Shah Road Trip - Gold Coast

Coffs to Gold Coast - 6 hours later...it was certainly a long haul with flying visits to the BIG banana at Coffs and teh BIG prawn in Ballina. We followed that with a trip 30 min inland to Cunugra to visit friends. The irony was that we were worried about how late we were running, yet when we got there we weren't so late afterall, as Queensland is 1 hour behind NSW. I dont' know what they do in the border cities... It was quite late by the time we found Treasure Island Holiday Park on the coast and several U-turns later we pulled onto our site. Popcorn, tea and biscuits were the order for dinner.

The next morning we went off to Dreamworld on the bus. We had a good time there, but with kids our age (4-5-7) and 2 of the kids rides not working, it was difficult to feel we got AU$265 worth of value! Still, Sienna was delighted to meet Dora the Explorer, the Nickelodean rides a good workout, and if I never hear the screaching from the rides on the Tower of Terror again it will be too soon. So all in all the overall impression of Dreamworld was loud, and don't expect a value proposition if you have under 10's. And then you have to keep them out of the gift shops!

We eventually got back to the campervan with three exhausted kids (and two exhausted parents) only to be surprised by a knock on the door by Jen's parents. The kids in particular were delighted. We bailed on our plan to visit SeaWorld the following day and did a bit of shopping and swimming in the excellent pool at the holiday park.

We celebrated Sienna's 4th birthday that night with a buffet at the park bistro (!) and the worst bottle of wine ever created. We would name and shame, but it was so bad our memory has blanked out the details. We had a prolonged packing session the following morning (utilising 3 more bags than we arrived with) and rolled out of the park on the way to Brisbane and our final night in Oz. We checked into the Quest River View and into a nice 2bed apartment. Jenni fell asleep, feeling more shattered than ill. Unfortunately the afternoon nap was cut short by the party that cranked up in the next door apartment, which lasted until they went out clubbing at 1am. Several calls to reception for action went un-actioned, so Quest River View are on our filthy list.

We resisted the urge to bang on our neighbours door when our alarm went off at 4.30am to catch the shuttle to the airport. The kids made friends with the Senior Constable standing outside the building restricting access to the building (due to an accidental death due to a fall several hours earlier, we have just discovered), who gave them stickers and talked about what Police do. Watch out for us on Police 10-7 (of the Australian equivalent) as they filmed us from across the road).

We had two good flights with Air NZ that day, and while Jen ran the length of Auckland Airport to search for the boys who had slipped off the plane ahead of us, Michael found them being escorted out of the cockpit of the plane where they had been invited for a look-see. Kudos to the ground staff at Auckland Airport who grabbed our bags off the baggage line for us so we could go through international transit and not through arrivals and check-in again. Seasoned travellers would be well aware of the convenience of checking bags through to their final destinations. What can we say other than things were tired and foggy that morning, and we missed giving that instruction at Brisbane check-in. Not to worry, everything arrived intact in Rarotonga (all 17 pieces!!!) and we stepped into that lovely, thick, warm, scented tropical air knowing we were only a short step to home.