464 Australia Part 2 - Gold Coast

Second stop: Gold Coast

Gold Coast. First thing I felt stepping out of the arrival gates, warm. Really warm. And sunny. The last time we were here was about ...14 years ago? Wow.

Our trip to the apartments was long. Really. The other day sis said it was about an hour? Wow. And warm. Outside the windows, it really looked like some sandy warm country, hahaha.
We reached the place in the end, after I received an email stating information about late check-ins. Then I realised, it was Sunday. And the reception closed at 12noon on Sundays. Oh my goodness. Australia! Really!! This is a tourist spot, and the reception closes at 12noon on a Sunday??? Seriously?! Gah, anyway we got in alright as they had everything planned.

The place was spacious, but stuffy? The air-conditoner is running all right, but the air coming out was just normal temperature, not cool. So basically it was just blowing air. We got 2 rooms. One for father, another one for sis and I. Got a small bedside table between our beds, and a table lamp on top. It was unplug, and the socket was way at the end of the bed on the wall, no way they can connect. Hahaha. What's the point of it? We found a stand fan in the wardrobe, again, it had mirrors at the outer side of the sliding doors. And surprise, the fan was not working...  Father had his own en-suite bathroom in his room, and we got one full bathroom just outside of our room. Great.

We headed out after settling down. It was sooo warm. But a bit windy, so that helped, sort of. Still, sis and I wore hoodies. Father on the other hand, just a t-shirt and 3/4 length pants and out he went. Hahahaha. The contrast we made. We walked all the way to McDonalds. And believe me, it's quite a distance under the weather. It was a relief to finally stepped into McDonalds. And fries. We ordered fries! Yay! 24pieces of nugget cost $9.95? THAT'S CHEAP! We all had a burger each and I had my blueberry frozen drink.

Our first meal in Gold Coast. 

After that, WE WALKED ALL THE WAY BACK. Huh?? Why didn't we continue on... But it's good that we went back to have some rest.

We went back out there after some rest. This time, we stopped by 7-11. We had some interesting conversations with the cashier about the bus so and forth. We wanted to take the bus to Movie World the next day and also wanted to head down to Surfers Paradise. I think, father didnt really understand the bus card system. So the cashier kept repeating, hahahahaha!! We bought each a bus card (for life the cashier said, the card would last), and headed down to ...town I suppose?

It's Sunday, so it was pretty empty. We walked down further, and took the light rail and reached Surfers Paradise. Ooo. Now that was where all the people were. Lots. Compare to Melbourne, there's much more blondes there. We passed by car racings on the way, of which many more people boarded the tram. We reached Surfers Paradise finally. Lots of people and lots of shops. Souvenirs. We bought some souvenirs too.

Movenpick Ice-creams

Surfers Paradise

We headed back once the sky started to turn dark. Light rail then bus. It was dark. Totally dark.


Next day...

We woke early and check-in at 9am at the reception and then we were off to Movie World. Took the bus to bus station in Halensvale then from there, we took a special bus to Movie World, we stopped by Wet n' Wild on the way. Which turned out, just next door to Movie World.

So, now these are all the photos. We spent the day walking around looking at stores and attractions. I am not much a rides person, so we only sat one. Wanted to try the spooky Scooby-Doo one, but it was not operating that day. Oh well, we were not in luck.

That's the Superman ride. The colours matches.

This is just plain adorable!!!!! 

We bought our lunch here.

Nice aren't they. We bought the souvenir cup too. :)

This is still so impressive to look at. I wonder how it would look like at night, with spot lights and rainy weather. 

Just some random thing I found. :)

One of my highlights of the trip, seeing these guys. Looney Tunes.!!! They're my absolute favourite!!! I got more emotional seeing them than the kids, hahahaha.

They have DCEU posters on each frames for posters. HAHAHAHA.

They had photoshoots for heroes too. We saw Superman, Green Lantern, then Flash, Supergirl and Wonder Woman. Oh.. Wonder Woman still had her old suit from New52. 

They even had a full section of the park dedicated to the Legion of Doom. Wow. The statues are amazing. I personally like Scarecrows. When I stood there staring at it, that was incredible.

Scarecrow is really good!!!! He's emitting gas occasionally.

Poison Ivy 

Killer Croc. I think, there's water blasting out of the pipe? Or not, just water fountains.

This is so big!!! Fit for Doomsday. A long queue for its ride. 

Captain Cold

Gorilla Grodd

This is really trueee.

Just around the corner was the Wild West section. The sun was super hot, really suits the area. There's water ride, of course we didn't go for that. Went to look around, collected the coin souvenirs. In the shop, I saw a big RoadRunner plushie!!! But it's only if you bought something from the store, then you could purchase it. NOOOOOO. We ended up leaving without it....

After this, sis and I went over to the WB kids section. AHHHHHH. LOONEY TUNES!!! I took way lots more photos here. I am not gonna post much here cause most photos have us in them? Hahahaha. 

Anyway, we took lots with the statues. And saw Baby Taz board! AARRGHHH. We sat the RoadRunner roller coaster like sis wanted. Hahaha. We ended laughing during the ride. LOL.

Moving on, we went to Justice League's area near the entrance. And went for the 4D experience, shooting alien stars. Starro? I didn't take any photos inside the Hall of Justice because apparently, we were rushing to the 4D experience? Grrrr. Was so pretty inside.

Once done, we went to look at the famous DC Rivals Hypercoaster. Wow.... that's incredible. My classmates went for it a few days ago. OMG. And I realised it now, I forgot to take a photo of it!!!!

Anyway, we went back the same way we came.

