops and find a supermarket. We really are smack in the middle of everything here - within the block there's a Woolworths, Hard Rock Cafe, two malls, a tattooist, and heaps of other stuff. We ate ice-cream and found the Information Centre, then stocked up on fresh fruit and some soft drink at the supermarket, to keep in our wee fridge. Also a knife to cut the fruit and make breakfast in the mornings!
We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe that evening, which was quite the experience and very cool. It was Hallowe'en, and all the staff were dressed up, as well as lots of the kids eating there with their folks! Al and I discovered a very nice drink called a 'Long Beach Iced Tea' - much like the Long Island version, but with Cranberry rather than Coke. Yum.
Yesterday was the first of the theme parks. We were both awake quite early, so we made it to Dream World (after a fun car ride navigating over to the Pacific Highway) a little after opening at 10am. We made the most of it, but were absolutely wiped by 4pm. Let's see. We got temporary tattoos done (Al's is a tribal one, mine says 'Bad Girl'), visited the Big Brother house - a long walk and quite disappointing - and went on the Log Flume. Compared to the Rainbow's End one, it was crap, but the big SPLASH at the end was well worth it! We spent most of the day sweating like mad, and my fan, sweat-mop handkerchief, and bottles of water/electrolytes were absolutely essential.
A break for lunch (and watching the Ibis's act like seagull and jump up on empty tables to scarf the leftovers), then we ambled over to Tiger Island, via a ride in the Nickleodeon area. I couldn't go on that one - my boobs and stomach meant I couldn't do up the harness - but it looked like Al had fun.
Tiger Island was neat. We watched Raj (a white tiger) and Sita (his normal-coloured sister) for a while, listening to the handlers answer questions from the kids. Like who would win if a tiger went up against a crocodile! Then we checked out the Tiger Bazaar and bought a few postcards and other things.
Then it was onto the ride we both really wanted to do - the Tower of Terror. Heading up to the queue was quite fun, as it was made up to look like a post-apocalyptic abandoned building. The Tower itself was cool. It takes off incredibly fast, shoots up the tall structure where the Speed Drops occur, then drops back again. The whole ride took less than a minute, and we got up to 155km an hour. At the top, when it paused, it was zero gravity - Al tells me he actually lifted out of his seat! Very exhilarating, and absolutely terrifying - I was pleased to have kept my eyes open for about half of it.
We were about done after that, so we ambled through a few more shops, bought some Spongebob stuff for Aria (Al's daughter), then headed back to the hotel. A little dinner at the hotel restaurant, then we crashed out early - we were both asleep before 9pm.
Today's been quiet - we both slept in, had some fruit salad, read a bit, had some lunch, and now I'm here posting this. Tonight we're off to Dracula's Cabaret, and tomorrow we're visiting SeaWorld, which is only a few km's up the road.
I've been taking a few photos. We've got the view from our room, some at Dream World - an ibis, a lizard, a few of the tigers (oh, and one of me in stocks!) - and a few others. On the whole, though, we're enjoying rather than recording.
It's wonderful to think we're here for another 8 days, though!
We flew in Tuesday evening, and had a ... challenging time finding our way to our hotel. I'd pre-booked a rental car, which we collected from the airport, and found our way from Coolangatta to Surfer's easily enough, but were stymied finding the hotel entrance and carpark! One phone call later, we'd figured it out (the problem with hotels on a street corner, we discovered, is that they have two sides), parked the car, been through reception, and were up in our hotel room.
We're staying at the Islander Resort, and we have a nice wee room on the 11th floor (the top level, except for the penthouse). A balcony, an astonishing view - mountains, river, high-rises, and a little bit of the coast. The room's not very big, but we have two beds (Al claimed the double), a fridge, a TV, a massive air-con unit that's pretty crap, and a lovely shower. The balcony really is the highlight. We had no air-con the first night, as they were working on the hotel system, so we slept with the balcony door open and a fan - quite pleasant, really.
However, whomever said that the Gold Coast has a dry heat was quite mistaken! They had a storm the day before we arrived, and a lightening storm our second night, and it's been appallingly humid. My head gave me grief the first few days, and I have been very pleased to have my painkillers with me.
Our first full day we took it easy, sleeping in, eating in the hotel restaurant (cheap, and very good food), and ambling around the block to check out the shops and find a supermarket. We really are smack in the middle of everything here - within the block there's a Woolworths, Hard Rock Cafe, two malls, a tattooist, and heaps of other stuff. We ate ice-cream and found the Information Centre, then stocked up on fresh fruit and some soft drink at the supermarket, to keep in our wee fridge. Also a knife to cut the fruit and make breakfast in the mornings!
We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe that evening, which was quite the experience and very cool. It was Hallowe'en, and all the staff were dressed up, as well as lots of the kids eating there with their folks! Al and I discovered a very nice drink called a 'Long Beach Iced Tea' - much like the Long Island version, but with Cranberry rather than Coke. Yum.
Yesterday was the first of the theme parks. We were both awake quite early, so we made it to Dream World (after a fun car ride navigating over to the Pacific Highway) a little after opening at 10am. We made the most of it, but were absolutely wiped by 4pm. Let's see. We got temporary tattoos done (Al's is a tribal one, mine says 'Bad Girl'), visited the Big Brother house - a long walk and quite disappointing - and went on the Log Flume. Compared to the Rainbow's End one, it was crap, but the big SPLASH at the end was well worth it! We spent most of the day sweating like mad, and my fan, sweat-mop handkerchief, and bottles of water/electrolytes were absolutely essential.
A break for lunch (and watching the Ibis's act like seagull and jump up on empty tables to scarf the leftovers), then we ambled over to Tiger Island, via a ride in the Nickleodeon area. I couldn't go on that one - my boobs and stomach meant I couldn't do up the harness - but it looked like Al had fun.
Tiger Island was neat. We watched Raj (a white tiger) and Sita (his normal-coloured sister) for a while, listening to the handlers answer questions from the kids. Like who would win if a tiger went up against a crocodile! Then we checked out the Tiger Bazaar and bought a few postcards and other things.
Then it was onto the ride we both really wanted to do - the Tower of Terror. Heading up to the queue was quite fun, as it was made up to look like a post-apocalyptic abandoned building. The Tower itself was cool. It takes off incredibly fast, shoots up the tall structure where the Speed Drops occur, then drops back again. The whole ride took less than a minute, and we got up to 155km an hour. At the top, when it paused, it was zero gravity - Al tells me he actually lifted out of his seat! Very exhilarating, and absolutely terrifying - I was pleased to have kept my eyes open for about half of it.
We were about done after that, so we ambled through a few more shops, bought some Spongebob stuff for Aria (Al's daughter), then headed back to the hotel. A little dinner at the hotel restaurant, then we crashed out early - we were both asleep before 9pm.
Today's been quiet - we both slept in, had some fruit salad, read a bit, had some lunch, and now I'm here posting this. Tonight we're off to Dracula's Cabaret, and tomorrow we're visiting SeaWorld, which is only a few km's up the road.
I've been taking a few photos. We've got the view from our room, some at Dream World - an ibis, a lizard, a few of the tigers (oh, and one of me in stocks!) - and a few others. On the whole, though, we're enjoying rather than recording.
It's wonderful to think we're here for another 8 days, though!