My Gold Coast 2003 Trip Report

Gold Coast is really nice. It’s like everyday you’re on holiday… like Hawaii. The sun is always sunny but it rains often because of the tropical weather. Even if it rains, it doesn’t get cold like Canberra does. So, I like it very much. Roger (stepdad) and I have been talking about it since Day-1 of our arrival at Gold Coast – we wanna move there in 5 years time. It’s our plan. I want to move there with my family though because I want to be near my mom. She seems to like Gold Coast too… the beach, the warm weather and the nice cars. =D We went to the Dreamworld and Seaworld. There are four of them actually (Dreamworld, Seaworld, Movie World and Wild & Wet, I think that’s what it’s called) but we decided to spend our time in these two.

Dreamworld is the most popular one as it is rides-oriented whereas Seaworld… I don’t have to tell you what they have. I got a little tan from the sun but not as tan as I used to be when I was in Malaysia. We drove up to Gold Coast from Canberra. It took us two days. Yes, two days. There were three of us in the backseat so we had to make a lot more stops that you wouldn’t if there were only two. We left Canberra at about 1pm on Thursday afternoon. I don’t really remember much of it. It has been a while and I have been doing so many things since then. Anyway, we reached Port Macquarie to stay overnight before we resume our journey. We reached there at about 11pm, 2 hours late. There were many road works on the way. The drive was terrible. My brother, grandpa and me sat at the back. We suffered backache and also cramped legs. So we made stops almost every 1 or 2 hours and for drinks and dinner. We left Port Macquarie at about 10am the next morning after breakfast. We continued our drive, stopped at Coffs Harbour and some smaller towns.

We arrived at Gold Coast about 3pm. We checked ourselves into our rented apartment and then took a walk to the nearby supermarket to get some groceries for dinner. We also walked to the beach just to have a first look. The apartment was like 5 minutes to the beach by foot. We went to bed soon after dinner because we all were so tired. The next day morning, we got up to get ready for Dreamworld. We had breakfast before we departed. The minute we got out of the apartment, it started to drizzle. We were worried sick as we just paid over $200 for all the tickets. Luckily the sky opened up as we were on our way to breakfast at about 9am. We got to the Dreamworld around 10:30am, maybe. We spent about 30 minutes looking for a toilet. Yes! It took us that long! Sigh, it’s quite a huge place plus some toilets were closed.

Anyway, we walked around, taking photos and also queuing up for rides. Roger, my brother and I went on one of the scariest rides. You sat in a cart-like vehicle. It sped off at 160km/h on the rail and straight towards the sky at the end (on the rail, of course). It stopped and sped backwards back to the station. It was like a 5 seconds ride but it was enough to make you scream! It was so exciting and fun! It took us to queue for 45 minutes and the ride lasted 5 seconds. >.< Oh well… ^.^ We went on a couple of other rides. They’re too hard to describe. At the end of the day, we were so tired. We went back to the apartment and my mom cooked dinner. We watched TV and then went to bed. The next day morning, at around 6am, we got up for the beach. Yes, at that hour! Well, Roger was leaving at 11am and he wanted to go to the beach before he left. He didn’t want to go alone. So, all of us got up early, except my brother, and headed to the beach. We were there until 8am. I didn’t go into the water that much. One, it was very cold; second, the undercurrent was really strong. My mom was afraid I might be taken out to the ocean by the undercurrent (drown, basically). She was screaming for me not to go out there. Some moms. o.O We drove to the airport to drop Roger off at about 9am.

Then we headed to the Seaworld (of course after we have bought tickets from the apartment office). It took us a while to get there because we weren’t familiar with the area. We finally made it there at 11am-ish. There were hundreds of people! Luckily we already bought tickets so our queue wasn’t long. We had lunch there while waiting for the shows to start. My brother and grandpa finished their lunch and headed to the seals show, while my mom and I were still munching away in the food court. ^.^ We didn’t make it to the seals show because we were late by the time we made out of the food court. Instead, we were just walking around taking photos and looking at the dolphins. They were so cute. =D After that, we went to the ski challenge show. It was just a water ski show. It was ok. I felt like jumping into the water because it was so hot that day. We kept putting on sun screen every 2 hours. We walked around after that because no more shows were on until 3pm (dolphin show). So, we looked at the polar bears, the dolphins and the place in general. We took a monorail, which went around the place so that we could have a glance at everything. There were sharks but they were still in ponds and the show ground was still being built. So, we didn’t really see them at close. We saw polar bears. There were suppose to be 3 bears but we only “met” two. They always were sleeping. Luckily we went back there twice. Twice we went there, each time we caught one of them swimming in the pool. They were massive! After we saw the dolphin show, we went back to the apartment. We were very tired from yesterday’s trip to Dreamworld. My mom and I went to the supermarket nearby while my brother and grandpa had a swim in the pool. We got back and my mom made a simple dinner. After dinner, we packed, preparing to leave tomorrow morning. We left the apartment at about 8am because my mom and I wanted to go to the direct factory outlet to shop. This warehouse houses a lot of branded clothing and items, where they sell them off at discounted prices. We got there at about 8:30am. We had breakfast at McDonald’s just outside the warehouse. We were so hoping that the warehouse would open at 9am but disappointingly, they opened at 9:30am. So we wandered around the place and waited until 9:30am. My grandpa and my brother were bored out of their skins. My mom and I went shopping, leaving them wander on their own. My mom bought a pair of runners for Roger and some T-shirts for my brother and Roger. She bought a pair of track pants for herself and a top for me. I bought a pair of jeans. We left Gold Coast at noon to head south back to Sydney. My mom and my brother took turns on the wheel, while I navigate. We didn’t make as many stops as we did on our way there. So, we pretty much drove throughout the day and night. We made stops for toilets and petrol, and that’s about it. By the time we reached Port Macquarie, it was only about 4pm. We decided to drive on. We were aiming to get to Newcastle (just outside Sydney) for an overnight stay. We had dinner at a small town then continued our journey down south. We finally arrived in Newcastle and found a motel for an overnight stay. We got there just before 10pm. Luckily we did because they shut at 10pm. Phew! That was a close call. =) The next morning, we left the motel at about 9am. We resumed our journey towards Sydney. We went to Cabbramatta (one of the Sydney’s suburbs) for lunch (yum cha). We got there almost 11am and the place was quite quiet because it was a Tuesday morning. After lunch, we headed back to Canberra. I was going to drive once we get out of Sydney but my mom decided it was too dangerous for me to drive. Oh well, I don’t like driving automatic cars anyway. We reached home at about 5pm. We headed straight to a Chinese restaurant to pack dinner. We got home and mom started to unpack her stuff while I took a two-hour nap. I was dead tired. Overall, I rated this trip a 8/10. One point deducted for the short trip and another one point deducted for the aches I got from sitting in the car too long. =) Anyway, I enjoyed it. It was a great trip. I will definitely go back again, maybe this time I will fly. ^.^

November, 2003