Before heading back to city with the other bus, we went to Westfield at the Halensvale station. They have EB Games etc. We stopped by the toy shop which I can't seem to remember the name of, and they have this Nightmare Before Christmas theme going on. They had on displayed, a pair of big NBC Jack and Sally mug. ARRGHHH. Those were so pretty!! And The vinyl figures too!! We saw a HTTY doormat too. We walked over to EB games, nothing much, and we headed straight the disc shop. Lots of stuffs inside, we saw TITANS and ROSWELL. WOW. And we bought both, hahahahahaha. So happy. We had hot drinks before leaving the place.

Went back to our apartment. Rest up a bit, went for dinner. We had steak! Texting my friend while eating throughout dinner, that was fun.

I can't remember what this is....

My steak, with mushroom sauce. Medium rare.

The 3 sides. Something onions, mushrooms and garlic prawns.

Salmon!

Happy to end our trip with steak. Dinner was nice.The picked the steak right while we were ordering.

Next day...

Our long trip back to Christchurch. A day. Needed to spent a day to get back to Christchurch. urrgh. 

We had brunch at the airport. We tried the Red Roster chicken of which we kept seeing on the roadside.

Happy with our trip. Bought lots of stuffs in WB Movie World. 

Our All-Stars!!!

463 Australia trip Part 1 - Melbourne

Yup. We went to Australia for my old classmate's wedding. Figured that since I am just across the sea, why not go and attend? A few flew in from Singapore/Malaysia, I should really make the trip. Food trip too.

First stop: Melbourne.

And it was great. Always happy to see my old classmates. The wedding venue was lovely. Decorations are pretty too. It was a long drive though, from the city. The weather was ups and downs. It was sunny, windy, rainy etc. Wonderful.

       

The colour theme was rose gold, I think. As most of the colours tend to go that way. I tried champagne, tasted weird. Lol

Anyway, sis and I were in Melbourne for 3 days 2 nights. Glad to come to Melbourne. Lots of different food to see, but we didn't get much chance to do so. Walking down the streets, were shocked to see that everywhere we see, Asians. Hahaha. Can't really find any natural blondes in the crowd. Felt like Singapore. And I didn't felt like the odd one out with my colour. Lots of Asians shops. And the food!!! Oh!! Malaysian food!!!! There's one “Laksa House" OMG. Though we didnt try any of the laksa. Hahahaha. First night we arrived, we tried Japanese food, becauseeeee, Laksa house was full!!!!

Seafood yakisoba & chicken katsu don

Looks nice aren't they? But not so much on the taste though. I don't like the katsu sauce though.

For the next night's dinner though, tasted much better. We went to "Laksa House"! We were early, so many seats and tables! And ordered iced milo! Chicken rice always tasted good! Gahh...

Hainanese Chicken rice

I can't remember the name but this taste so nice!!!

Old classmates and I made plans to have dinner that actually. But then, until 6:30pm, there's still not a beep. Sis and I decided to just head out for dinner instead. We had an early flight tomorrow, not going to sleep that late. Kind of disappointed not able to have dinner with them, maybe next time. My friend met up with us after dinner. We wanted ice-cream (I was craving Natural ice-cream at that point), friend drove us this apparently quite popular Italian ice-cream some distance away. There's a queue in front. Ooh.

Chocolate and Cookie & cream

I have no idea why did we got such normal flavours. Hahahahaha!!!!

On the side note, I love our place in Melbourne. It's an apartment. Everything is in it. I specially like the wardrobe sliding doors big mirrors. That was nice! Also, they have the washer/dryer thing. That was nice. And the airconditioner. Great. Always happy to see air-conditioner.

Next morning's trip to the airport was... a down. I knew they gave us a 20min window, but still, did they have to push it that close??? I think the van arrived at 8:20am, OMG. Other than that, Melbourne airport was homey. Maybe because it's just a domestic flight? We took off on time. Yippee.

462

First day of the November. The previous post was the first day of October.

So, up till now, updates...updates..

Yep, I am still hip deep in the ship and fanfictions. I have been rereading fics too. Hahahaha.

My shifts are alright right now. The colleague I mentioned that of whom going to take long leave? She's coming back in a weeks time, so I am not covering her shift anymore, but I am taking others' shift. Weird. Just let me day off. Duh.

The new shifts have put me and sis on Sundays for coming weeks. NO. We don't work on Sundays. We specifically said so. I am not taking the risk. We are ok to work Monday to Saturday, but not Sunday. If our hours are not enough, then put in more for weekdays. Not Sundays. Sunday is our church day.

I have started reading <Wizards of Once> 2nd book and <Good Omens>. <Good Omens> I read it kind of routinely every night, to get the the reading done. Or else I will keep putting it on hold. I need to read more. Really. I keep buying books, but didn't try hard enough to spend time on them. What's the matter with me... Anyway, <Good Omens> is an interesting read. I started with watching the Amazon series first, then get in on the book. I like how the characters are portrayed in the series. When I read the book, it's a bit different. I find that refreshing. I mean, you will form your own interpretation of the characters via their interactions. By the way, I find that I like to read in some place quiet. I can't really concentrate on my reading when the television is on. I find people's voice distracting, especially coming out from the television. More so if it's dramas. Game shows are alright? Hmm.. I'm not sure I think.

Hm....moving on. Not much to watch in the cinemas recently. I'm waiting for KNIVES OUT and MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN. For now, I think my local cinemas are scheduling session times for KNIVES OUT, but not the other one. Meh. Why not???



Watching Maleficent on Sunday. I'm not looking forward to that.