I Need A Moment To Deliberate

Among the stars we were indeed coz this was the day we went to Movie World. The journey to Movie World took about 1/2 hour from our hotel and we reached Movie World at about 9.30 a.m. The first ride we went to was Batman Adventure The Ride 2. Upon entering Bruce Wayne’s Manor, we were brought into his library and given our tasks. In this simulated high-tech ride (which is similar to the 3D ride in Genting), we followed Batman and his friends fought against evil. Rafiq got the chance to take photos infront of Batman Car. Cool!!

Next on our agenda was the Lethal Weapon Roller Coaster Ride. As we were walking there, we walked along buildings featured in Warner Bros movies (The Daily Planet) and also souvenir shops which are based on Warner Bros movies e.g. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Anyway, the Lethal Weapon Ride was an awesome thrill ride featuring over 765 metres of non-stop drops, dives, bends, rollovers, sidewinders, double spins, loops and plungers. I saw my feet against the sky, travelled at 85 kmph and felt 4Gs of gravity!!

After the ride, I went on another ride being the Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster Ride. It’s like going into a haunted house on a roller coaster. The worst part is it’s dark inside so you don’t really know where you’re going. Just out of the blue, you are swerved left, right and suddenly it goes backwards!! But it was fun with amazing laser lights and sound effects!! After that, we went to the centre to see two shows, the Marilyn Monroe Show and Bonnie & Clyde Show. At about 11.30 a.m. we saw this gold convertible approaching and out came Marilyn Monroe and her dancers singing a few of her famous songs. The only song I remembered was Diamonds Are Girls Bestfriends :o) After Marilyn Monroe left, Bonnie & Clyde came to demonstrate their way of fooling a policeman to rob a bank.

Next on the agenda was The Matrix Exhibit where we get to see the props used in all Matrix movies. I’m not really a fan so I don’t really know how to explain or go ga-ga over it. We then proceeded to the boulevard to see the Scooby-Doo Show, where Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Velma and Daphne appeared in 70’s look and ask the audience to dance to a disco beat before being attacked by a monster ghost. After that, I went on the Road Runner Roller Coaster which is something like the dragon roller coaster in Genting. After the Lethal Weapon ride, this roller coaster seems less thrilling (eksyen nyer!!). When I got off, it was just in time for me to catch the Looney Tunes Musical Revue. This was held in a closed stage studio where the Looney Tunes characters namely Bugs & Lola Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester & Taz took us on a musical journey through a decade of past hits starting from the 70s. They even wore costumes of the particular era which was really cute.

After Zuhur prayers, we lined up along the main boulevard to see the All Star Parade with Warner Bros famous characters parading along the street. We saw the cast of Police Academy, Shrek, Batman, the Looney Toons gang, Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Inc. It’s just like those parades during Merdeka Day..hehehe :o) Then, it was time for the ride I’ve been waiting for, the Superman Escape. The ride was the first thing we saw upon entering Movie World and I thought, "GOSH!! THAT’S FREAKING FAST!!" The queue was long and I had to wait approximately 30 minutes. It’s the most awesome, exhilirating and hair raising roller coaster experience!! It went like vertically upwards at 100kmph in 2 SECONDS!! Yikes!! I dunno whether to scream or laugh or cry during the ride. I can’t even remember whether I had my eyes open or shut. But it was a great experience! I went on all the roller coaster rides in Movie World except the Wild West Falls Adventure Ride because it was close for maintenance. Rafiq teased me for being afraid of the dark and frogs and yet so berani to go on roller coaster rides :o)

Rafiq got the opportunity to take pictures with Batman and Friends, Catwoman and Austin Power (Groovy baby!) as we were walking to see the Police Academy Stunt Show. The 1/2 show was an all-action, all-live stunt expose featuring awesome highfalls, huge explosions and sensational car chases and crashes. Finally we went to watch the Shrek 4D Adventure. The story revolves around the ghost of Lord Farquaad who is still haunting the lives of Shrek and Princess Fiona in order to break them up. Not only you get to wear the 3D glasses, you can even feel the Donkey sneezing on you! (Yucks!!)

Well, that’s basically our day spent at Warner Bros Movie World. We reached the hotel at about 6 p.m. had dinner at Surfer’s Paradise Boulevard and packed for our trip to Tangalooma the next day!!

