Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Gold Coast of Terror - 7:07 PM
IntroTwo weeks have past since I posted, but that is because I have been in Aus or getting ready to go to Aus. I am pleased I had worked on my tan before hand as I didn’t stand out like a sore thumb.
Week of Work
Tried a new mutation kit from Stragene, it had some glitches which I was able to trouble shoot before I went to Aus. Hopefully Dom got it working while I was away.
Week O Social
Spent 1 week on the Gold Coast of Aus doing all sorts of things, so going to give you a day by day blow of how it went down.
Saturday 10th
Left New Zealand at 6pm so got to Aus at 6pm local, then by the time we cleared customs etc we didn’t get to our hotel room at the BreakFree Wings until 11pm.
Was a nice view from the apartment we were in. Not the best picture but you get the idea. From there we headed out to catch up with some friends in Surfers and Terry’s brotherThe rest of the night was spent hanging out with them,
the whole 1hr or so of it.Sunday 11th
Worked out how the bus system worked, which took longer than it should have. But finally made it to Pacfic Fair (
Which were really good for walking around in Aus, I bit flat for me and I think Nick was surprised that I could buy sensible shoes. After than was back to Anton’s and Adrian’s and hung out in the pool and had a BBQ of kangaroo steaks, which were damn good and I thoroughly suggest you trying them if you see them in the supermarket.Monday 12th
Movie World day. (http://www.movieworld.com.au/home/homepage.cfm). Where I discovered I really don’t like roller coasters. The problem I had was my only comparison was Rainbows End, which I still giggled and squeak through with Riven, And Rainbow’s End is a baby ride compared to Movie World.http://www.movieworld.com.au/rides_attractions/ride_details.cfm?ride_id=5) rst we started off with Superman .
I didn’t scream the whole way, but I think that was shock more than anything. 0 – 100km/hr in 2 secs isn’t my idea of fun it seems. After that we went on the Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster.
This wouldn’t have been so bad but after Superman I was on edge. I really like the que for this one, through the spooky castle. After this we went on the Wild West Water Ride. 
Which was fun, and I got soaked. I wanted to do this one again, but when we went back the que was really long. After this I said I wanted a nice gentle relaxing ride, like magical teacups or something. So they guys said Lethal Weapon. Which they promised was fast and definitely not a roller coaster…. They lied. I now know I can scream for 2mins with out breathing. From here we went to Shrek 4D
, which is a 3D movie with moving seats and air and water being blown at you. This was fun. And was made even more enjoyable for the fact when they went into the spider cave, Nick squeaked and almost climbed out of his chair when they blew air at your legs with all the spiders running past on the screen. With all that done, there was only one ride left to go which was the Batwing Space shot, which you can see in the Superman picture – the black tower. It worked like a reverse bungee and shot you up. I was pretty unhappy about it all. After this we caught back up with Anton and Alicia hung out in the pool at out hotel and went and had Thai, was very good Thai but my ears were playing up from pool, so I went to bed, and every one else went to Beers From Belgium. 
And it seems as though the beers from there are 12% and give Nick a hang over.Tuesday 13th
White Water World. (http://www.whitewaterworld.com.au/content/www_home.asp?)
This is a hydro slide theme park joined to Dream World. So you can buy a world pass and do both parks in one day, but we spent the day just at this one. Which was heaps of fun and I could have easily gone back. The ride I liked the best was the Hydro Coaster. (http://www.whitewaterworld.com.au/content/www_standard.asp?name=WWW_HydroCoaster) 
Which you can see in the picture, it is the orange tubed one, not the big green one, which was also fun.Wednesday 14th
We went to Brisbane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane) by train where I discovered the Valley Girl clearance shop.(http://www.valleygirl.com.au/).
Aselle would have gone into shock in this place. Every thing was under $10 and there were heaps to choose from and it was all nice. I brought 2 dresses, and would have brought more. But Nick and Terry were giving me the evils for spending to long in a clothes shop. But the reason we went to Brisbane was to meet a fellow QED’er - Aaron. 
