Brisbane and The Gold Coast

 

December 2012

The Big Smoke, Big Waves and Big Thrills

We rolled into the biggest city of our trip so far - Brisbane - and the kids' eyes lit up at the sight of tall office towers and MacDonalds on every corner. Nikita, our Outback girl (not), immediately asked if she could go shopping...there's just no transforming some people. But, we are nothing if not determined and after a fun evening with our good friends the Lufts, we packed 'em up again for some country camping.

With the faint sound of banjoes playing in the background we passed cane fields, classic Queenslander pubs, horse studs and cattle ranches until we reached our destination...Gordon Country

Camped beside a stream under a canopy of gums - Gordon Country was a refreshing bush experience with Jenny and Lufty.

Boys and their toys...strangely Lufty wasn't interested in a car swap.

Rainforest sculptures

 And rainforest maniacs....Jenny excluded!

Is it beer o'clock already? The boys take up position.

Sometimes it's just nice to camp without sand or red dust.

 

Watch those river crossings Archie - the truck sees some 4WD action.

Gold Coast

As the sound of banjoes faded and the cha-ching cha-ching of cash registers grew louder, we entered the fantastic and slightly frightening land of the Gold Coast theme parks. Wet 'n Wild was the first to amaze and thrill our reticent, shy children with mum and dad doing all we could to `herd the cats' as they scattered in every direction screaming "I want to do that one.'' "No that one". By chance or fate our travelling chums Sharon, Ant, Amon and Astrid were at Wet 'n Wild for the day too and the excitement reached fever pitch. Dreamworld was next with Riley and Nikita's first real rollercoaster ride. I think they lost count after their 12th time around.

Hold on tight Nikita (in the 5th carriage of the Roadrunner Rollercoaster)

Splash down.

 The big kids didn't miss out. Plenty of upside-downy, inside-outy thrills for Leanne and Paul on the Green Lantern Rollercoaster.

 

The Good: The 4G-Force Superman rollercoaster that Paul and Leanne took turns on and the gut churning madmouse-meets-corkscrew Green Lantern ride at MovieWorld
The Bad: Reading, a week later, about the 8 people stuck upside down on the gut-churning Green Lantern ride for an uncomfortable hour or so. A thrill seeker's worst nightmare!
The Ugly: The look of absolute terror in the eyes of 6-yr-old Nikita as she dropped backwards over a near-vertical precipice on the Kamikaze water slide. Riley chickened out at the top after queuing for 30 minutes, but Nikita was happy to blindly follow her beloved 11-yr-old friend Astrid over the edge...until she discovered she was just about to die....Ahhhhhhhh.

Palm Beach

As we continued our social flutter down the Queensland Coast, my great school buddy Kirsten, hubby Greg and 4 of their kids were the next to cop the rowdy onslaught. With 11 of us under one roof, including seven kids under 13, it was going to be a bit raucous.

Lachlan, Nikita and Samantha enjoy the waves with young Will and Paul watching on.

Windswept and loving it.

The hairdryer and make-up kit gets a rare airing (perhaps some more powder needed!) as the girls get ready for a night out on the Gold Coast.

 

 

 

 

Nimbin
At the Eclipse festival in Far North Queensland in November, we met a fun Nimbin couple, their son and baby, so we decided to drop by to visit their community property and enjoy some quintessential natural, herbal Nimbin hospitality in the forest.

                                                       A golden light shines over Nimbin.

Bath time Nimbin style. Outdoor bathing to the sound of thousands of cicadas was gorgeous.










The Good: The amazing 3-hour lightening spectacular at Nimbin. It was our first true monsoon-like thunderstorm and it was unlike anything we had seen or heard before. The kids slept through it all!
The Bad: The tree snake in Riley's mate Tao's bed in Nimbin...we think Nikita may have been sitting on top of it for quite a while....she seems to have something for sitting next to snakes.
The Ugly: Hmmm, no ugly this time.....I must have forgotten something Archie has done.