Posts Tagged With: sea lion

Gold Coast, Australia: Day 1-2 at SeaWorld and Draculas

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Mel

I travelled to regional Queensland for a conference last week and managed to arrange it so I had a few days in between when my flight got into Brisbane and when the next one left. B flew over to meet me on Friday afternoon for a Gold Coast long weekend.

We are staying at BreakFree Longbeach in surfers paradise which has an amazing view. It’s very noisy due to construction opposite though.

The drive from Brisbane airport to the Gold Coast was hell. I didn’t believe people when they told me how much worse it is at the moment…I should have listened. Almost 3hrs and it was all stop / start with brakes being constantly slammed on. We used Con-X-ion Shuttles so at least we were not driving! I am not looking forward to the return trip on Tuesday.

I was utterly exhausted on arrival after 5 days of a conference and in a crappy motel room so I basically went to bed with some icecream. B went out to catch up with his cousin who lives here.

Day 2 was a busy day! We started with Sea World! It was really not busy at all which was amazing for a Saturday. We didn’t queue for longer than 6 mins at anything.

While it wasn’t busy, we rode Leviathan which is a huge wooden rollercoaster. They have other rides and rollercoasters but unfortunately most of them were closed.

We went to multiple animal shows including the sea lions and the dolphins!

But the highlight of the day was doing a behind the scenes tour of polar bear shores! No phones allowed so no photos of that part but I stood a metre away from a 500kg polar bear. Amazing. The bear in these photos is Mishka and I also met her – she weighs 300kg.

We got back to the hotel around 4pm for a nap before dinner, drinks and a show at Draculas. It’s changed a bit from 20 years ago! The “ghost train” is definitely not as good now but probably a whole lot safer. We also agree that they have lost a lot of the characterisation that made the wait staff so much fun. They were just staff in weird makeup…no character identities.

We had VIP seats so got to enter first, ride the ghost train and then drink in the bar. It had amazing decorations.

We were the. Taken to our seats. I was glad we booked VIP as the lower level tables had one side facing the stage but the other side with their back to it. Not sure how that is meant to work! Our tables were like stadium seating. The food was average. Not terrible, not great. Drinks were yummy and prices were around $20 a cocktail.

The show was great. I love aerial performers and this show had silks, a double performance on nets and a male aerial artist. The lady leading the whole thing had an amazing voice as well.

Categories: Australian Getaways | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Day 1 +2: Perth to Cervantes + Nambung National Park, WA

Posted on April 10, 2022 by Mel

Cervantes is about a 2.5hr drive north of Perth along the Indian Ocean Highway. It’s quite an easy drive although a very twisty road with lots of black spots so patience is key.

Approx 17kms before you hit Cervantes is the turn off for Nambung National Park and the Pinnacles Tourist Drive! It costs $15 for a day pass into the park, viewing all the limestone pillars is worth it though. Amazing.

Nambung National Park – The Pinnacles
Nambung National Park – The Pinnacles
Nambung National Park – The Pinnacles
Nambung National Park – The Pinnacles

We then kept driving another 10 mins and arrived in Cervantes. We are staying at an air bnb for two nights here which is next to the RAC holiday park so has all the walkable conveniences (beach, park, lobster shack, food) with less of the screaming children. This is opposite our accomodation and less than a 60 second walk away.

Cervantes Beach

Day 2 started with birthday presents for B!!! Yay!! We started the day early and walked across the road to Seashells Cafe to grab a breakfast bacon roll. The weather was shocking (grey, raining, cold) so we drove to Lobster Shack where our sea lion tour was scheduled to depart at 9am. It was cold and pouring rain but we arrived for our early check in anyway figuring if it was cancelled we would just go back to bed.

We still ended up going and getting in the water! It was a bit chilly but we swam with big papa, mum sea lions and babies! B even duck dived with them and played chasey in the sea weed. Very cool to interact that closely with wild animals. I have minimal photos as I only took my phone and it rained most of the time.

The boat stops just off the sea lion colonies home and the seals are encouraged to come and play….no food bribes though as they are protected

For lunch we had the seafood basked at Seashells Cafe and it was….average. I’ve had better, but the convenience of it being across the road was pretty good. B then had a birthday nap while I watched the sky be all moody and grey for the afternoon. Around 4:30pm we drove 4 mins to Lake Thetis. We did the full 1.5km walk loop but there is also a 300m paved boardwalk section for accessibility.

Last nights dinner was at the country club (local bar and lawn bowls club) which was quite tasty and about a 7 min walking distance from our air bnb. Tonight we were going to try out the Bar + Bistro but it’s closed. Then we thought we would try the motel restaurant which serves pizza….but also closed. So, back to the country club it is!

Tomorrow: off to Kalbarri for 2 nights!

Categories: Australian Getaways, coral coast | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

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