Surfers paradise

Tuesday 26th January

Australia Day! We were glad to see the back of the camp when we checked out in our Aussie flag vests (me eating a bowl of cereal on my lap) and got to Dreamworld for just after 10am. It was strange to see it wasn't busy (although like England it did look like it was going to chuck it down on this bank holiday people will have had plans for...) so we ventured into the park with no line to wait in. I felt relieved to have a productive day and it picked up my low mood I seem to have been in for nearly a week now, the adrenaline rush let out lots of energy so was 'heaps fun' as the Aussies would say. We watched a Madagascar show at lunchtime which we were clearly too old for and slowly dipped out of the 2nd row when they started getting kids on stage to do the limbo. I ended up going on two of the biggest rides on my own as Lisa didn't fancy them. The first one was a 7 second pull backwards up a high vertical pole with falling face down 90 degrees back to the ground. It's fair to say I was scared but I met a nice lady called Joanne from Melbourne in the que who was also going on alone and so we chatted and then she made me sit on the front row with her. I'm glad she did because I loved it and even threw my arms up once we hit the top hanging point face-down instead of holding on. Joanne bought the photo so was pleased I'd done this. I said goodbye to her and ran back through the rain to find Lisa before going on a couple

Of water rides (one of those situations where you are wet anyway so why not) and then went on the next big scary one a heart shaped rollercoaster that climbs vertically and holds you upside down. It only held you down by a bar that came across your lap as well, I was again slightly concerned. This time a dad from Warwick, Australia sat next to me who seemed way more scared than I was so I and the fellas in front distracted him with conversation on the vertical climb up. I enjoyed it as my last ride of the day and we left in good moods to be going back to the Down under hostel we had stayed at Sunday night.

Parking the van up we checked in and went to a bottle shop to get some cider in in our Aussie outback hats and Australian flag vests. We were laughing about how we must have looked drunk as most people by this point were super drunk and we had people smiling at us shouting 'Yeahhhhh Australia Daaaay!!' so our efforts of dress code for the day were appreciated. Back at the hostel lots of people were drinking so we got showered and ready and joined around the pool table. Lots of people were chatting, names or people that we saw afterwards so worth mentioning are Jack and Jonny from the U.K, Pierre from Austria and Ryan from Canada. Some of the group went out to bars later on but I wasn't bothered and was happy to play pool (which I tragically lost at) and left Lisa up chatting while I went to bed around 12 after my usual phone call to Nick.

xxx