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March - July 2001
Australia
Brett Voegele2005-11-14 17:31:04
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Surfers Paradise
Surfers Paradise was next, via Port Macquarie and a brief stop in Byron Bay. Surfers Paradise sounds like a peaceful, isolated, idyllic hamlet that is a secret to all but a select few......wrong! The Gold Coast is a 35 km (21 mile) stretch of beach that contains many small communities - of which Surfers is one. The entire area is nothing but high rise buildings, souvenir shops, and other outlets to cater to tourists. Pretty tacky. We spent some time wandering the town, and relaxing on the beach, but decided that most of our time in the area would be spent doing rides.....amusement park rides. We spent quite a bit of time at Dreamworld, a Disneyland-style amusement park that had a couple rides of note. One had you seated with about 10 others in a car on a flat track. The car then shot horizontally along the track before abruptly going vertical to a height of 35+ stories and reaching speeds of 160 kph (just under 100 mph), before reversing back to the starting point. Evidently the force against the body was 4 G's. Next was a 39 story freefall - again reaching great speeds and a force of 4.5 G's. While at Dreamworld we also checked out the tiger area, which was impressive - 6 or 8 Bengal tigers of all colors, including white, performing various tasks. Dreamworld was also the location for Big Brother, Australia, so we watched some of the numerous cameras and editing of the show. In fact, we also saw one of the housemates - Gordon, who had been voted out the previous night. He was being shown the scope of the show and was receiving the VIP treatment at Dreamworld. The last ride we took - and by far the best, was actually taken back in Surfers Paradise....the Slingshot. Two people are strapped into seats within a metal sphere, which is attached to two vertical towers - one on each side. You are facing skyward, and then shot into the air - just like a slingshot. The cage rockets skyward, reaches its
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See photographs from:
Australia Gallery
