Adventure is out there!

  a phrase that #2 says often, which I thought came from Toy Story, but in fact today realised came from my favourite Up!.

Anyhoo, adventure indeed we have had and are still (well adults, probably not kids) recovering from the rigours and stress of said adventures.  The first Sunday of the school holidays we packed ourselves up, and headed to Townsville to catch a plane to Brisbane. Being super organised for once, we were down there three hours before we had to be, and with a spare kid in tow (long story) what else to do but take them to Castle Hill (along with every other person deciding to torture themselves by walking up it) for a drive.

The breeze and the view from the top was gorgeous.

and we even got one of those exceedingly rare photos, the only one for the whole trip:

He didn't look so happy after he climbed a set of steep stairs to another look out after the kids (and neither did I!) but it was good training for what was to come the next day!

Finally on the plane without loosing any kids, and at 9:40 and a bit we arrived in Brisbane, with scant time to make it to the connecting train to the gold coast. It was a most dignified and stress free (snort) gallop through the airport trying to find our way to the AirConnect terminal but we made it with four minutes and time to pee spare.  At 11:30 we arrived in Nerang, met by a nice driver (worth every cent, the AirConnect door to door service) and by 12:15 all kiddies were tucked into bed, husband snoring and me cleaning my teeth and winding down. No idea why I was stressed ;-)

Day One on the Gold Coast was for Wet and Wild, and we caught up with the rest of our group (including mother of spare kid) who collected us in their hired coaster bus. Best idea ever. And highly entertaining, maybe not so much for the driver nor the rest of the Gold Coastians, with a bus load of bushies on the road!

not so many photos from wet n wild, as a parent had to go with the kids on most of the rides.  We were lucky and were able to go on most of them at least once...and OMG. THE STAIRS. Oh, the stairs. Torture oneself climbing to MtbloodyEverest for 40 seconds of wweeeee down the other side. Whose silly idea was this anyhow?

All of the mums went on this rather tame ride, which probably would have gone a lot faster of there weren't so many mum sized bums in the boat. ;-)  We took great delight in watching the men go on some of the more "exciting" rides (ie plain silly) and then all went on The Black Hole, which is as about much fun as it sounds, especially if you have a slight issue with closed in dark spaces. I didn't really think I did until after that wretched thing, and I don't think my boy (who I had my legs tightly wrapped around, sitting in front of me on the tube thing) was too excited about it either. Luckily for me, who was about over it by this stage, a stormed rolled in and we excited in the pouring rain and headed home.

With sore calf muscles ;-)

Off to Seaworld the next day.It was OK. Gazillions of people. Saw the seal show, the kids loved it. Clever critters.

Went on the mono rail, bit ho hum. Went and saw the dolphin show.

which was pretty cool.  Took lots of dodgy dolphin photos.

There were so many people there at Seaworld, the line ups for the few rides was ridiculous, and Angus couldn't go on many. He had to watch the rollercoaster (girls loved it, mum thought it ok but had to close her eyes when upside down, Georgie though said later she was worried she was going to SPLAT) and the jet ski thing, which was akin to a very very very very  fast four wheeler ride but wasn't worth the 40 minute wait to do so. Gus got to go on the Viking ship thing which seemed pretty tame but got a smile out of him! The kids liked the Dinosaur Walk...and the fairy penguins were very cute, and we did see, at a distance, a polar bear. And some more dolphins. And a whole lot more people.

We went home via an invigorating (ie COLD) walk on the beach near our unit.

  

and the braver big kids and their dads hit the water. We don't get surf or waves like this in FNQ! This mother did not allow her kids in the water, fearful of a rip that the lifeguard mentioned!

Wednesday was our "day off" and the mums went shopping to Harbourtown and Trevor in his wisdom took my kids hiking down the road to Pacific Fair in search of a milkshake. They tell me they did not enjoy that adventure. A sleep time was enforced for the afternoon and I tackled the monster that is Pacific Fair myself to get some groceries.

Thursday was Movie World, which would have been pretty good apart from ALL OF THE PEOPLE!  Angus finally got a rollercoaster ride (the little kids one) and a "freaky" ride at the Scooby Doo ride. And after an hour and 15 minutes in line (they are clever and HIDE the length of the line behind walls and bends and the like) we went on the Wild West ride which is a ride in a boat in a canal that takes one through an old west town and ended with a steep fast descent and a big splash.

Husband and mates and big boys went on some redunkulous roller coasters and came back a little pale looking. By 3pm we were all weary of the place and headed home to pack up.

Bright and early the next morning we were waiting at the front of our units to be collected, and a white stretch limo pulls up across the road. We looked at with interest, wondering if someone important was staying across the road, but the driver very cheerfully called out to us that indeed, he was there to collect US. We have now sat our bums on the same leather that Hugh Jackman has.

We journeyed by train with little event back to the airport, and after checking in (and shuffling of baggage around, god knows how my carefully packed bags gained weight, even though I sent stuff home with the others that were driving!) we had time for breakfast and toilets on three DIFFERENT occasions, and did not have long to wait for our plane. Taking the slower, cheaper flight home meant we stopped in Rockhampton (off loaded everything, sat in Rocky airport for 20 minutes then got back into our same seats) but got great views out the window. And the kids got a bonus "blast off" (as Gus calls it) take off and landing, the most exciting part.

And so these not so seasoned travellers finally got home sweet home by around 9pm that night, by the time they breathed in fresh air, had something to eat, replenished supplies to take home and relished the carefree driving in Townsville. I'm not sure one could term this as a refreshing holiday, more of an adventure. One that I feel we have no need to repeat any time soon ;-)