Panning The Gold Coast

Last weekend we took the girls to the Sunshine Coast, a favourite with Marce and I due to its laid back, relaxed environment. Now that the McKenzie girls were feeling better (see "On The Mend" below), we decided to test their strength by taking all the girls except Marina to the adrenaline-flowing Dreamworld located at the north end of the world famous Gold Coast. (A map of Dreamworld can be seen at









http://www.dreamworld.com.au/files/pdf/map.pdf)


The amusement park has a waterpark, Imax theatre, Tiger Island (with two recently born Sumatra pups), and Wiggleworld for little ones. Madeline met the 120 cm height requirement for the rides, and even had the nerve to ride all of the "extreme" rides. The first of these is called The Claw, which is a giant pendulum which swings to a near-vertical orientation while approximately 32 fearless riders sit on the base with their feet hanging out. To the left you can see the girls getting ready for their swinging Claw ride. We arrived early so there were no lines for nearly an hour as the crowds started coming in on what was a Good Friday national holiday in Australia. After this we went on the Cyclone roller coaster, which is a medium sized metal roller coaster which has two 360 degree loops. Next on our list was the Tower of Terror, which is a rollercoaster-like car accelerates out of a tunnel at a rate that make your head spin. Once emerging from the tunnel, it pulls up vertically onto the same tower that holds the world's tallest Giant Drop ride. The car gets about 2/3 up the tower, then free-falls backwards along the rails, through the tunnel and comes to a stop. Total ride time = 15 seconds. But it is indeed a terrifying 15 seconds. If that weren't enough, all girls were all ready for the biggest ride - the Giant Drop (shown below).

This is similar to those rides you see in carnivals where people drop 100 feet or so. The big difference is that this drop is indeed huge with a drop nearly 2/3 the height of the Space Needle. Total drop time = 5 seconds before the brakes come on. This ride was even more terrifying to poor Dad than the Tower of Terror. By this time Dad had enough of the Big Five rides, but the girls (including Madeline) all decided they wanted to do the last big ride, which is called Wipeout. On this ride they sit in surfboard shape structure and twirl around including several upside down maneuvers which has them all hanging in their harness. I passed on this ride, but did a few more on the Tower of Terror, Giant Drop, and The Claw. To the right you can see the girls upside down on Wipeout. By 2 PM I had enough fun and just watched the girls go on ride after ride. Eventually even Callie tired of the adrenaline, and from 3PM on tended to sit out with me on some of the more extreme rides. Below is the Dreamworld link to the extreme 5 so you see yourself what they are all about.

http://www.dreamworld.com.au/content/bigfivethrillrides_2Col.asp?name=BigFiveThrillRides

We finished our time at the Dreamworld Ice Cream Parlor, with the girls having a combination of double-scoop ice cream cones or Coke "spiders". A spider is the Aussie equivalent of a float in the States, and since root beer is not popular here, they tend to make their spiders with Coca Cola and vanilla ice cream. A tempting treat, even though most Australians would say a root beer "spider" would be a strange combination of flavours. I guess it just depends on what one grows up with.

If you want to see some videos of some of these rides I have found them on YouTube as posted by other people who know how to post videos. They are fun to watch and give a good idea of what the rides are like

The Claw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2t4fBIceRU

Giant Drop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ57HEmh4mI

Tower of Terror http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gze2Xu5kTd0

Wipeout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvJ7uMBitdw

Cyclone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBYv590rLmQ

As we drove north back to Brisbane along the 4 lane M1 motorway, I realised that the sun was about to set. And so just prior to crossing the Brisbane river into our neighborhood I pulled over into a commercial section near the Brisbane port which has a large colony of Flying Foxes, or fruit bats. Dusk is when these creatures wake up from hanging in their tree colonies, making interesting chirping noises and flying close over our heads. With a 1 metre wingspan, they truly are impressive-looking bats. We didn't feel in danger at all knowing these bats only eat fruit. We piled back into our minivan, crossed the river to join Marce and Marina who were at home starting to organise for our upcoming move. Marina is feeling much better with her chicken pox. Her first big outing is planned on Monday, when we will all drive up into the Lamington National Forest to visit O'Reillys Guesthouse.

Marc

Girls entering the Tower of Terror ride

Watching Flying Fox bats wake up

Flying Fox near miss with 1 metre wing span!