The following day, early in the morning, we woke up and head to Sydney Airport on our way to Gold Coast. About three hours later of flight and taxi, we arrived in Cavill Ave at Surfers Paradise, that's the heart of the centre of Gold Coast. Simply put, we stayed in the best possible location in Gold Coast. We checked in our luggage, and then we walked around Surfers Paradise, its beach, the shopping mall around, the entertainment there (Hard Rock Cafe was just opposite us), foods (they say their fish and chips is a must try), etc etc. As we walked around, we went into Raptis Plaza and saw this huge replica of sculpture of David by Michaelangelo. It was one of the replica around the world as mentioned by Wikipedia.
David by Michaelangelo and Hard Rock Cafe
Ambience in Surfers Paradise at night
The next morning, we woke up at 5.10 AM, and reached the beach about 5.20 AM, hoping to catch the sunrise. As it turns out, the sun has "risen" for quite a while by time we reached there. The day was spent around Surfers Paradise, as well as scouting for cheapest tickets available for the theme parks. The cheapest we found was $58 each, discounted from the original $62 had we buy directly in the theme park. Well, $4 discount times 4 people is $16, quite a substantial amount after all.
Not contented with not catching the sunrise the day before, this time, we all *kiasu* and woke up at 3.30 AM. In short, we woke up, turned off the alarm clock and continue sleeping :p We woke up around 8 AM to prepare to go to Movie World. We reached Movie World around 10.15 AM, 15 minutes "late" from the time the theme park opens, and without further ado, I headed directly to their latest thrill-ride rollercoaster, Superman Escape. When you enter the queue, you are strongly encouraged and actually asked to leave all belongings outside, every single thing in your pockets, mobile phone, camera, coins, including sunglasses, even my glasses. They call it MRT (Metropolis Rapid Transit) and during the ride, we would have experienced +4.5G and -1G. I think "G" here means gravitational unit, but not sure how it meant to real life. Fifty minutes later, I got my turn, in first seat in front !!! Exactly where I wanted to seat. The thrill lasts, well, about two minutes or so :p
Superman Escape in Movie World
After the ride, we walked up the main road, and saw this Austin's Power performing on the road. We then entered our next adventure, Shrek 4D. It's a story of how Shrek rescue the princess in "real" 3D as you need to wear a special glasses. You sat on a chair that will move you up down left right depending on the scene in the movie. That was nothing special. The surprise came when they added some additional tricks to spice up the movie. As the donkey sneezed towards you, you'll feel water being sprinkled upon you. It was not illusion, it was real. As they enter a forest with lots of spiders in it, you'll feel some "spiders" tickling over your legs. so on and so on. I'd better don't spoil the rest 
Shrek 4D Adventure, presented in Ogre-Vision and Looney Tunes Village
Next up is the Looney Tunes village, where we say Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Daffy Duck, and the rest of the gang. As we walked out the village, we saw crowd was standing around the big screen on the main street. It was the Scooby Doo gang performing their usual ghost-hunting mission. It was creative with lots of fun and great music. Immediately after that, we rushed to catch Police Academy stunt show. To me, besides Superman Escape, this was simply the best show in Movie World, with live stunts and actions, real explosions (the last one was so big and hot that you can feel the heat almost 100 metres away), superb driving skills with either all four wheels intact on the ground, or only two on the side, or even the back two was enough. I thought they only did it in movie hehe... There are some surprises along the way of the story that I shall not reveal here As part of the Police Academy stunt show, it was fitting that they recruited some cadets from the audiences. A total of four persons were picked from the audiences to be part of their show.
Policy Academy crazy, fun, explosive stunt show
The day was followed by a parade of every single characters under the Warner Bros, from Looney Tunes, Austin Power, Shrek, Batman, Scooby Doo, Flash, etc. We ended the day by visiting the Wild Wild West corner and official Matrix exhibition.
Did I miss anything else? hmmmm....
The fourth day in Gold Coast, we walked around to find a car to rent. We ended up renting a Hyundai Getz from Hertz. My mom drove to Brisbane, I drove back from Brisbane. We were heavily reliant on the road sign besides the road and highway to help us reach Brisbane. We had no map, no clue, and no one to guide. Fortunately, we reached Brisbane, safe and sound, without being chased by police haha... We managed to find the central of Brisbane which is Queens St. It took us three big rounds in and out of the city before we could find a parking spot in Adelaide St. We had lunch there.
Queens Plaza in Queens St in Brisbane in Queensland. They do love their queen so much
As we walked around George St, we saw this man painting using spray cans usually used by those kids to draw on the wall. With only spray cans, papers, and any round shapes commonly found around us, he painted (sprayed rather) wonderful spray-paintings. My dad was impressed that he bought one for $60. It's truly an amazing work of art. We left about 3 PM from Brisbane, and we got lost. We simply couldn't find direction back to Gold Coast, we guessed, asked around, but we were lost. Road closures around Brisbane certainly worsen the situation. Thankfully, one hour later, we found our way to the highway that leads back to Gold Coast. