Because I have a tendency to go on a bit (which I believe is a teacher thing) I will list the major activities we undertook, give them a rating out of 10 for awesomeness, then comment to the tune of one paragraph. We’ll see how that goes.
Note: Names in green are hyper-links to websites related to those attractions.
Koi – We arrived in Broadbeach about 7:00 on a Tuesday. Once we dropped our bags off in our room and headed out for dinner, it was amazing the amount of activity on the streets. By happy coincidence, we had booked accommodation in a venue that was fronted by a block of restaurants on both sides of the street. We chose Koi based on the age-old principle of ‘if a place looks busy, the food must be good.’ And we weren’t disappointed. More importantly though, our waiter was not only competent but quite hilarious, qualities that we would come to realise are sadly lacking in Gold Coast hospitality. It was a great start to our honeymoon. 8/10
Phoenician Apartments - Our accommodation was choice. For the location and the time of year, we got an incredible deal, saving about $2000 over the usual cost for the space we received. Located in Broadbeach, we found the atmosphere both peaceful and energising, not as grossly commercial as Surfers Paradise itself, but close enough for access. You’ll see from the other sections that it was well placed for us to get to locations like the Convention Centre, Dracula’s and Pacific Fair. 9/10
The view from our 8th storey apartment was amazing. You'd know that if our giant heads weren't in the way.
Dreamworld – I have been to Dreamworld once before, when I was about 10 years old. I was looking forward to going back and checking out some of the rides that I was too small or wussy to get on last time. To that end, The Claw was a poor first choice of ride. It looked deceptively gentle from the ground, but it turned out that when you were in it, upside down, with only the harness holding you in your seat it wasn’t so relaxing. The Claw decimated our collective matrimonial nerve to the point where we spent the rest of the day riding log flumes and such. Thumbs down go to the lunch we paid quite a lot of money to at ‘Fast Foods’. It was rubbish. But before leaving we spent far too much money in the candy shop. We left with like a shopping bag full of lollies. That made me feel better. :) 5/10
The Big prawn. Incidentally, Cush does love seafood this much. There are teethmarks in that thing.
Dracula’s – We were pretty ambitious, cramming Dreamworld and Dracula’s into a single day, and I distinctly remember being buggered by the end of it. But it was totally worth it. I was so captivated by the band, who warmed the audience up by turning rock songs - like Radiohead’s Creep, Ugly Kid Joe’s I Hate Everything about You and Metallica’s Enter Sandman - into jazz, that it wasn’t until the walk home that I realised the show as a whole had no story. We had such a good time I can’t hold it against them though. We laughed a lot, just a really good time. 9/10
Pacific Fair – We had a cruisy day after the previous Dreamworld/Dracula’s double team. After brunch we headed out on foot (we did this a lot, foolishly) for Pacific Fair. We’d seen its exterior across the road from Dracula’s and thought it bore further exploration. It turned out to be a city-sized mall. It was ridiculously huge. But we just wandered around and it was a good time. I managed to pick up some cheap books and even some birthday presents for some people back home, plus I got a used copy of Brutal Legend pretty cheaply, so that was a bonus. 8/10
Basketball – On a total impulse, we decided to attend a basketball game that night. The Gold Coast Blaze versus the Adelaide 36ers. It was the first live basketball game that Cushla had attended, and neither of us were sure how it would go. We needn’t have worried though, because Cush is nothing if not vocal, and she quickly got behind the 36ers, clapping cheering and also dispensing advice from time to time... The experience definitely made me wish I had been more active over the last 10 years in my own support of basketball. I remember being amazed at how popular basketball was when I was in Beijing, and I’m definitely hoping the same holds true if (when) we get to Japan. P.S The 36ers won. Probably because of Cush. 10/10 I married a sports fan. Woohoo!
Infinity – Infinity does a great job of hyping itself, but not such a good job on delivering the goods. It's touted as a glimpse into the future. Well if the future requires everyone to wear white napkin slipper things and walk through mirror mazes full of blinded laser lights, count me out. Cryogenically freeze me until we graduate past that and become more like the Jetsons. (Didn't see them wearing napkin slippers...) We paid about $50 for the pair of us, and that provided approximately 20 minutes of walking through unusual rooms. Granted, you can walk as quickly or slowly as you wish, thereby providing value for money. But, honestly, I was over it. It was less trippy than the Yayoi Kusama exhibit I saw in Wellington a few months back. The first few rooms were pretty cool, but I think the designer/engineer/whoever-comes-up-with-these-ideas-man ran out of steam after the fifth ‘mind-blowing concept’. 3/10
Okay, that's it for now. I'm gonna have to go three-parter on this one! Back soon.
1 comment:
Love it! And the basketball game sounds cool :-) Did you know Tio and my first date was to a basketball game??? I spilt pepsi all over his pants and here we are 12 years later... :-)
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