Days 48-50 - Suffolk park - Coolangatta
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2007
1
41
70
Trip End
Mar 27, 2008
Tweed Heads,
Australia
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
It took us about three hours to get there and we stopped and had a bit of a walk by the river. It is a gorgeous spot, Dean could see the fish jumping and was getting excited about it. There didn't seem to be anywhere to stay here, we didn't see any buildings at all really, just a caravan park. So we drove a bit further on to Coolangatta which is a nice seaside resort but without the hustle and bustle of Surfers Paradise. We can see the skyscrapers of the Gold Coast in the distance from here. We checked into a motel opposite the seafront and I think we were lucky because shortly agter we had checked in, the sign outside said "no vacancies". The room is lovely, we have been spoiling ourselves a bit with these motels just lately, but it is worth it to have a comfortable bed and we haven't been out drinking hardly at all.
We met a family in the next motel room to us, they are here on their holidays from the Sunshine Coast. The son is from England and is visiting his family here, he came over and talked to us for a while. From New Zealand originally, he was telling us some places to go and things to see and do when we get there.
We went for a walk along the beach front, it is a lovely little place here with nice restaurants and the beach is huge and gorgeous, even in the rain. We have found out that the theme park, Dreamworld is about a 45 minute to one hour drive from here. So, the next morning we were up and I made us a packed lunch to take with us. I walked down to the tourist agency before we set off to get us tickets as I have been told they are sometimes cheaper if you book this way. It wasn't any cheaper that paying at the gate but at least we wouldn't have to wait in the ticket queue, so it is worth it. I expect the queue's to be bad enough.
Dreamworld was easy to find on the main highway which was good since I'd left all our maps in the motel room. At the gate, there was a sign saying no food or drink past this point. We ignored it and walked in with our rucksack - no-one wanted to see what we had in it. We managed to find an empty locker for our bag and went off to play.
We went on the log flume first which was a huge queue of about an hour and a bit disappointing when we eventually got on it. It just went round a bit, up the hill and down. That was all there was to it, we both got soaked. One of my shoes got drenched and the other one was dry. They are made out a a suede-type of material so I spent the rest of the day with one brown shoe and one grey shoe and looked like I didn't know how to dress myself. My new pumps had turned out to be shoes of deceit and took two days to shred my feet to pieces. So I have had to wear my walking shoes for a few days to allow the blisters to heal, they look a bit silly with shorts but at least they are nice and comfy.
We managed to get on five of the 6 major thrill rides throughout the day although the queue's were big. We were a bit annoyed as we spent an hour queing for two of the big rides only to be told that they weren't running because it was raining. We thought this was absolutely ridiculous - it is an open air park and I know Australia is usually hot and sunny but even the Sahara desert gets rain sometimes. I'm sure all of you back in England that have spent a day at Alton Towers in the bucketing rain will laugh at this but you wouldn't have laughed if you had been in those queue's which were a lot slower that Alton.
It did eventually stop raining and we managed to get on those two rides in the end and they were both worth it. The highlight of our day has to be the giant drop. You go up a huge tower and then it freefalls 120 metres back to the ground. It was absolutely awesome, and scary - it probably only takes a few seconds freefalling but it is so high, it feels like ages till you get back to the ground. We were both shaking with the adrenaline buzz when we got off it, it was brilliant. I wish we had had time to go on it again. They have similair rides in the UK but I'm not sure we have one so high.
We left the park at closing time having been on most of the rides we wanted to go on. Just to warn other readers who may go to Dreamworld; if it is a rainy day, not all the big rides run. In particular, the tower of terror and the motorcycle coaster so don't waste your money if you have your heart set on these rides.
We have had such a good day, it is fun to play and years since either of us have been to a theme park. I have made Dean promise that we will go to Alton towers this summer, we have no excuse - we've got three tents now!
One really interesting thing we have found out about Coolangatta is that it is a border town, directly on the border between the states of New South Wales (where we have just come from) and Queensland. This is not mentioned in the guide book and we think it should be. The time difference between the two states is one hour and we are on the Queensland side so we put our clocks back. However, if you cross the road from our motel, they operate on New South Wales time so it is an hour later at the opposite side of the road, how bizarre is that? Apparantly it is a nightmare booking a taxi around here as the taxi companies operate on both Queensland and NSW time so you never know which hour they are going to turn up. One of the locals told us that there has been a campaign going on for some time to move the border to another town where there is a lower population but as yet, it has been unsuccessful. We think this border/time difference thing is really quirky and amusing - good for drinkers, when the pub shuts, you just cross the street and you can have another hour, fantastic!
There is a monument on a roundabout in the middle of the road representing the border. Late that night, when all the cars were gone, Dean and I went to have our photo's taken in the middle of it, The Aussie's have some strange idea's.