Today we had an early start as we will be heading to

Brisbane

for a city tour. The weather didn’t look that good. Yesterday before we went to bed, we opened the balcony door and the wind was howling and the trees looked as if they will fall off any time. Our bus came at 7.30 a.m. and we were off to

Brisbane

. I slept throughout the journey, being tired from yesterday’s Sea World tour . We arrived at

Brisbane

at about 9 a.m. Unfortunately I couldn’t keep myself awake when the bus was moving. I knew that we passed some old church, the City hall, some famous Irish pub. Hehehe.

Our first stop was at the Cliff of Boardwalk where we had a view of

Brisbane

’s Central Business District. By the time we got there it was drizzling so we made a dash from our bus to the look out point. We were probably there for only 5 to 10 minutes. On the way to Newstead, we stopped at Breakfast Creek Hotel which is famous for serving beer off the wood keg. No other pub does that, they even have a private bar for serving the beers. Inside the hotel, the have a history of the hotel which was opened in 1889. The restaurant was full with people who was there for breakfast and their meals looked really yummy. We were only there for tea and scones with jam. But that was yummy too.

We then headed off to

Newstead

Park

where we were to board on our cruise which will take us along

Brisbane

River

.

Newstead

Park

is a historic place where World War II was concerned. They even have a monument honouring the Royal Navy who perished during that period. We boarded our cruise at about 11 a.m. From

Newstead

Park

, we passed houses and brick buildings (wool factories) before going into the Central Business District (CBD). There’s a sudden change from residential area to tall skylines marking the CBD. We also had the opportunity to cruise under

Storey

Bridge

, one of the famous landmarks in Brisbane. The cruise too about 1 1/2 hours and we then have the time to ourselves before the bus picks us up at Southport at 1.40 p.m. It was drizzling and we didn’t know how to take the bus to the River Market so we just hung around and visited the Museum and the Performing Arts Centre.

We were then taken to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where we had the opportunity to be up, close and personal with koalas, kangaroos, wombats, wallabees, dingos and a few exotic bird. Too bad the Tazmanian Devil was not on display that day. DANG!! We had to buy a poncho because the drizzle was getting heavier.

Our Brisbane City tour ended with our visit to Mount Coot-Tha (it’s an aborigine language but I just can’t remember what it means), a look-out hill that overlooks Brisbane City. It was really cold because the rain hasn’t stopped so we had coffee. The view was clearer just when we were about to leave.

We arrived at Surfers Paradise at about 6.00 p.m. We then had briyani for dinner. Though the weather was not that good, we really enjoyed ourselves!! Can’t wait to go to Movie World tomorrow!

I slept soundly the next day and woke up for Subuh prayer. I waited for sunrise and enjoyed the serenity of a new day in Gold Coast.

After breakfast, we walked to the beach. By the time we got there, there were quite a number of people there already. We just strolled along the beach to kill time before our coach arrived to take us to Sea World.

Our coach arrived at 9.00 a.m. The journey to Gold Coast took about 10 minutes. There was already a long queue but alas, we didn’t have to wait that long before we entered Sea World.

We started our tour at The World of Sea Aquarium. Exotic fish and sea creatures were placed in individual aquariums. We saw Nemo among others and some dangerous fish which were carnivor. Then we headed to the Dugong Discovery exhibition which was an educational journey into the world of dugong. There was a huge aquarium which housed Sea World’s resident dugong and other marine life.

We then went to Captai Cook’s Adventure where a ship stood by to allow us to admire the beauty of Sea World. Then off we go to the Dolphin Nursery where several species of dolphins are allowed to swim freely in a lake-type nursery. As we were walking to the nursery, we also saw pelicans "lepaking" nearby. There was to be a Dolphin Show at the Dolphin Cove so along the way, we passed by Cartoon Network Cartoon Beach. There were children’s rides such as Dexter’s Time Machine, Woody’s Beachtrucks and Air-Sea Rescue Choppers. As we walked passed Cartoon Beach’s gift shop, I had the honour (hehehe) to take photos with the Powerpuff Girls. YIPPEE!!

