Saturday, May 25, 2013

Gold Coast - Day 7

The kids woke up bright and early again in the morning. As the days proceeded, we all had loads to sleep in Gold Coast. The shops close really early, like 5ish and there aren't much to do thereafter. The kids' bedtime hadn't crossed 10pm since we touched down.
Waking up early wasn't too bad since we were heading for Dream World. The kids were happy on the way to Dream World. I was secretly hoping that it would be a good and fun place. Dream World is our last planned destination on our itinerary. It better be good.


Dream World is a little further away from Movie World and it didnt failed us. I think it is the most fun out of the 3 worlds. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a really thrilling ride that goes 360 degrees, forward and back at super sonic speed. the people who ride that must really be crazy, so are the people who engineered the ride. Lol.
The only down about Dream World is that it does not have many rides that are suitable for toddlers and many of the thrilling rides require 120cm. Lil Shauna is barely 110cm now. She needs to eat, jumps and stretches a lot more.

Despite being a weekday, there was a queue to the park, so we can imagine how bad it would be on weekends. I cannot describe how glad that we were there on a Tuesday. Upon receiving our tickets, we were pleasantly surprised that the Dream World tickets come with complimentary tickets to the Q1, the tallest building in Gold Coast. We were just scratching our heads over what to do on our last day and a solution just presented itself.

We headed for the kiddy rides first at the Wiggles world. That boat ride was quite exciting to the kids, it is a smaller scale viking ride.



Lil Isaac was again willing to hi-5 the octopus and unwillingly took a picture with him. ee how grumpy he was.
Lil Shauna also took picture with the rest of the characters and she only chose to hug the princess.

Lil Shauna enjoyed herself a lot more in Dream World. Some of the exciting rides allow 110cm and she could ride them. She even went on the roller coaster ride 2x. We also tried this roller coaster ride that is shaped like a motorcycle that mummy found that one really nice. Haha.
The very thrilling rides are like impossible. The rides are really not for people with weak heart. For once, Mummy P and I actually had to ride one of the thrilling, yet not craziest rides. The kids were parked with the Daddies in an indoor ball pit playground sort and the mummies escaped.

It wasn't scary. It was a pretty thrilling ride indeed. It went in circles and then in 360 degrees clockwise and then anti-clockwise. At certain point , we were hanging upside down in the air. I think the ride too fast for us to realise what was happening. What really happened thereafter was a really bad tummy. I half thought that I would vomit. Lol. And I started wondering why did we go for the ride to begin with and why did the rest of the other people go for such rides and how many really did vomit. Muahahaha. The rest of the other thrilling rides were in similar nature, circles and turned here and there. Our stomach took a while to recover and I actually lost interest in the other thrilling rides that attracted me initially. I don't think I can survive the kid with a sick stomach. I bet mummy P felt that way too. I realized too that I am actually not quite scare of such rides so it is more important to save my tummy. Lol.

Lil Shauna also took pictures with many of the characters including Shrek.




She wanted to take picture with Fiona but was told that Fiona was busy cooking and manning the kids at home. Haha, too funny. Lil Shauna is so cute and would hug all the characters even though she don't quite like some of them. Haha. Lil Isaac didn't even dare step near to Puss in Boots despite him looking so cute so you can imagine how far he was from Shrek and King Julian.

We took our 2nd family picture.
The kids took even more pictures.
We left the park at 5pm and headed back to the hotel. We had a nice tabao food back to hotel and the kids turned in at 8ish. It was a tiring day. Daddy Lim and I finally had the opportunity to watch Hansel and Gretel via movi- on-demand. we had been eyeing that movie since the 1st night that we checked in. Sadly, the show wasn't as nice as we thought it would be and it cost us A$20.

Haiz, we are heading back to Singapore tomorrow.

Mummy Lim

Gold Coast - Day 6

It was free and easy day. The intention was to sleep until the kids woke up naturally. However, when the intention was so, Lil Shauna had to wake up at 6.30am, exclaiming that the clouds were rainbow colored. They were actually orangey from the bright morning sun and were indeed beautiful. With that, Lil Isaac woke up too curious about what jiejie was excited about. Isn't it ironical that I had to drag them off bed every morning and they actually woke up earlier than me on a day with no agenda?

We had breakfast and it was a beautiful day. We took a cab to Pacific Fair, which is a big shopping mall. It isn't that far away, but cost us A$25 by cab. We were told that it would cost us more by public bus. Strangely, we couldn't find anything to buy. See, I told you that I am allergic to shopping with kids.

There is a big playground in the center of Pacific Fair and the kids had plenty of fun. It is amazing how kids can just spent hours climbing up and sliding down when they have companion.
While the kids were parked at the playground with the Daddies, Mummy P and I managed to escape for about an hour to shop around. We still didn't find much to buy. Stuff are actually cheaper in Singapore.

The kids were still happily playing when we went to take over the daddies. I tried taking pictures of the girls jumping and didn't quite succeed.
Lil Isaac saw how fun it was and joined in the fun. T was busy munching biscuits and found the biscuits more attractive. Daddy Lim insisted that the camera on his hp was better but the pictures didn't turn out any better. Chey!

It was until mummy thought of getting the kids to jump off the slide that we manage to get a really nice shot. Super cool, right?
We also tried taking them sliding down but the effect didn't turn out well. Such silly stuff cracks us up and provided us with extra entertainment.

The kids had a choo choo train ride all by themselves before we had lunch and then we left Pacific Fair. We didn't stay long, probably for about 2 hours.


Back in Surfers' Paradise, we headed to the beach - our very first official trip to the beach since we came to Gold Coast and the water proved to the way too cold.

