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On the first week of the July school holidays we flew to the Gold Coast (in Queensland between Brisbane and the NSW border). It was our first family holiday that did not involve visiting family or camping (or even both). Mum had rented a spacious house on Airbnb with a lovely view on a canal. Unfortunately, the promised trampoline had broken down, but the kids still entertained themselves on the jetty, we just had to supervise them a bit more closely.
Near the Gold Coast airport, we visited a wildlife park. Juliana, who enjoys being carried (by dad, she is getting too heavy for mum), enjoyed the koalas. We attended an impressive bird show, patted a snake and a kangaroo, and rode on a little train. It was great to visit this relatively uncommercial zoo - we still had to exit with the kids through the souvenir shop - before doing the more popular theme parks.
The first proper theme park was Movie World. We went off to the kids section, where we found a merry-go-round for Juultje. Her endurance was a bit of a problem; we only worked out on towards the end of the break that we should take her home around noon and return a few hours later to pick up Piet and Emma. They tried the Pounce-And-Bounce and would later return together with Juliana. But first they discovered a small roller coaster, with enough thrill (see penultimate carriage) to keep them entertained and a short enough queue - often just a few minutes - to keep them coming back, and back, and back. Emma ventured onto two adult rides with dad, but otherwise we limited ourselves to bumpy-rides and a racing/skidding/tire-burning show - dad really liked the humour.
On Monday, we went up Tamborine mountain, where Piet and Emma went digging for thunderbird-eggs - kind of crystals formed in lava. We had two cut afterwards - they look interesting. In the meantime, Juliana did a pony ride and hung around a creek with mum. In the evening, the girls went shopping - Emma had brought no shorts - while Piet and dad swam in the surf on Mermaid beach. The water felt like a comfortable 23 degrees. On Tuesday, we went to Wet-'n-Wild, but the queues were rather long, despite it being winter, so we went back to neighbouring Movie World for a few more rides while mum took Juultje home.
On the last full day, we went to Sea World, where we saw penguins being fed, polar bears, a marvelous dolphin show, a jet ski show and an amazing aquarium. But one of the best experiences was really simple: touching star fish and the wings of stingrays. We ran out of time for a bigger ride. The next day, before travelling to the airport, we tried to do the ride, but Emma had set her mind on another ride, which was closed, we assumed because of a technical defect. We went for a less challenging orange submarine ride with Juliana instead. It was the end of a lovely holiday.
P.S. Because of the holidays, Piet and Emma did not have a football match in the middle weekend.