Then off we went to the Polar Bear Shores. There were 2 polar bears being exhibited and Polar Bear Shores provides a near-natural Artic summer environment for them.  

We paseed the water park which has those intereting twirling slides before plunging into the pool. We reached the Dolphine Cove early..probably 10 minutes before the show so we bought popcorns. We really enjoyed the show as it potrayed the dolphins elegant grace and was charmed by their hilarious characters. The dolphins swam, danced, waved, did some sommersaults. I heard a lady who was sitting beside me repeatedly saying to her husband, "Gosh, how did the trainers teach them to do that?" It was indeed an amazing show!!  

After the dolphin show we headed to the Shark Bay. This place was divided into two: the rock pool which has starfish, sea urchins which we were allowed to touch and a huge man-made lagoon which placed the ocean’s most feared predators. It was awesome!! There were many shark species, tuna, grouppa, sting rays..I can’t even name them all! Marine life are so interesting and mysterious. I think..other than waiting for the rides, we spent the most time at the Shark Bay. It was really amazing!!

After going ooh and ahh at the Shark Bay, it was time to take those rides!! First we rode on the Viking’s Revenge Flume Ride, which was similar to the one in Sunway Lagoon. You know, it goes up and take a plunge! Then it was the Bermuda Triangle ride. It is similar to the previous one but this one is bigger..like a hoovercraft and it seats maybe about 15-20 people. But the fun part was the gimmick they made..where we had to enter into the unknown..so mysterious and very dramatic..with special effects and sounds..all that jazz!! Then we went on the Pirate Ship, which is similar to Zampela in the Mall. Last but not least, the triple loop Corkscrew Rollercoaster! I am an ardent fan of rollercoasters and I wouldn’t miss any rides for the world! Really cool and fun!! Of course I screamed with enjoyment..not so much of fear :o)

After the roller coaster ride, we sort of were running out of time. It was already 2 p.m. and we hadn’t had lunch so we took the cable car to get a bird-eye view of Sea World and that’s the walk-less mode to our lunch place. We had fish & chips. Didn’t get to savour and enjoy it much coz the Quest of the Golden Seal Show was on at 2.30 p.m. This is a drama show as well which featured Inala Bones and his trusty sea lion sidekicks search the darkest jungles and the deepest depths for a lost explorer. The sea lion was huge..it slides, clapped, waved, kissed a spectator..which was really fun to watch.

After that, we took the monorail in Sea World to catch a show called Planet SOS which is a 4-D screening of the most pressing current environmental issues. Last but not least, we bought some souvenirs before heading to the Waterski Wipeout Show. The show was fullof catchy tunes, colourful costumes and sets, slapstick humour and a cool cast of characters, all themed in true 1960s style.

The Waterski Wipeout was our last stop at Sea World and we left Sea World at 5 p.m. When we reached Surfers Paradise, we headed to Surfers Paradise Boulevard for dinner and to purchase souvenirs. It was already 9 p.m. when we reached our hotel and we slept like a log after a great day at Sea World.

Finally, the day we were looking forward to has arrived. I woke up at 5.30 a.m. to get ready for our ride to the airport which should arrive at 6.45 a.m. With a heavy heart, we kissed Faiq goodbye and headed to the airport. Our flight was at 850 hours. We ate breakfast before meeting up with an old girlfriend, Zetty, who was on the way to UK for her sister’s graduation.

Our flight was delayed for about ½ hour. I watched The Terminal and Finding Nemo whilst on flight. I probably slept for a while. At about 1920 hours, we finally touched down at Brisbane International Airport. We were stuck at the airport’s quarantine for about an hour before meeting up with our coach driver from Door2Door.

The journey from the airport to Gold Coast took about 1 hour. We reached Vibe Hotel at about 2130 hours. After solat and a short rest, we took a walk to Surfers Paradise Boulevard. Since this is a tourist spot, there were many shops ranging from souvenir shops to boutiques. It was Friday night and the area and clubs were filled with people. Most of the shops were closed by the time we got there. We then made our way to the beach. Had kebab by the beach for dinner. It was YUMMY! Walked back to the hotel at about 2330 hours and only then did we realized how tired we were. Better catch some sleep as we’ll be spending the whole day at Sea World tomorrow. See you in Mama’s dream, Faiq!!