May 10 Springbrook National Park

Whilst David and I have never visited the theme parks of the Gold Coast – we have both been to the wonderful hinterland together and I have been by myself on a number of occasions.  We love Lamington National Park but decided that we would leave a good visit there until the boys could do some longer bush walks so we can make the most of a stay there.  We also knew that we could undertake a range of beautiful walks, see some lovely waterfalls and rainforest and spectacular lookouts in the closer Springbrook National Park.  So on a lovely Sunday (after a delightful mothers day breakfast prepared by my boys) we headed off to Springbrook.

Natural Bridge Falls

Springbrook National Park is made up of a number of sections.  The number one attraction and one most of you will have seen in advertising Queensland is the Natural Bridge and was fartherest from Tweed Heads so we went there first.  It is a lovely walk and the falls themselves are very special.  However, the carpark was packed, as was the walk.  Whilst this didn’t stop us enjoying ourselves it made photography harder and got both David and I rather cross as there were quite a number of people ignoring the signs to stay on the path to protect the forest and there were even people swimming in the falls although that too is completely forbidden again to preserve a very delicate area.  The boys had a great time on the walk and loved the falls.  They took a myriad of photos – some okay, some good and some, well, interesting.  

Purlingbrook Falls

After our walk we jumped back in the car and went to the next falls – Purlingbrook falls which were in another section of the park (again with a packed carpark and people picnicking, playing games in the park nearby etc).  We didn’t do the 4k walk as we had arrived too late in the day – but there are a couple of short walks on either side of the falls that give excellent views as well.  I would love to return another day to do the longer walk. 

Best of All Lookout

We still had enough time to go to a couple of the lookouts about 10k away – one with the title of Best of All Look Outs so how could we not go there.  The lookout comes at the end of a short but delicious walk – it had lovely rocks, rainforest and antartic beech trees (which are a truly ancient tree with links back to Gondwana).  Then you arrive at the view and it is impressive.  The lookout is across the ancient remains of this super massive volcano that gave rise to the many national parks behind Byron Bay and the Gold Coast.  Whilst we had kept telling the boys that this national park was only an edge of this huge volcano it wasn’t until we arrived at this lookout that they began to comprehend what this means in terms of size.

View of Mt Warning from the Best of All Look Outs - Mt Warning is the centre of this massive caldera

We returned late in the day – picking up fish and chips for dinner.  It was a lovely day, Springbrook is a great national park which we would recommend to anyone.  If you can go not on the weekend it will probably lessen the crowds – but no matter it is a beautiful place and it had made for a lovely mother's day.

  

May 8 Movie World - by Mr L and Mr C

Hello, its Mr L and Mr C here and this is our part of the blog.  We are going to tell you about what we did at Movie World, Sea World and Wet n Wild.

So at Movie World the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster was totally freaky, it went backwards, down and you were in pitch blackness and you felt like you would fall off.  There was one bit where you felt like you were going to crash into a monster and inside you heard Scooby and Shaggy and saw Scooby Doo.  It was really fun, but really scary, we only did this once.

The Hollywood Stunt Driver Show was awesome.  The cars did super cool tricks and a fake building caught on fire.  Rio in 4D was cool, we had 3D glasses, you got splashed by water, there was air blowing in your face and the seats moved - it was super fun!

Junior Driving School was ok but it was better for younger kids.  We still had fun though.  The Road Runner Roller Coaster didn’t go too fast, I (Mr C) screamed to be like everyone else.  We heard lots of people scream.  It was a short ride so I did it again.  It was pretty cool.

Dad went on some rides that were toooooooo scary for us.  First he went on the Wild West Falls Adventure Ride – it was steep and looked really freaky.  It was like riding in an old log along a river and then down a big waterfall – Dad got wet by a big splash at the end.  Then he went on the Arkham Asylum ride, it looked like Dad was hooked in by his head and he went round and round and up and down all super fast.  At one point Dad was upside down – it looked really really really really scary.  We might have to be a lot older before we go on that one.

 All the super heroes and all the stars of Warner Brothers Movie World have a giant parade in the Main St.  Most of them come in cars or on floats.  Joker pointed at us with a super angry glare, we glared and pointed back at him. 

Mr L got to high five Green Lantern and we saw Batman fight and defeat some bad ninjas.

 

The Justice League 3D Ride was the best in all the rides that we went on!!!  We got to wear 3D glasses and shoot aliens for the Justice League.  We had messages from Justice League members telling us what to do and we had a boss battle with the supreme villain.  We hopped in cars with 4 people with awesome high tech laser guns and then Batman and Cyborg teleported us into the battle.  Then we had to shoot aliens, even ones that were on people’s faces or chests.  We also had to save Superman who had been taken over by an alien.  We liked this so much we did it six times – until it was time to leave Movie World.  THIS RIDE IS TOTALLY EPIC AWESOME!

Effects designed by Mr C and Mr L

This theme park was grea,t we rate 1000/10.  If you are in the Gold Coast - Movie World is a must.  Till next time Mr L and Mr C.

Parent Notes - Some tips for going to Movie World

• Try and get a deal and book on line - this saves you money and once you have your multi park pass you skip the entrance queues.
• Off peak is sensational - what queues?, but not all rides are open (we didn't have two of the big ones operating but it didn't matter)
• Take water, snacks and food as everything is expensive.
• Get a map (we didn't have one for Movie World and it would have helped).

7 May Look out Gold Coast Here We Come

Our next stop was Tweed Heads and the BIG 4 Tweed Billabong Holiday Park – a sort of sister park to Saltwater in Yamba.  We were using Tweed Heads as a gateway to the gold coast and its beautiful hinterland.  The caravan park was really well set out and included a natural billabong with an aqua jump – a big blow up bouncy thing in the middle of the lagoon, two pools one heated with a water slide, a kids playground and the most amazing camp kitchen and lounge adjacent to the billabong. The pool and playground were a magnet for other kids and our guys ended up with a sequence of playmates during the week, including a delightful family also undertaking a similar journey. It was an easy place to stay in, but it did need these facilities as between the aircraft and nearby motorway it is noisy.

 The Lounge

The Billabong 

We had picked up a really good deal on theme parks which included Movie World, Sea World and Wet n Wild for $55 pp (thanks to my sister).  So we took advantage of the stay 7 pay 5 offer and for the first time in my life we explored the Gold Coast (yep other than Jamberoo in NSW – the whole family were theme park novices).

So during our week we explored each of our three theme parks and Springbrook National Park (and tried to work out a couple of minor problems with the van).  We also took full advantage of the camp kitchen and in particular the oven.  Our van does not have an oven and generally we don’t miss it.  But this camp kitchen had two (and actually the same one as we have at home) so whilst here we had lasagne, baked dinners and even managed a chocolate cake.

 How serious is this kitchen?

 Later in the week we had the kitchen, the deck, the whole lot to ourselves for our family dinners.

David and I enjoyed the theme parks a lot – but let’s face it when you are parents it’s much more about the kids having a great time.  So over the next few pages I thought I would bring on our expert theme park reviewers – namely our twin boys.  I am expecting the liberal use of the word awesome, even an epic awesome or two, and while there will be some light guidance about what they should or shouldn’t write, on the whole our blog pages of the parks will be done by our boys.