Dreamworld

The start to the day - Saturday 17th - didn't go quite according to plan, as we got off the bus and walked the the distance to the Park Road train station we got a tad lost, lucky thanks to GPS, we managed to make it to the the station to watch the train we planned to catch, depart the train. However thanks heavens there was train due in another 30 mins, due at 9.05 am. Which actually it seems ended up been more on an express than the prior one. When we arrived into Coomera Station, there was a connecting translink bus to the Dreamworld theme park, which got us there for 10.05, just as the theme park was opening, so click for again, which train we need. Added bonus and time saver was we had previously booked our unlimited world pass tickets online saving ourselves 10 dollars each. As we entered the park, we decided to go to the Dreamworld part this day as the weather at the time was overcast, we got our park map and show time details. We decided  to enter the old wild west first, and go on our ride, Thunder River Rapid Ride, we ended up getting wet but was such a laugh. after this we were strolling towards rocky hollow log ride, however we got sidetracked by a crowd gathering, we found out it was meet the Big Brother winner, Ben and queue to go inside and see the Big Brother House. So we decided sure why not got our picture taken with him and joined the queue to see the house.

  Lucky whilst we were in the house, there was a nasty downpour of rain, we managed not to get too wet. After a tour of the house we finally made it to the Log Ride, if we didn't get wet before, during the downpour, we got soaked on this ride, however was such a laugh and fun. From here we strolled through the Australian Wildlife experience area making a detour through the Avis Vintage Cars and got to experience how actually slow the Model T Ford Cars were lol. From the Wildlife area we got on the Dreamworld Railway which brought us back towards King Julien's Theatre in the Wild and we both went on the Escape from Madagascar rollercoaster. Lucky the sun started to come out around then, we decided to stop for a few mins and had the packed lunch we had brought with us in the Wiggles World area, as we had to go and collect the World Passes from the Pass Centre. Why oh why are the pictures they take for those sort of things always bizarre. After lunch we went on Mick Doohan's Motocoaster, which is a motobike rollercoater. I decided to be brave to try one of the high thrill rides, Tower of Terror II, which is one of the big 7 high rides within the theme park. Omg what a thrill and adrenaline rush. So gotta go back on that ride again when we manage to revisit the park.

In between meeting Shrek and his friends, I went on Shockwave and another high thrill ride called Wipeout, no wonder it called such. I couldn't stop laughing during the whole ride.. It was an experience to say the least. We both went on a so called kids ride called reef diver, we both agreed it made us nauseous, and this is after me been on wipeout, shockwave and tower of terror II. Before it was time to leave we decided to revisit a few of the earlier rides.

We decided to get the connecting bus to Surfers Paradise, stroll around and go visit the SkyPoint Q1 area which has 360 degrees views of the area and is the highest residential tower block in the southern hemisphere. We had a quick bite before the long trek home. It was a roughly an hour bus journey to the nearest train station and then another hour back to Brisbane. When we finally managed to arrive back, we were welcomed with the onslaught that was the thunderstorms and rain, we got soaked before we got to the connecting bus and saturated in the unpleasant sprint from the Gabba home. For hours on end, we were in complete darkness due to the weather and was just a night for the bed.

The following day was a complete and utter  washout, we were unable to even leave the house cos the weather was that bad. At least Monday so far been nice.  

Australia Zoo

We woke up Wednesday morning like children on Christmas morning, as we got ready to head to get the bus then the connecting train to Beerwah, the nearest station to Australia Zoo, where a courtesy bus picked up and dropped us off at the entrance of the zoo at 10 am. As we entered the zoo we were given a map and itinerary of show times. We first made our way to the tortoises enclosure where we observed giant Aldabran Tortoises feeding time. After which we made detour through Australian snakes, southern Hairy nosed Wombats, towards Elephantasia and the Asian Elephants enclosure, where at 10.30 am the elephant feeding was taking place, and me and Niamh both got the chance to feed Sabu, of the 3 elephants been feed at that time. That in itself we both agreed was an experience of a lifetime.