He is the tall one and the short one is his 4mth old baby Phobe. He is currently teaching her how to play WoW so she can become one of our raiding priests, even if all she does is drool and sleep might do a better job than some of the other ones we have. Aaron then took us to all the cool places in Brisbane, like shops were you can buy a full sized metal terminator robot. A real bargain at $9999 
And saw the sights of Brisbane including some bridge and other stuff,
which we did by ferry. I have other pictures, but they are not so good. Thursday 15th
Dream World (
Which I had been hearing about all week. And how it was going to freak me out, because it is a 40 story drop. So I got into the right frame of mind and prepared myself and didn’t scream at all. (http://www.dreamworld.com.au/content/bigfivethrillrides_2Col.asp?name=BigFiveThrillRides) So as a reward, I got to do it in reverse. This ride didn’t worry me to much, though I did it with my eyes closed; but the train you were in sounded like nails on a blackboard. After this we went and looked at the tigers. (http://www.dreamworld.com.au/content/standard3.asp?name=TigerIsland) Tigers are cool. 
On to the cyclone. Which was a roller coaster and really rather lame, I felt bad for it. Worse que ever too did not help. We would have done WipeOut now, but it was closed for repairs, so did the The Claw instead. 
This ride just made me feel sick. Was like a big swing. From here we went to do the Log rides, but one of them was closed and the other one had an hour que. So went to the Australian Experience (http://www.dreamworld.com.au/content/standard3.asp?name=AustWildlifeExperience) where I got to hold a kola and feed a kangaroo.
No platypus though. After this we went and did Nightmares, (http://www.dreamworld.com.au/content/nightmares_standard.asp?name=EnterTheFreezer) which is a pitch black maze, with mirrors and lights that flicker on at certain moments, and people that jump out at you. Sounds worse than what it was, but think B grade horror and you are in it. Lots of nervous giggles and things jumping out at you. That was pretty much all of Dream World, so we used our tickets and went through to White Water World and spent the rest of the day hydro sliding.
Friday 16th
This was our last day, so went shopping. Hit all the outlet stores where I brought a set of Red crocodile skin luggage, which is very nice. And so to did the 7yr boy that kept patting it because feels just like a snake while at the luggage collection point. I did the typical English response and ignored him. But from there we went to Harbour Town (http://www.harbourtown.com.au/goldcoast/index.htm) which was really good and I brought 3 tops, 1 dress and 1 cardi. Nick also brought this years shirts and ties for work. This year it is grey and lemon.
Saturday 17th
Flew back to NZ and lost 3hrs. So tired, as we had to get up at 4am to get to the airport. But I have duty free.
Week O WoW
Not much happened because I wasn’t there. But grats on Drunk’s dropping of Illhoof.
Week O Being a better person
I finally brought my yoga DVD, and I am going to try and make sure I do either it or my palliates one each Saturday. I have been going well with my blog, so lets see if this can follow.
Books and Stuff
Watched a couple of movies. One was on sky while on holiday,
The Crow 4. 
Yeah title says it all. Was very much B grade – maybe less as it had Tara Reid and Edward Furlong. Was a time filler and that was about it.
Monster House
Yeah title says it all. Was very much B grade – maybe less as it had Tara Reid and Edward Furlong. Was a time filler and that was about it.Monster House
was actually really good. I fully suggest seeing it. It is about a house that is a monster. Is a CGI one, and a really good one at that.Books at the moment I am reading Robin Hobb’s Farseer series
and it is very good. And looking forward to reading the rest of the series, at the moment I have only read book 1 which is Assassin's Apprentice. Is a Sci Fi book, but been a good read with well developed characters.Summary
I was asked why do woman go shopping so much, even if they don’t have money. I replied it is not the buying that is important but the looking. Like a guy that goes night clubbing but is in a relationship. Just because he has one doesn’t mean he can’t look at what else is out there on offer. And to finish with a quote Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), "Walden", 1854
