STRAYA

Today I got back from STRAYA at 1am. During my time There I visited lots of cool places. I figured out that the gold coast (where I was staying) is about 3 hrs ahead of nz time which explains why I got back so late. Anyway I have a lot to share about aussie down below.

The Arrival
As I walked out of the plane I felt instant change. The air was boiling and thick. I felt like I had just applied a centimeter of warm sunblock to my whole face.We caught an uber to our "hotel" but when we got there we realised It was actually a resort! When we asked for our key the receptionist just gave us 3 cards. We figured that we had to swipe a card over the scanner on our door for it to unlock. When we came inside our apartment thing we found that there were ceiling fans so we had those going all day and night. As we went exploring we found our resort had many exciting features. It had a cinema, its own little waterpark, golf, a tennis court, heaps of pools and spas, a restaurant and an arcade!

Dreamworld & Whitewater world

                       Dreamworld

On Thursday and Monday we went to Dreamworld and Whitewater World which our resort provided free 7 day tickets to. Me and my brother went on this crazzy-as ride called the giant drop. Apparently it's the tallest free fall ride in the world at 115m tall. It said on this sign that when you drop down you're going 119 km per hour. Here's how the ride went. Me and my brother climbed into the seats and the safety bar thing came down over our shoulders. Quickly, our seats started climbing up the giant pole. Finally it came to a stop at the top. We were as still as a statue at the top for about 15 seconds. But that made it so much freakier because it gave you more time to think. Suddenly, without warning, we plummeted in our seats to the ground. I tried to scream, but nothing came out. I found this image (left) of the giant drop to show how big it is. (But it wasn't  my photo) This was by far my favorite ride.






No other Photos from Dreamworld: I was too         busy having fun all day

White Water World

White Water World is the water park side of Dream World;  it has lots of fast fun and freaky slides. The most scary ride was definitely the 'Wedgie'. This is what happened on the Wedgie. I stepped into a small tube that wasn't quite vertical and had a diameter of about 1 ft. Then I (still standing and leaning against the side of the tube) crossed my feet and put my hands on my head. Closing the tube door, the ride operator talked through a speaker, he said "3, 2, 1 Wedgie!" Suddenly the floor I was standing on disappeared from under me! Shooting straight down the tube, I got water sprayed in my face. My mind was being flooded by so many thoughts. "I can't breath!" "I can't see!" "My back burns!" "This is so fast!" "Why did I do this?!" Before I could think any further, I burst out the end of the slide and hit a barrier of water. There was an enormous splash, and I was stopped instantly. It took a few moments for me to realise I was at the end of the ride. In all, the whole ride only took like 6 seconds! That goes to show how fast it actually goes. Red burn/scratch marks were left on my back from that ride, but they didn't sting for too long. (No photos from our trip to Whitewater World. My camera ISN'T waterproof)

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary 

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is this zoo kinda place that we went to. It had lots of different kinds of animals. My favorite ones were the Koalas, Red Pandas, Kangaroos, Crocodiles/Alligators and Snakes. Fortunately, my aunty gifted me, my brother and my sister all $100 each for spending in Aussie, so I spent most of that money on getting pictures of me close up with some furry/scalie friends.

This is me with Kangaroos. (These photos are actually from Dreamworld, but they had the same thing at Currumbin. My camera just went flat  when I was there). They were in a special spot where anyone could go over to pat them. (ie: I didn't have to pay.)







These photos were professionally taken at Currumbin Wildlife Park. They are of me and my brother with a cute little crocodile. And me and my sister with a black-headed python (:

When the crocodile's handler came over and gave it to us for the photo, he told us to hold the neck, belly and tail. After the photo I had a good look at the crocodile. It had teeth like a razor saw, and it's mouth curved up making it look like it was smiling. When I was at the crocodile talk, the lady said a big 5 meter croc (like the one they had in the enclosure) can crush a water buffalo's skull in its jaws, with the same force that you would squash a grape between your fingers. Which shows how powerful they actually are.

Holding this snake was a very queer feeling like slime, its scaly skin felt wet but was completely dry. Also It was surprisingly heavy, and across my neck and through my hand, I could feel the snake's thick, scaly skin sliding. The feeling of holding a moving snake is like nothing I had ever felt before. (If you haven't already) I highly recommend trying it yourself.

This photo is from Dreamworld as well because for the koala holding at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary  you had to be 12yrs+ so I just got mine at Dreamworld for a bit more money. But it meant that I couldn't get a digital copy, and I had to take a photo of my photo. So that really sucked because it makes my photo look really bad quality and all fuzzy.

Holding a koala was the most a thing ever. It was so cute and cuddly. It's fur was extremely soft. When it's handler gave it to me for a hold it latched right onto me and just carried on eating it's gumtree leaf. Something I couldn't help but notice when I was cuddling this koala,was the overpowering aroma, stinkity stank of sap.

This experience for me was a must have when I went to Aussie so I'm glad I paid extra to hold the koala.

Skypoint Observation Tower (The Q1)

Skypoint is like Aussie's Sky Tower. As the 25th tallest building in the world, it measures 335 meters tall. Sky point is located in Surfers Paradise and is sometimes called the Q1. Something I found really strange about Surfers Paradise, is that they have massive skyscrapers right on the beachfront! Here is some pictures of the view. In this photo (left) Skypoint (The Q1) is the tallest building in the middle. 

Bush Walking

Kia ora. Yesterday me, my cousin Jett, and my family went tramping. The track we chose was in the Orongorongo valley in Rimutaka forest park Wellington. Our track took us to the orongorongo river and back (10kms).  Although very long and tiring, the walk was made a bit easier by the fact that dad decided to bring some delicious m&m's chocolate. Luckily mum brought her phone so I could take some photos.

This is me winding a information box thingy. When I wound the handle it made the information box talk about birds. There was three windy boxes. This one was about kiwis. The other thing it did was when I pressed the buttons on top of the box it played a soundtrack of its birds call. There was a Kiwi, a Grey Warbler, a Tui, and a Whitehead.

While we were walking we played spottie dorito. Spottie dorito is a game that me and my friend Obe made up at year six camp. How it goes is you have to do is spot the doritos that show the way to go on the walking track when you see them you say "spottie dorito". One dorito = 1 punch. (like Spotto/ yellow car) This is what a spottie dorito looks like.

This is us at the midway swing bridge. "Midway", meaning halfway from the carpark to the river.

When me, my brother Isaac, my sister Atawhai, and my cousin Jett got to the bridge we went to the middle and jumped up and down. The bridge was really bouncy and we stayed on it for a good few minutes. The swing bridge ended up being one of my favorite parts of our walk. Here is a picture of me and my family at the swing bridge.

Finally we got to the river. There was a nice dry patch of stones that we went over to have a rest and something to eat. By the way, my Nan made some lit as sandwiches. They were stacked with egg and salami and salad and lots more. This is us just chilling on the rocks.

My next post will probably be about STRAYA which is where me and my family are going Next.