Gold Coast & Dreamworld

After enjoying our stay at the Airbnb accommodation on the Gold Coast so much, we decided to spend the (for now) last few days in Australia there again (see last post Gold Coast).

Among other things, we spent half a day at Pacific Fair, a large shopping center, where we happened to see Sonja Zietlow. We also had dinner again at "The Collective Restaurant" and visited the Goji Bar & Cafe and the Oasis Shopping Center.

On Sunday, we went to the Carrara Markets. In our opinion, it is a visit that can be easily skipped. There is a lot of junk, including second-hand items, cheap fake clothes, handbags, China Ware, fruits, vegetables, etc. We have visited many much nicer markets in Australia. Even the cafes didn't look particularly inviting.

For a day trip, we went to the Dreamworld amusement park on Tuesday (easily accessible by public transport). In this park, you can not only ride roller coasters but also observe native animals and there is an area with a water park. The park is beautiful and offers something for every age. In our opinion, the animal enclosures were not particularly well-designed. Here, you can also have the obligatory photo taken with a koala on your arm (we declined). The water park is relatively large and has some really great slides and a wave pool.

In general, the dispatching at some of the rides could be a bit faster. It was relatively quiet on this day, and we still couldn't do everything. So far, we have been to various amusement parks in Germany, and it definitely goes faster there. Overall, we had a lot of fun and a great day :). Small tip: Compare ticket prices! We bought the tickets online through the park's website (about $10 cheaper) and a few days later, we saw that the tickets at the stand in the shopping center (e.g. Surfers Paradise) were much cheaper. On-site, you currently pay $95 per person for a day ticket.

On Wednesday afternoon, we went to Surfers Paradise. Here, every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday evening, the Beachfront Market takes place on the Esplanade (see website: http://www.surfersparadise.com/things-to-do/beachfront-markets). Surfers Paradise was too touristy for us, and unfortunately, the market had similar goods to the Carrara Market. We strolled through the streets and the shopping center and then went somewhere else for dinner.

We spent the last night in Tweed Heads (New South Wales). We stayed at an Airbnb accommodation, which was about a 5-minute drive from the airport. Our flight departed the next day at 06:25 am, so we wanted to stay close to the airport. What we didn't consider when booking is that Tweed Heads is in a different time zone and one hour ahead. Thank goodness we noticed that in time and took an Uber to the airport on time.

On 27.01., we went to New Zealand for about 3.5 weeks. We have already booked a rental car, accommodations, and flights. The route goes from Queenstown to Auckland. More about that in the next post.