Hot Air Ballooning and Dreamworld

I am absolutely loving Surfers Paradise. Whilst it is a lot more commercial than Byron Bay and the coastline is lined with high-rise apartments and hotel blocks there is so much more to do. The first afternoon I spent wandering along the beachfront and mooching round the shops. My hostel is right on the beach front which means I can literally roll out of bed onto the beach – great!

Friday I was up at the crack of dawn to go hot air ballooning. The flight was meant to be at sunrise but we were a little late taking off as we were waiting for the fog to clear. What was meant to be a 30 minute scenic flight turned out to be a full hour as some of the others had paid for an hour so we managed to get the extra half hour for free – bargain!

I was a bit worried at first just how smooth the flight was going to be but was pleasantly surprised and before I knew it we were over 4,000ft high cruising over the hinterland. The views were spectacular and with the fog parting to reveal the national parks below it was truly magical.

Landing was equally memorable but for a completely different reason. As you can’t steer a hot air balloon you have to rely on wind direction and experience. Well this time the pilot didn’t time it quite right and whilst we avoided the tress we landed in a field surrounded by barbed wire, a creek and with no obvious access. It took over an hour for the truck to find a way in and even then we had to navigate ourselves across the fields and creek to the bus. This was easier for some than others. The poor Indian couple in their late 70’s really struggled.

After that we headed over to O’Reillys vineyard for a champagne cooked breakfast before being dropped off at Dreamworld. We were initially a bit worried about not having enough time as we were two hours later than planned due to our landing. Nevertheless as there were no queues we managed to fit everything in.

I was a bit of a wuss and whilst I was prepared to do a sky dive, rides which tipped you upside down were another matter. Instead I watched Ali on those rides and took the photos instead.

As well as the rides we had a tour of the Australian Big Brother studio (we couldn’t go in the house as the contestants are currently in there) and watched a tiger show. We also had our photos taken with a koala and the kangaroos. This has certainly been my best day in Australia to date and it will take some beating!