From here we saw playful Red Pandas, and strolled thru Tigers Temple and entered the African Plains, where we saw Zebra, Giraffe and Southern White Rhinoceros. We hopped onto the free shuttle at the African Plains, and jumped off at shuttle stop 2 near the Feeding Frenzy Food Court area, as we had time to spare prior to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors Show in the Crocoseum, we explored the surrounding enclosures seeing the Burmese Python, 9 different species of Crocodiles and Alligators, the very cute but vicious Tasmanian Devils, Dingoes, Cassowaries, Koalas Sanctuary, Binturongs and Camels. The show in the Crocoseum you see varies species of exotic birds, slithering snakes and watch a jaw snapping massive Croc launch a strike from the water's edge.

Once we came down from the adrenaline rush, we walked through the Crocodile Hunter Museum and bought some roo feed for the Kangaroos and Wallabies, as we had a voucher we were able to buy one and get one free, the feed only cost 2 dollars. Once we had the Roo feed, we entered Roo Heaven, and we noticed Echidnas before we came near the Kangaroos and wallabies, we were both feed Kangaroos, which was unreal fun experience. From the Roo Heaven, we entered the Wetlands Plains which are home to varies species of birds such as Brolgas, Jabirus, Emus. From the Wetlands, we strolled through the Koala walk- through were we got to Pat a Koala, then feed some rare red species of Kangaroos, Rainforest Aviary and Common Wombats on our way towards the talk on Koalas where you get up and close and learn bout the koala.

Like the rest of the morning, its all go, we had to dash get again to run to make the 2.15 show about Tigers in the Tiger Temple by catching the Shuttle. At the Show we observed a playful side. In the little free time we had before the birds of prey show, we went on a hunt to check out the Australian turtles, Komodo Dragon, Australian Lizards, Rhinoceros Iguanas, Kookaburras. At the birds of prey show, we saw various birds, in flight, and looking menacing. On route towards our last show of the day, seeing the Asian small clawed Otters feeding time, we ran into a Koala who we got a roving picture taken with, awe he was so cute too.
After seeing the playful but hungry otters, we exited the zoo through the gift shop and made our way to the Australia Zoo wildlife Hospital, where we got to see the work the wildlife staff do in taking care of the injured and endangered animals including the much publicized recently here in Queensland of Stuart the Koala bear, who was knocked down by a speeding car causing him to suffer a fractured neck and other animals that were attacked by dogs or shot.
After the Zoo, we made our way back onto transport towards Brisbane, where we had a proper look at the roving pictures from the zoo including the ones we bought 2for1 at the zoo. Also during our day at the Zoo I managed to win a double pass for the openair cinema, on twitter, however when made our way to the cinema, the film in question had to be changed, so we were given comp tickets to use again.

The during the week we decided to go visit the old parliament building where in the upper house, the crystal chandeliers were actually Waterford Crystal and St John's Cathedral which took 108 years to complete, been completed in 2009. We finally managed to take a spin on the city hopper ferry. Saturday morning we had to make a mad dash for shelter as we got off the bus as there was a sudden awful downpour, lucky we managed to make it to our usual coffee spot, with hot drinks in hand we made a skype call home 09:30 (23.30 Friday Irish time). After the Skype call to Mum and Dad, we however got stuck where we were due to the rain. Lucky we were able to discuss our cairns plans and such and arrange them with our travel agent Edward over the phone and by email. With a sudden let up in the rain, we ran for the bus to get near as possible to the Student Flights travel centre to finally book Cairns. We managed to get a few essential items and groceries before making the journey home now with the rain stopping.
We got to chat with our granny on the phone, and wishing her a 90th Birthday, which was great to chat with her. Also we found out our flowers arrived that day by taxi. After some enough on both mine and Niamh part, we finally got a request for her on Clare FM radio at stupid o clock from our end lol but it was so worth the effort. :)
On one of our many random walks we came upon the Kangaroo Point cliffs and the Queensland wind and brass band performing a set on the queen street mall stage. After seeing them perform we came upon various street entertainment along this street which kinda reminded us of Grafton St.