Day 15 - Gold Coast

WOW!! what a day! Today we spent the WHOLE day at Dreamworld. The young and old kids had a ball LOL We started off our visit bright and early, and thanks to my awsome parents they shouted my kids to a Tiger cub experience! That meant that both our babies got to spend 20 minutes watching and touching the new tiger cubs at Dreamworld! .....and of course me (their mother) got to be there too to "supervise " the children (as indicated in the rules and fine print). The tiger cubs are adorable!!

Whilst i don't have many photos with the kids and the cubs (i was trying to juggle a scared 3 year old and take photos and have professional ones done at same time) i did purchase a couple of professional ones for a permanent keep sake. Krystian was so excited and loved every minute of his experience. 

From here our day long journey begun. Krystian is one brave boy (much braver than his mother) and went on most of the roller coasters and rides. He did line up to brave the tower of terror but there was a problem with the ride and it had some down time. Krystyian wouldn't line back up again!! LOL !!  The "boys" ride of the day was the Mick Doohan's Moto - coaster ride. This ride involved you sitting on top of a motorbike whilst whizzing around the roller coaster track. Due to height restrictions and 5mm Krystian had to sit in one of the two side carts whilst Maciek sat on the motorbike. I couldn't get a photo of the father son team but stole one from web to give you an image. 

Bella, whilst scared of EVERYTHING had a ball in Wiggle world! She got to watch the Dorothy show and go on the two rides here, the wiggles tea cups and the big red car ride. She had a grin from ear to ear and her big bro was a good sport about it all. 

Krystian braved rides Maciek and I wouldn't. He even went on rides with out us. I was nervous about letting him go (...he's my baby!) LOL he LOVED EVERY ride he went on!!!

Of course we had to see and do the good old faithfuls that have always been a part of Dreamworld (well they were when i was there 16 years ago). 

After a fantastic fun filled day we departed Dreamworld at 5pm and headed back to camp. Bypassing the supermarket. Wow it is so nice to be able to buy fresh tasty fruit and vegetables from a greengrocer. Maciek was in HEAVEN because he found his Polish "Ogurki" or for us English speakers his Polish gherkins. The kids both share his love of the pickle LOL!! 

Back to camp we headed and landed straight at the pool for a much needed swim. Today has been warm 28 degrees and muggy. All we ask of for tomorrow is for the humidity to POQ (piss off quick) so we can get our washing dry which has been drying since leaving  Coffs Harbour on Sunday. 

Its now late and 11pm;  Bed time.

 Over and out

DAY 14 - Coffs Harbour - Gold Coast (continued)

From Byron Bay it's only a short hop, skip and a jump to the gold coast. We made our way to the camping ground only to be met with sheer disappointment and disgust. Whilst I will not mention the name of the park, it was a shoddy little place, which of course on the internet looked great, yeah perhaps 20 years ago. The sites where Ok but the facilities were, well so bad that even I (Wog) could not let the family stay here, especially as this was our long awaited 7 day stop over break to just chill and relax.

So with my tightarse hat on I went to the office and requested my money back, but sadly this was not to be, we did receive credit to other sites from the same chain, which I am told are a lot better, so looks like there will be a cheep eBay auction coming up soon for some lucky winner......................LOL

We decided it would be best to see if we could book in at a nice campsite, which turned out to be Treasure island Caravan Park and I do have to say a big thanks to the staff who helped us out on such short notice, not only providing a premium site and facilities but also looking after us price wise.

http://www.treasureisland.com.au/category/image-galleries/photo-gallery

This place is truly amazing, it has 3 swimming pools, which at 7pm at night the kids prompt discovered and headed for a quick dip. There is mini golf, play grounds galore, pizza bar you name it I am sure they have it here.

BTW, a wet tent packed up in the morning smells like a WET DOG 8 hours later times 10. Whislt we do not normally pack the tent up wet, due to circumstance we had no choice. Thankfully its nice and hot outside so it is drying rapidly. We have devised a way of keeping all our gear dry to, by covering with a water prof tarpolen before packing up, works a charm.

We will get some more photos tomorrow but for now its bed time for all involved as tomorrow hails the start of  Theme park rides and countless hours standing in ques to have some wild and wicked fun.

Over and out.......................

