Dreamworld

I was so excited for Dreamworld, I even made up a theme song for it. Dreamworld is on the Gold Coast, in Coomera, which is about an hour and a half by transit. It's an amusement park with a little zoo in it, plus a waterslide park. We didn't have a chance to hit up WhiteWaterWorld but we got special passes that get us unlimited entry to both parks until Christmas, so we'll definitely go as it continues to get warmer!

We got there pretty early so we wouldn't have to wait in ridiculously long line-ups for rides. We went on the Cyclone, a loopy roller coaster, the Wipeout (not my favourite) and the Claw, which was THE FREAKING BEST RIDE EVER.


Wheee!!

Then it was on to Tiger Island, to watch the tigers eat, jump, climb trees and generally loll about.


Mohan, the oldest, the white tiger.


Tigers love milk!


I did mention the lolling.


Tigers, really, are just big cats, after all.

Then on through to the Australian Wildlife Experience, which had plenty of koalas:







Aw, little tired non-bears! Also, some sleepy roos (it was pretty hot at this point!):







Not to mention the crocs! These are "freshies" (freshwater crocodiles):


If you look real close you can see the litle red dragonfly on his head!



We also got to watch the saltwater crocodiles get fed. That was pretty amazing and terrifying. 5000 pounds of jaw pressure. Huge, dinosaur-like beasts, way bigger than these guys. Pat will have pictures of "Goliath" up soon.

Also, there were some beautiful birds in the aviary. Among the roos, we spotted an emu (they are hard to miss):



and in the reptile house, a little green tree frog:



There was also a baby wombat cuddling experience that I will have to do next time we go. I love wombats, they are like land-koalas. So cute!!

Next, we went on the log ride. It was later in the afternoon, now, so the wait in the queue was substantially longer than it had been in the morning (like 45 minutes). It was a great ride though, very atmospheric, and I got very, very wet since I was sitting in the front.

On to the Moto Coaster, which was super cool - basically, a roller coaster that has you riding on a motorcycle. It was so much fun, but again the line was very long and the ride was pretty short. If the ride had been just a bit longer, it would have been the best!

Dreamworld had some great shops in the main shopping area, including:

Ice cream parlour and gigantic candy shop.


Fairytale treasures!!! Easily my favourite shop there. They had a fairy out front doing face-painting.


There was a little train that went through the park. This is "central station".


The "fire station" (it stands to reason that the place is functional, but I didn't make sure. There wasn't a real fire station for miles).


A carriage in the old-timey village area.


There was so much to do and see. We didn't do all of it - next time we'll ride the train, the boat, the vintage cars, the Claw (again!), cuddle some baby wombats and then head over to White Water World for some waterslide action.

Just before the park closed, we went on the "Reef Diver" (which like the "Enterprise" back home) and then said farewell.


Goodbye Dreamworld! See you next time!