Day 66 Surfer's Paradise (Rest Day...Supposedly)

In a week of theme parking, it is vitally important to schedule a rest day, you wouldn't want to burn out mid week.  So today in the middle of the week, we had planned to have a breather, and relax in beautiful Queensland. 

Our day began like most others at the moment with the kids up ridiculously early, so the planned sleep in went right out the window.  The blog is starting to take its toll on me as I find myself up until midnight with the content and artwork. The kids then wake me stupidly early so I have been pretty tired for the past week.

The first thing on our agenda was to take Rowan to the shop for some new shoes in the hope that this would assist with getting him onto a few more of the rides.  His feet have gone up two sizes since we bought his last pair 10 weeks ago.  Whilst we were there, Ashley pointed out that he had destroyed his shoes too, so the boys both got new footwear this morning.  In the shop we measured Rowan, and came up with 123cm...I don't quite think so, but here's hoping.

The tummy rumbles had started by the time we were leaving, so we stopped and grabbed some Krispy Kreme Donuts.  If you have not had them, you don't know what you are missing out on. If you have heard of them before, yes they really are that good.  If you have had them before...well, I can taste the envy in the air. 

Funnily, Ashley and Rowan went psycho after their donut.  Who would have guessed it?  Anyway, with our mini mission accomplished, we set off to go back to Seaworld for a short while to see the things we missed yesterday. 

During the trip back we got to drive around parts of the Indy Car Circuit including the Front Straight, The starting grid, past pit lane, the hair pin at the bottom of the course, the back straight and the chicane.  Took about 30 minutes in the Prado with traffic.  I believe an Indy Car is a lot faster.  I was in no danger of breaking the track record held by Dario Franchitti at 1:35.1552.


Seaworld isn't far up the spit from the Surfer's Paradise, so we arrived fairly early in the morning still.  The one thing we all wanted to do was the sky climb, so we jumped straight onto the chair lift to get to the middle of the park.  The dolphin pens below the chairlift had a mother and calf frolicking around together, and posing for  photos.  It is pretty hard to go past this sort of sight without being a little bit moved.  It has the "Awwwwww" factor about it.


From the chairlift, we me headed into Castaway Bay, but the Sky Climb didn't open until 1200.  It was just coming up time for the Dolphin Show which is in the stadium right across the road, so we went in to see the show a second time.  I am glad we did as the trainers and Dolphins were all different, and we got to see a whole array of new tricks.  It was great too to see the kids totally immersed in what was going on.

After the Dolphin show, we only had a 15 minute wait to get onto the Sky Climb and we were the first ones in the queue for the attraction.  Sky Climb is a ropes course set over 3 levels with various challenges including tight rope, single and double boards without railings, stepping stones and various rope bridges.  Whilst we were waiting the kids went back into the Castaway Bay Jungle Gym to play in the gigantic maze of walkways and obstacles.


When the Sky Climb opened we faced the first big test of Rowan's new shoes, and he was super excited to find out that he was finally tall enough to go on one of the "cool rides" as he put it.  The staff set us up in Harnesses, and we had a tether rope that slid through an overhead series of channels. 

I don't know if Rowan really wanted to go on this, but after missing out on so many rides, he was extremely determined and put on his bravest face. 

Rowan was the first one up the stairs and then stopped at the first platform very uncertain on how to proceed. 

He spent the first 10 minutes shuffling around a couple of the walkways with handholds before getting braver.  All of us were on the course, and Lisa had gone all the way to the top to try the most challenging hands free rope bridges and stepping stones. 


My better judgement took over, and I freaked out a bit at the heights.  Lisa and I changed over the supervision of Rowan (Who eventually went to the second level) and I went up to the second and top tiers of the course as well determined not to be shown up by a girl...pfft. 

The most frightening traverse was a pair of ropes on the second level that had no hand rails or overhead holds.  I was only able to cross clinging to my tether with a death clutch that Conan the Barbarian would have been envious of.

Much to my relief, they called us off the Sky Climb, and we made our way back down to the safety of solid ground.  Oh blessed sweet lady of Terra-firma.  I'm sure that these attractions would be much more enjoyable in the absence of gravity.

Emma and Ashley seemed to enjoy the experience as well.  I am sure that my legs and arms will remind me of this attraction long after the enjoyment fades.


