Whitewater World (Gold Coast Graduation Trip Day 1)
Thursday, June 16, 2016
1) Book your flight tickets ONLY when there's a promotion. Scoot is always having promotions so it doesn't matter if you wait a little longer — the price of your tickets won't go up much anyway. Comparing promotions to early bird flight tickets, the former is still more worth the while.
2) Getting FlyBagEat is a given — you should check in your luggage and pre-book your meal when it's a relatively long flight (a little more than 7 hours). But more than that, spend a little more to choose your seats and if budget permits, opt for more leg room! Trust me, you'll feel the difference. You don't want to be cramped as hell and claustrophobic on your flight there. After all, your holiday should be an enjoyable period.
I got my pair of return tickets for about $600 with FlyBagEat but I could have gotten it cheaper had I waited a little — there was a one for one promotion a week after I booked my tickets. Also, for reference, I brought AUD$800 there during the period when the exchange rate between Aussie dollars and Sing dollars was one to one.
Before take off: a collage of us four girls who were coincidentally almost all travelling at the same time. When being three time zones apart, in three continents and four countries doesn't stop your gossip sessions. ♡
Flight essentials: a soft toy, my phone with photos of people I love and a kindle. Was reading Roald Dahl's Skin on board, if I recall correctly. An overnight flight really helped with my jet lag, even though it was only 2 hours, I felt like dying from it at night. How do people survive US flights?!
Can you believe these were taken merely seconds apart? I wouldn't dare say the world, but Australia truly has one of the most beautiful skies I ever witnessed.
This looks photoshopped as hell, am I right?! I swear I didn't alter this image. Couldn't help marvelling at how different the skies looked even though they were just a few meters away from each other. Mother Nature sure is a fine piece of art.
With the sun rays slapping against my face instead of the cold breeze I expected, the moment we landed at 8am, I knew it was a big mistake. I will never ever ever visit Australia during summer again because it was BURNING HOT!!!
It was no escape from Singapore's heat and if you think it should be better as it's less humid there, you're damn wrong. It was humid all the same and I was so grumpy from the weather because I hate the sun! Half the time I was busy slapping on more sunblock and cursing at the weather.
Plus it didn't help that we got freaking lost the moment we stepped out of Gold Coast's airport. Warning: not every airport is like Singapore's Changi Airport with an abundance of staff willing to help you and guides everywhere. No wonder we have the best airports in the world wth.
I'd recommend those who can't drive to opt for chartered airport transfer from Gold Coast Airport so that you can get to your apartment / hotels quickly after a tiring flight. It's way cheaper than cabs in Australia too! Thank god we had our trusty wifi device with us too or else we would have gotten so lost -__-
First stop: our Airbnb apartment near Robina Town Centre, which ended up being the place we spent most of our money shopping in. If I recall accurately, hotels are rather expensive in Gold Coast so we opted for Airbnb instead. It was my first Airbnb experience and the host left a rather good impression on me. We were served breakfast daily and allowed to roam around the house or use their fully equipped kitchen. When I say fully equipped, I mean they even have things I didn't know existed!
After locating our apartment, we had to replan our itinerary for reasons I can't remember. Trawled through the Internet and we finally decided on Whitewater World, purchased the tickets online (for convenience or discount, I forgot) and out we went!
Our first problem arose when we discovered public transport isn't as tourist friendly in Gold Coast as it is in Singapore. My friends warned me against visiting Australia without a driver's license but I turned deaf ears to them and oh boy, there's not enough words in the dictionary to express my deepest regret. We had to take several buses then a train, then another bus to get to our location and it doesn't help that they stop their pubic transport at ~6pm.
We got to White Waterworld at around 2pm and much as I wanted to go on all the rides, time wasn't on our side due to our issue with the public transport. :( Cabs are rather expensive in Gold Coast as well and as two freshly graduated poor students, we simply couldn't afford that luxury. Nonetheless, we managed to go through most of the highlights of the water park including The Wedgie, which really gave me a wedgie ha ha ha too much info.
It so bloody hot that I got blisters on my feet from walking around the scorching floor WTF. I was running from places to places, trying to get my feet on shady floors so they could take a break from hell. I swear if this is what hell feels like, I'm going to do more good deeds from now on wtf. At a point, I would have paid anything at all for a pair of slippers (or thongs, as the Aussies call them) to get me around the water park. 10/10 will not visit Australia during summer again!!!
Despite the heat, White Waterworld was reasonably fun, with some thrilling water rides we don't have in Singapore's Wild Wild Wet or Adventure Cove. I can't compare it to other water parks in Gold Coast or Asutralia because this is the only one I visited. Of course, the company counts too! If you're with the people you love, even the darkest times can be enjoyable.
Left before the sun even set. Sigh, my heart breaks every time I think of the time I lost bumming around in the apartment just because neither of us drive. I really hope to visit Down Under again one day when I've obtained my license! Wait for me, OZ!!!
Also, did I mention that there were annoying insects bugging us (ha ha ha @ my pun) at the bus stop. I don't know what kind of insects they were but they left me painful bites that became red overnight wtf. If you're going there, please prepare insect repellent or you'll be walking around with red spots on your arms, legs and whatever areas you exposed!
Rushed back to Robina Town Centre wanting to get somedinner only to find that everywhere in Asutralia is a ghost town after 5pm or so wtf. What do Aussies do for enjoyment after work?! Had to settle for some quick dinner at McDonald's because it was basically the only thing available, but thank god for their ALL DAY BREAKFAST!!! I literally had their McMuffin with bacon almost everyday of my travel because that's how much I love McBreakfast!
Posting this photo because I find it funny how I look exactly the same in these two photos taken probably about 20 minutes apart wtf.
We ended our first day getting lost at McDonald's, which you can watch on my vlog. Looking at the bright side, at least there's food so we won't starve to death! Hahahaha jokes aside, I believe getting lost overseas is all part of the fun and experience but thank god for our Airbnb host who drove over to pick us up or else we might have been mugged. Then again, we were just two poor students who dressed and looked like who we are.
If you're interested in the chartered airport transfer and wifi devices I mentioned, I have linked them down below for your convenience :)
— Chartered airport transfer from Gold Coast Airport
— Unlimited data wifi device (prefer this over Changi Recommends' which has limited data)