The kids were dressed in proper swimming attire but Lil Isaac didn't survive more than a minute in the water. The water was too cold, the waves were too strong and too scary for him. He ended up drinking huge mouthfuls of sea water and was brought back shore shivering. Lil Shauna enjoyed the water more but didn't last long as well. I think she was in the water for about 5 mins. Lol. We ended up playing with sand and picking seashells instead, which was also great fun.


There were actually plenty of shade but we opted and had to stay in the sun to keep warm. It was very cold in the shade with the sea breeze.
The late afternoon was tough to pass. With teh setting sun, it was getting colder and impossible to stay on the breach. Sadly, there aren't many other stuff to entertain the kids in Surfers' Paradise. We bought dinner back and had dinner in the hotel room. Then, we monkeyed a little with the kids playing silly games in the room and all turned in early for the day.

Mummy Lim

Friday, May 24, 2013

Gold Coast - Day 5

We had the Tropical Fruit Farm tour in the morning and the Currulum Wildlife Sanctuary in the afternoon. They were a little far from the hotel and the bus was picking us up at 8am, an hour earlier than the usual, which means that we had to wake up a little earlier than usual too. Good morning Gold Coast, we actually saw sun rise.

We had a very nice and friendly driver who also acted as the guide. When we were nearing our destination, we stopped for some pictures. Only Lil Isaac was gamed to run around for some pictures. The grass was very green and the sky very blue. Such perfect background for picture and I attempted to take some pictures of Lil Isaac jumping around, which I didn't quite succeed.

The fruit farm was on top on some hill and we saw some breathtaking views before we entered the farm.

We went on a tour on a big tractor around the orchard and saw plenty of fruit trees. Many of them aren't bearing fruits though, probably not in the right season.



We stopped by some banana trees and sampled ready plucked bananas. I was so glad that Lil Isaac took quite an amount. Banana is the only fruit that Lil Isaac does eat and he has been rejecting them recently. He needed the bananas to help him clear the system and the bananas did help. Hooray!

Then we tried some macadamia nuts. We had to break the shell to get the nuts and I thought they tasted quite raw. Lil Isaac was upset that he can't have any of them. I don't think he would like them but was just upset that he can't join in the crowd.

We had a nice boat ride and given bread to feed the ducks. There were so many of the ducks and geese. The kids were delightful but a goose bit Lil Shauna's finger. Such ungrateful goose and we had Lil Shauna who kept complaining of the bite.


Next, we went on a miniature train ride on real tracks and the kids were really excited about it. The adults felt like real tourists, lol.


Then we get to feed some farm animals.


The kids and I also got the chance to bottle fed hungry calves. They each drank 2l of milk! The kids were really excited at first but lost interest quickly and mummy was left holding on to the big milk bottles while the kids ran off. The calves were sucking very hard at their bottles, I was like p[laying tug of war with them and was so glad when the staff finally took over so that I could now go tend to my own young.

It was also at this time that Lil Isaac fell. He didn't cry from the fall and I didn't think much of it at first. However, the floor was filled with wooden chaffs and Lil Isaac had a splinter in his right palm when he used his hands to break the fall.

The pain must be quite bad. He went around telling people that he was bitten by a crocodile. We tried removing the splinter but it was impossible with a wailing boy who was also screaming his head off and struggling real bad. We gave up and gave him a plaster instead. The boy was happy that he was let off with a plaster.

We caught a fruit tasting show and had somebody introduced the various tropical fruits and we were allowed to sample the fruits. Most of these fruits are found in Singapore. However, the ones that we were offered for sampling tasted really sweet and nice. Lil Isaac had more bananas. Yeah.

I had thought that the fruit farm would allow us an opportunity to pluck fruits off the trees for sampling. Chey. We had nice experience plucking and eating strawberries in Melbourne and tangerines in Jeju. Then it was lunch at their cosy café.

We went to the wildlife sanctuary thereafter, which isn't too far away. There was plenty of greenery, which unfortunately urban dwellers like us couldn't quite appreciate. The sanctuary is to an extent something like our bird park combined with zoo but on a smaller scale. We caught a bird show after we arrived but I think our Jurong Bird Park did a much better job. Lil Isaac took his nap during the show and we tried taking out that splinter but he wouldn't let us despite having his nap. He woke up angry and grumpy instead.

We get to feed and pat the lazy kangaroos towards the end of the trip. The kids were really excited to do so but I think the kangaroos probably thought the kids were nuisances. Lol. Kangaroo feeds were also available but I think many of the kangaroos were already full from the many other tourists who fed them earlier.


There were plenty of mud and kangaroo poo poos on the ground. It was quite disgusting when the adults saw the stuff stuck to the kids' shoes. We couldn't quite tell if those were just pure mud but we doubted so. We left the sanctuary after "torturing" the kangaroos and the kids took more pictures with Koalas.

Interestingly, the ride back to the hotel seems so much shorter. We had dinner and headed back to the hotel.

The kids were tired and fussing by then and our patience was running low. We lost it when Lil Shauna kept whining over a tiny pimple that she had on her chest and Lil Isaac ran into the wet bathroom, slipped, felled and earned a big barugu on the back of his head.

Lil Isaac continued fussing after shower and fell asleep after milk. It wasn't even 8pm. It was then that we attempted to take out that splinter and mummy succeeded. I was so proud. Hohoho. It was really big, considering the size of his palm and must had caused him quite a lot of pain. Poor boy. He wouldn't let me hold his right hand the entire day.


Mummy P and I went for a coffee at 8ish. It was a simple coffee at Starbucks and a nice quiet chat. I had wanted to do this since a couple nights ago but was simply too tired. Lol. We had a good chat and an hour flew by so quickly without the kids. Haha.

Our holiday is coming to an end. Sob. I don't want it to end.

Mummy Lim