Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie - Oy, Oy, Oy!

Mr. Travel welcomes you again to one of his traveling posts. Sorry we have been out for a week and that's because we were away for our holiday. Mr. Travel with 12 other family members traipsed the Ozzie outback in the backwater known popularly as Gold Coast. So Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie - Oy, Oy, Oy is a chant that Australia's sporting fans do at their sporting events (lest you think I have taken leave of my senses).

I had a great time this holiday, partly because I really needed it and partly because I had all my family with me. The last time I was at Gold Coast was 8 years ago when Mikey was 3 and Mandy wasn't born yet. So in March, when Air Asia had a promotional drive for one day only for some ridiculously low priced fare, my cousin-in-law spent several hours on the internet ensuring we got out tickets.

Now flying with Air Asia is not too bad though it is NOT an experience to remember. When they say "Now everyone can fly". they really mean EVERYONE! This includes your folks who don't seem to understand the concept of reading your FREAKIN' boarding pass to tell you where you sit instead of squeezing yourself together with 200 hand luggage bags and then asking everyone where is your seat or just walking down the aisle aimlessly and then finding out your stupid seat is upfront and then you have to squeeze everyone out of the way AGAIN!!! But we will talk about this budget award winning airline in another posting.

So we landed at Coolangatta which was staffed by very courteous customs and immigration staff. We took our car and bus rentals (yes when it is a 12 seater, the vehicle is classified as a bus) and off we went to start our week-long adventure. Our apartment was really very comfortable and I highly recommend it. It was a service apartment which means it came with all the amenities of home. We had a fully equipped kitchen (fridge, electric stove, microwave, dish washer, utensils, pots and pan and I think there was an oven but seeing as none of us Robinson Crusoes can cook, we didn't pay too much attention to it).
That's our "Bus"

There was also a washing machine and a dryer as well as TV with cable!! The apartment had a heated pool and our place overlooks the deep blue Nerang River where there was also a park for joggers and cyclists. If you intend to vacation here, look up Blue Waters Apartment. Luckily we had full days planned else we would have had no problems staying at the apartment.

Here is our itinerary at a glance:-
Day 1 - Our first stop was Paradise Country Farm. It is built to simulate farm lifestyle so that we enjoyed Sheep shearing, drinking Billy Tea, rustling up stray cattles, caring for farm animals, feeding koalas and kangaroos and having A LOT of animal poo at the bottom of your shoe. Then it was shopping at factory outlets at Harbour Town where we bought breakfast stuff and had dinner at an Italian restaurant. We were amazed at the amount of fries that came with every dish. Are potatoes free here?

Day 2 - Movie World! Our first theme park. We saw Batman, Catwoman, Justice League (pity Wonder Woman didn't come out for a photo opp, I think you will see a stampede of hormonally discharged males rushing for that queue - my son and I included), Mystery Inc (Scooby and gang), Shrek and Austin Powers (groovy baby!!).

We had fast food at the theme park like nuggets, drummets and fish and fries. I guess fries are cheap at Movie World too. We could have fed a small Rwandan village with the left over fries. Went to Surfers Paradise for dinner and had Vietnamese noodles. Lots of souvenirs to buy.

Day 3 - Went to Sea World. Saw people swimming with sharks which I thought was so cool....as long as it wasn't me swimming there. We had burgers with fries, cake with fries and fish with fries. I swear to all that is DARK and EVIL, if I see another fry... We had dinner at Surfers Paradise and this time we had some pretty bland Chinese food but after all those FRIES....the bland food tasted GREAT! There were a LOT of adolescents (Year 12) who have just finished their HSC and started their holidays called Schoolies Week which seems to be their annual thing. So the beach was packed with young drunkards, idiots and floozies!

Had dinner at Robina Town Center which is a lazy, posh suburb. We had Noodle-in-a-box which was a Chinese takeout which we took out to a Japanese Restaurant where instead of a Kaiten Belt, they had a motorized train going around the table pulling the plates of sushi on a many carriages (or whatever it is called in railway terms).

Day 4 - Woke up at 5.30am to drive 2 1/2 hours north to Beera which is the location of Australia Zoo or Steve Irwin's Zoo. It was one of the most boring drives I had with the only scenic view coming when we crossed a river (can't remember the name). But the Zoo was well worth the trip. We had pasta (it comes with....you guessed it...fries), nuggets with fries and some Chinese food. Potatoes gotta be free! It was the cheapest location both in terms of souvenirs, entry fee and food.

Day 5 - It's time for Dreamworld! Yayyy! After all the other parks, this was quite boring. But we had lots of....its the f-word...that's right, FREAKIN' FRIES!!! Went to Surfers Paradise again but we went to a pretty decent Malaysian restaurant which had food just like at home but was nearly triple the price. You know what's cheap? If you can tell me, I will send you a mystery gift.

Day 6- It was finally time to go home.

In the next few postings, Mr. Travel will be giving you a more detailed account of the theme parks and our experiences with pictures. This will help you in your planning should you decide to vacation in Gold Coast. It the least we can do but when you are there, you have gotta try the fries!