DAY 14 - Coffs Harbour - Gold Coast

Lovely driving today! Maciek thinks it was boring but i thought it was ..well... nice. We packed up a very wet tent and left Coffs Harbour around a quarter past nine, heading for Byron Bay (for lunch stop and to visit the most Eastern point of Australia). Today everyone is back to their usually bubbly self, although bella did find out that when Maciek says he will pull over and get someone out of the car if they don't stop misbehaving he meant it, Bella has been an angel ever since. LOL. Don't worry we did not leave her behind.
One hour outside Coffs Harbour at Bellina (whilst on our usual hunt for Australian's Big Things) we came across the Big Prawn (a very derelict and run down big prawn, never the less)

Along the way we discovered a place (somewhere between Ballina and Byron Bay) called the Macadamia Castle; and so decided to head there for lunch instead. What an amazing place for kids. Shame we didn't have time to stop and explore more but you could spend hours there. Maciek and i indulged in pancakes with Macadamia nuts of course; whilst the kids ate the usual chips and Krystian had a hamburger (also with macadamia nuts inside the burger).

Bella the chip monster! 

My eyes were bigger than my belly!

After leaving the Macadamia castle, we headed for a quick look around Byron Bay. Really, we headed there to stand at the most eastern point of Australia. Maciek and I have now stood at the most southern and the most eastern and soon to be at the most norther point :-) 

After leaving Byron Bay we headed straight for the Gold Coast. Wasn't as far away as we expected. To be continued.......

22nd April Day 13 - Coffs Harbour

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our princess who turns 3 TODAY!!! ......

The birthday Butterfly Princess!

Today saw us having a much needed laid back day (for the sanity of both us and the kids!). We are all trying our hardest to be civil and kind to each other!! ..its proving to be VERY difficult a lot of the time! mainly due to the wet weather and the kids constant whining. This is not normally the case when they can just run free and not be in mud or water or rain or wind or sun or you know EVERYTHING. LOL.  With this in mind, not much was on the agenda. We headed back to jetty markets but was quickly disappointed! I think  we are very spoilt down in Tassie with the Salamanca markets and all. From here we did a drive by through the CBD of Coffs Harbour. Truly blink and you'll miss it because there isn't really that much to see. disappointing. Coffs Harbour, whilst it is a nice place didn't live up to expectation. Not that i'm sure what our expectation was. The caravan park was lovely (however expensive) and the Big Banana was fantastic but the city as a whole was a bit of a let down. Anyway,......
The big Banana was AWSOME!! There was many things to do at the Big Banana. The day previously we went to the Water slide park and so we didn't return back there today (much to the kids disgust!). On arrival we headed straight for the Toboggan ride! Bella was scared (there isn't much in lief at the moment that Bella isn't scared off) and Krystian was in boys Heaven; along with his father! Bella and i went at a girly pace but the boys fanged it down the track!

i thought we took more photos at the big Banana..... but woops we didn't! The big Banana was a great  place to get up close and walk through the plantation and see how they grow. We were able to watch two documentaries about Banana's in Coffs Harbour and try their famous frozen chocolate coated bananas! YUM!! 

From here saw us heading back to the kids favourite place, the pool. This is where we spent the remainder of the afternoon before beginning the pack up for our travels to the Gold Coast tomorrow. 

xx

Day 12 - Coffs Harbour

Well 12 days in and nobody has been sent back home, nor has anyone died! 

Whilst we are begining to become less tolerant of each other (after being in each others shoes for the past 12 days) we are all still enjoying ourselves, sharing new experiences with each other. I think Krystian's brain is in overload with the MILLIONS of questions he is providing for us to answer (not that that is a bad thing!)

Last night provided us  with an amazing amount of rain. Bella was scared stiff and subsequently slept in or bed. The camp site this morning was like a slosh pit of mud!!  With this in mind we quickly packed up and set off for the days adventures around Coffs Harbour. Our fist stop , The Pet Porpoise Pool. What a fun place! The kids were treated special for their birthdays (although Bella was too scared to go near the animals). We all had photos and kisses from the dolphins and seals. Krystian was even lucky enough to be able to do a special job during the Marine Magic Show. He got to brush the Dolphins teeth!! We were able to feed the seals, fish, sharks and Penguins. What a fun few hours!!

"Ellie" the Seal!

Unsure about what the weather was going to do for us, we headed back to the tent to get our bathers and decided after some lunch that we would head down to the Big Banana for a look, swim and ride on the Toboggan ride around the banana plantation. Due to the rain overnight the Toboggan ride was closed; so we headed for the water park. Here Maciek and I watched the kids go up and down the water slides for an hour and a half. The kids had a ball!!

Returning to the camp site to hop straight back in the pool was on the agenda next. The kids were, as imagined, exhausted after their day of swimming and a chill out session in the pool was in order. Tomorrow will see us strolling around the Coffs Harbour weekend markets, returning to the Big Banana and paying a visit to the Butterfly house (all if the kids behave!) LOL! 

.....night all xx