Queensland Holiday Continued...

Just as a prefix to this post - it is really long and has lots of pictures!!


So on Tuesday (7th October) we had a relaxing day. We went to Pacific Fair Shopping Center which thought I had heard was the largest shops in the Southern Hemisphere but actually they were just the largest shops in Qld. They were the open air type which was nice (very similar to the one I think it was called the Alamdea I went to with my family in Hawaii, thats what it reminded me of), although sometimes when it is hot and humid it is nice to go to the shops that are all air-conditioned! We did some shopping, I got some t-shirts and a couple of books, Craig got some clothes and then we had a nice lunch at a jungle themed place there. I think after that we just about had our fill of shopping, which was great!


They had this cool little playground in the middle of the center so here is Darcey on the little cars (the slide etc in the middle of the cars you had to be 3 to go on, Tiarni wasn't too impressed).

A cool water wheel in the background

One of Tiarni's latest tricks is pushing peoples faces, for some reason she seems to think it is funny, she starts out nice and tickly then can get pretty rough... At least Darcey likes it, she usually ends up making a grab for my glasses and getting into trouble...

Where we were staying in Broadbeach is just a little bit south of Surfers Paradise which we had to drive through often. While we were there they were setting up for the Indy 300, which by the looks of things is one of Qld's biggest tourist attractions each year. So we got to drive along roads which will as of tomorrow I think it is become 'the track'. So Craig was very excited to be able to drive through with all the barriers up and huge marquees already being set up while we were there (I think that we drove up that way more than we needed too just so he could drive along it).

So the next day, Wednesday the 8th we went to Sea World. I have to say this is probably one of the highlights of our trip, it is a wonderful place to visit and definetley worth a visit if you are ever there. It really caters for every age, even Tiarni had a great time. Although 2 days would have been better, we weren't able to do all the things we wanted to, it's on the list to go back again next time!

When we got there they were just about to start the dolphin show so the guy at the door advised us to trek straight there if we wanted to catch it. I know people go on (had lots of suggestions for it before we left) about how great the dolphin show is, but I must say I was a little disappointed. It was lots of talking about the environment which I understand is an important factor but lets even it up people with more tricks! There were a few jumps towards the end and a couple of times people rode on their backs, which looked awesome but really you were just watching the dolphins shadows swim around under the water and get fish from their trainers. So I guess it's something that is still interesting to see but for all the hype I heard about it, I thought the dolphins would have been walking on water!

Darcey and Craig on the Skyway that went over Sea World

This is someone whom they thought was me as they were in the air, but I was like I didn't walk that way. So we zoomed in and no it wasn't me! Pretty close though!

One of Tiarni's favourite words at the moment is Bear, she love Care Bears and was equally excited to see a real Polar Bear...

The little kids park at Sea World (and equally as good at Movie World - same rides, different characters) was fantastic. It was all Sesame Street themed. Most of the rides were great for both Darcey and Tiarni's ages (and mine and Craigs too!).

We found out on this trip that Merry-Go-Rounds are great. I don't think I could even count of my two hands how many times we went on them during this trip, lots and lots!

This ride was about the maximum height I like to go! This is where is all started for Tiarni, who ended up not wanting to get off any of the rides she was on. We went at a good time just before lunch when there were other shows on, we could just walk onto any ride we wanted to, again and again and again...

Darcey and Craig really liked this one...

This was a little water fun play area where the water spashed up at different times out of the ground. Then every few minutes it all went crazy and water came out from everywhere. Darcey loved it and was moving so quickly that I didn't really get a good pic of her, Tiarni liked it, for a little while.

This is while she was still happy. She just stood there waiting for it to come out again, it was really cute.

We went on there 2 big rides, Darcey was lucky and got to go on each twice as she went once with me and once with Craig (Tiarni slept again for hours, it was fantastic!). We all got to go on The Bermuda Triangle and the Flume ride. Both of which had scary drops at the end but at this stage of the holiday Darcey still loves. We got the professional pictures of us on the Bermuda Triangle ride and I'm glad we did, because the park shut I didn't get a chance to get the professional ones at the Sesame Street store. They are pretty funny anyways...

I like in this one all the parents on the ride are holding onto their kids!

They had this fantastic area where all the sharks were (is this where you swam with them Tamera?), it was so beautiful. If we had thought about it earlier Craig could have gone snorkelling or something, but being school holidays it was pretty busy.

In the underwater section - heaps better than AQUA.

Touch pools... Darcey wasn't quite long enough for this one. They had starfish and some funny eel things and I can't remember what else.

I had thought that the park initially closed at 8pm (when I rang their info line the night before), so at about 4.45pm we rocked into the water park area to get a locker and found we could only hire them for the next 15 minutes. Craig went and asked why and they said because they shut in 15 minutes! I don't know if the answering machine was still on there school holiday times or what but we quickly got changed and all had a ride on the water slides and let Tiarni have a play on the slides in the little kids area.