Day 240
Friday
25 August 2017 – Began my new novel “The Sunshine Sisters” by
Jane Green. I am expecting this one to be a very easy read but with a tangle of
relationships.
Dream World
With the usual routine out of the way, we said goodbye to
Scott just after 9.30am and made our way to Dream World. We passed Movie World
along the way, which had my heart doing palpitations as we spied the roller
coasters they had on offer. Soon after the very large spire of Dream World came
into view and my hands began sweating.
We pulled into the half empty car park, dodged the large
contingent of Asian tourists milling about at the entrance and made our way
inside. We put our gear into a locker, had our photo taken at the sign and then
began our wander around the park.
Our first stop was the Peter Brock exhibition, of which Paul
grumbled around it, complaining about his death ruining a great bike road in
Perth. We walked past the cars, not really taking in what we were looking at. I
have little to no interest in racing cars and they just looked like regular
Holdens with a few extra decals.
As we exited the museum we found ourselves at the foot of
the Hot Wheels roller coaster, so we followed the corkscrew path up the outside
of the building and straight to the entry of the ride. Buckled in, there was no
turning back and we took off being thrown about side to side and upside down as
we completed a couple of loops before heading back to the start. With one down,
I was now feeling a little less anxious and was ready to tackle the other rides
on offer.
We did a walk of the perimeter, passing through Tiger
Island, where two white and two orange tigers were lazing about with their
keepers on watch. Once tiger was in a cage longingly gazing out from his
window, you could just imagine his thoughts “get me outta here”
We continued on to the Corroboree Park, where there were
Australian animals on show, cassowary, koalas, tree kangaroos and a variety of
bird life, one bird was being chased down by a keeper with a net. It received a
smack on the head for its troubles, as the metal loop came crashing down on top
of it and the netting captured it. If it wasn’t injured before it probably had
a good headache now.
We continued to walk through the zoo stopping to check out
the dingoes who were sitting up on an old car in their cage, the perfect photo
opportunity, if only I had my big camera with me and not in the locker.
We passed the giant drop ride, one I was definitely not doing and then moved on to the Moto M coaster. Once again we were straight on to the ride, one in which you sit on motorbikes as it whizzes you around the circuit. This one was a lot of fun, but was over way too fast, so we jumped straight back on when we were back.
We passed through the photo shop opting to pick up a $25
photo pass rather than buy the individual prints at $17 a piece. All of our
photos were loaded on to the card and off we went.
We returned to the locker briefly and then went back to the
Kung Fu Panda area to get our plastic season pass cards and then having lunch.
We sat in a restaurant that overlooked the Tiger Island and watched the big
cats do very little. The sky came over quite grey and it had turned a little
cool and then it began to spit. Thankfully, any serious rain stayed away and by
the time we had finished lunch we were able to continue in sunshine.
Our next stop was the Shrek area and another roller coaster.
This one was not particularly challenging and probably a good cross over for
the younger kids, none the less we still enjoyed it.
After having our photos put on our account, we returned to the Hot Wheels ride. We walked up the inside of the tower this time, arriving just as they shut the gates for the current ride. We would have to wait for it to return, but it didn’t go and all the riders were asked to get out; there was a technical difficulty with a gate that wouldn’t close properly. We were told it wouldn’t be a long wait, but after about 20min we were told to go and come back, Paul was mightily impressed.
We picked up our photo from our morning ride and then headed
through the Gold Rush area. Paul was
keen to go on the Buzz Saw ride, but I had drawn the line at this one and was
happy to sit and watch him instead. Of course he chose the front seat for the
extra thrill and was yahooing the whole way round.
We returned to the Moto XP ride, but had a wait before being
able to jump on. We had been lucky that the park was quiet today and the queues
were no existent. We would have had no patience for standing in lines for an
hour to experience a barely 1min ride.
After completing the ride, we collected my camera from the
locker and returned to Tiger Island for the 3.30pm show. The keepers were doing
some behaviour work with the four, nearly two-year old females. It was
interesting to observe.
At the end of the show, we returned to the locker, grabbed
our things and then made for the gate, passing through the Lego shop with
amazing lego statues and to the car for the journey home.
We arrived just after 5pm and Scott was off to his gig in
Kirra. We took time to unwind for a while before Kirsty arrived home from work.
She gave us some things to give to Scott and the address of the venue and then
we made our way to the Kirra Sports Club where we met Scott.
We found a table, ordered our dinner and then sat back to
enjoy the entertainment. It was quite an entertaining venue, with the locals
giving us plenty of laughs along the way.
We sang along to Scott’s songs and chatted to him between
sets. Unfortunately, he was basically singing to us, and the odd one or two
that ventured through to the bar.
Scott finished his set at 10am and began packing away his
gear. We hung around and then gave him a lift back with us rather than risk him
driving after a few drinks.
I was so glad to be back in bed for 11pm,stuffed after our
big day out.
Paul's feature in the online magazine "The Crafty Pint" can be found at the following link
https://craftypint.com/news/1609/Beer_Nuts_Paul_Cooke
He's almost famous!
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