Day trip to the Gold Coast

Ben’s mom got two free tickets to the Wet n’ Wild water park in the Gold Coast and Ben invited me to go with him. I took the bus from Redcliffe to the Sandgate train station and then jumped on a train to the Nerang train station in the Gold Coast where Ben picked me up. The whole trip took about three hours and only cost about $12.

We went for a quick bite to eat before heading to the water park and then spent a good three hours going on all the slides. It was on a Wednesday, it’s getting a little colder and it’s off season right now, so there were barely anyone around and we didn’t have to wait in line. I could just imagine this water park being super busy and having to wait hours in line on a weekend in the summer. The rides were pretty sweet, some of them a little intense. There was one where the lifeguard told me to tuck my chin in, thinking I was tough, I dismissed her suggestion and hurt my neck once hitting the water after pretty much free falling in a tube with Ben’s weight pulling us down. That said, this water park is definitely not just for kids, we’re both in our mid twenties and we still had a great time. My favorite ride was the race one where you can race others down the slide and get an official placing. Of course being much heavier and having a superior technique, Ben won every race.

Starving and not ready to pay an arm and a leg for lunch at the water park, we went for some sushi downtown before going golfing with Shane. The golf course we played on was interesting. The first three holes were less than 200m combined and the back of the course was really poorly lit so it was hard to see our balls once we hit them. I had a pretty shocking game, I lost three balls in one pond and doubled the course par. I’ll blame it on the rental clubs and use Shane’s excuse : “you only play as good as the clubs you’re using”.

After golf we got some burgers and headed to Ben’s place where we played Simpsons Monopoly over a few beers. Owning three quarters of the board in less than an hour, I racked in the cash and dominated in monopoly for the first time in over a decade. “You have to spend money to make money” as Ben would say.

The next day, Ben and I got some pies at a bakery for breakfast then met Metsy and some of their friends at the beach. Before hopping on a train back to Brisbane in the afternoon, we had lunch and a few beers at a surf club. All in all it was a great couple days and the Gold Coast never disappoints.