Sorry It's Been So Long

Surfers Paradise and my last post seem like so long ago but I guess it’s only been like a week.  I hope all the wonderful Moms I know had a terrific Mother’s Day!  Here’s what we’ve been up to…

We ended up spending six days in Surfers because of the plethora of activities and our nice accommodations.  Of all the parks we visited, Wet’N’Wild was my favorite and Alex & I were like two little kids running around from ride to ride.  Since it is now “winter” here, the park was empty so there were no lines and tickets were super cheap.  I had to laugh, in Chicago “winter” means freezing temps and snow, in Surfers it was more like 80 and sunny but the locals were still bundled up in fleece jackets and long pants.  That was the easiest way to spot a tourist; they were in swimsuits at the beach (or in our case, the water park).  I was quite proud of myself; I braved a bunch of crazy rides all day despite my fear of heights and rides, though I did draw the line at AquaLoop.  The ride started with the rider standing up in an enclosed three-story high tube then the floor dropped out from beneath them and they were flushed two stories before inertia threw them back into a gravity-defying two-story loop – might sound like fun to someone (aka. Alex), but not me... 

We also went to Movie World and Sea World; both were a bit disappointing but amused us for a day nonetheless.  Sea World had a SpongeBob SquarePants theme that cracked me up, and was very interactive with the marine life.  You could pet stingless Sting Rays, snorkel the reef exhibit and one very shocked young woman was proposed to after she was pulled on-stage during the Sea Lion show.  Unfortunately (for Alex) both rollercoasters and the water rides at Sea World were closed because it was the off-season and they were doing repairs, so that cut down on our options for stuff to do there.  As a result, we had plenty of time to wander about the exhibits and saw almost every animal show they had throughout the afternoon.  The dolphin show was very cool (I took photos of the dolphins while they leapt out of the water but it didn’t capture the magic of the show) and the SpongeBob parade was awesome because all the little kids and their parents vacated the exhibits and we had the whole park to ourselves for an hour. 

All Alex talked about ahead of Movie World how much he was looking forward to riding the Green Lantern coaster and, just his luck, it was closed for maintenance the day we went there.  Luckily there were other coasters for him to enjoy and I even braved the ScoobyDoo Spooky Coaster (though I was misled by Alex into believing there was only like one five foot drop – had I known that you were dropped three stories backwards it probably wouldn’t have happened).  My favorite moment that day was at the end of the Wild West Falls ride (your typical theme park water ride – the one where you float around a lazy river in a boat then get ratcheted up a hill so you can ride down and splash into the pool below).  On our way into the ride some former riders had left their two ponchos hung over the rail for others to use so naturally I grabbed one and put it on.  Alex immediately made fun of me.  Did I look ridiculous?  Totally.  Did I care?  No, I just didn’t want to get wet.  Alex thought it was hilarious and insisted that we get a photo when the ride was over.  Hahaha, well the joke was on him because, when the ride was done, I might have looked foolish but he was soaked and had to walk around the park wet for the rest of the day! 

We spent the rest of our days in Surfers wandering around enjoying the scenery, beaches and the amenities of our resort.  We had a pool, hot tub, sauna and exercise room at our disposal and, believe it or not, the exercise room was the one we used the most.  It was nice to be settled somewhere again for a week but by the end we’d done everything there was to do within a ten mile radius and were ready to continue north to Brisbane.

Everyone had great things to say about Brisbane but we had no idea what exactly we were going to do there.  It seemed a lot like a smaller version of Sydney and many of their attractions were things we’d already done.  Alex read good things about a walking tour of Brisbane and we went to the Visitors Info center upon arrival to get that map so we could spend one day there exploring.  The walking tour was awesome but another ten mile day for us (thankfully we both brought good walking shoes).  We saw interesting artwork, beautiful parks, countless water features and funky architecture.  It was amazing to me how much art there was everywhere.  From the scrap metal kangaroos outside the 7-11 (by far the coolest street art so far) to the purely aesthetic details on all the buildings, no small detail was overlooked and it made for an engaging walk about the city. 

The trail along the river in the artsy area was 2km of nature interlaced with art.  The entire path was lined with flowering bougainvillea vines growing on a sculptural metal trellis and it was absolutely gorgeous.  Equally eye-catching were the number of miscellaneous stops dotting the walk; there was a beach and pool fully equipped with beach lifeguard and surf board, boutique shopping and dining center, giant ferris wheel and zen garden temple.  We walked for nearly five hours straight and it passed like a second. 

We had originally planned to only spend two days in Brisbane but we weren’t able to get seats next to each other on the train the day we wanted to depart so we stuck around for an additional night, which gave us an extra day and a half to explore.  We spent the first afternoon touring the XXXX (pronounced Four X) brewery and sampling their beers.  The tour was interesting and we learned that the used yeast, once it is no longer good for brewing beer, is sent to Kraft where it’s the main ingredient in Alex’s new favorite snack, Vegemite.  Sadly, even that couldn’t explain the nasty taste or why Australians love it.  We spent our bonus day in Brisbane at the free museums and saw everything from dinosaur bones to weird modern art before boarding a train for the 14 hour ride to the Whitsunday Islands. 

This was our first trip on the Queenslander railway and the train was even better than the one we’d taken in Sydney – the seats are ridiculously spacious and each one has its own TV.  We’re 13 hours in as I write this and it hasn’t been too bad, which is good since we have at least 12 more hours on this to finish making our way up the coast later this month.  Our first stop, the Whitsundays, is located at the south end of the Great Barrier Reef and marks the start of our oceanic endeavors.  We’re going to snorkel here and explore the island shores for a few days before continuing north to Townsville early next week. 

Update: On our last day in Brisbane, Alex was like, ‘Wow, it hasn’t rained in like three weeks’.  So naturally, it’s been raining since we got to the Whitsundays and we haven’t been able to enjoy any of the beaches or reefs we wanted to explore here.  It’s disappointing and we leave tomorrow so we may be stopping by here again on our way back down the coast later this year...