One of the rules about Sky Climb is that you must be dry to go on.  So the kids had show massive restraint to not get soaked being so close to the Pirate Bay ride.  Emma and Rowan bolted around to get onto the boats, and a very cheeky father gleefully soaked them at three...or maybe four of the stations around the course.

Dad caught a few water  strikes to the torso and legs, but I fear that the pirate ship was decimated by a relentless daddy attack.  "Suffer ya scurvy scourges...Feel the sting of my water cannon me hearties!"

After buying the kids some dry t-shirts to wear for the rest of the day, we walked back past the polar bear exhibit.  There was only one of the bears out again, and he was relaxing atop the tallest rock smelling all of our strange scents. 

These guys are so beautiful, I could sit and stare at them for hours.  I know that they are also a favourite of Lisa's as well.  These guys are just so cute...When they aren't stalking you for their breakfast I'm sure.

One of the other exhibits that we weren't able to see yesterday was the Dinosaur Discovery Centre.  This was fascinating.  They have found many fossils in China which lend to the theory that dinosaurs were not cold blooded reptiles as we first believed, but predecessors to the birds, and covered in feathers.  I can believe that with a close encounter with a cassowary that we had a couple of weeks ago.  All of the exhibits were depicted with feathers, which would also mean that the dinosaurs were warm blooded and able to regulate their own body temperature...Confronting.

We then went back to see the Sea Lion show for a second time.  It is such an entertaining show, and the kids got really involved with it again, screaming out the location of Al Baloney the fish thief.  The sea lions are brilliantly trained, and very cute.

We had had enough of Seaworld for the second day though and decided that it was well time to depart and go and find something else to do. 

It is only a short drive back into the heart of Surfer's Paradise from Seaworld, and we found some parking on the foreshore.  The winter has not been kind to the beach and there is a large scarp formed along the shoreline with a 2m vertical drop.  The waves were smashing in and churning angrily.

The last time we were here, we loved Ripley's Believe it or Not, so we took the kids over to show them as well.  They have improved the exhibits since we were last here, and there are a heap of interactive exhibits now that you can touch and poke and wave at madly to make them do their thing.


We came across the cursed fertility statues again.  I warned Lisa not to go within 2m of them.  There will be no more of their assistance in our family.   Emma wanted to pat them but thankfully I was able to keep her out of arms reach.

Ripley's is still a winner in anyone's book, and well worth the entry fee even if it was a bit steep.  We would have spent two hours inside without the kids once complaining of being bored, hungry, cold or fighting with each other.  That is worth the entry fee in itself.

But we were craving more adrenaline filled activities, so went back to the car to visit the famous Sling Shot.


When we arrived, there was a sign there saying that the minimum ride height for Sling Shot was 110cm.  I found somebody who thought that was the most awesome thing in the world.

After missing out on so much at the start of the week, there was no way in the world we were going to walk away from the Sling Shot without Rowan having a go.  Dad was the fortunate soul who got to get on with him, and the first thing I noticed was that the ride has changed slightly since we were last here.

The Sling Shot used to be a set of chairs encased in a pipe ball so you were fully surrounded.  Apparently this changed about eight years ago, and now the chairs are attached directly to the wires, and they are in open air...GULP!

For the second time today I was to challenge my dislike of heights.  It's not the height itself that concerns me, but more the impact with the ground at the end that plays on my mind.

Some slingshot facts...0 to 160kmh in one second, 0m to 80m in just over 1 second.  6G's at release to 0G's at the apex.

It is quite the extraordinary feeling being shot into the sky like a cannonball, and Rowan was in raptures.  He laughed and his eyes were huge with excitement.  He begged me to ride again with him, but in the interest of being unselfish, I let Lisa go with him for a second ride (Sucker!)

This is truly a must do if you come here...just get over your fear, sit down, shut up and hang on. 

Totally buzzing from the ride, we walked back through Surfer's Paradise to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.

This was also a little blast from the past as it is where Lisa and I went for dinner after our last slingshotting. 

We bought a little cocktail for Lisa to get a second matching glass to go with the one on our shelf at home.  Again we got the Nachos as an entree, but this time we shared it amongst the 5 of us.

Dinner was fantastic again, and the atmosphere in Hard Rock never disappoints.

I fell asleep 4 times from exhaustion before I had finished the third paragraph, so the blog has had to wait until this morning for typing.  I am so glad that Ashley woke me up at 0600 again, because I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I was rested.  I guess it's off to Dreamworld then.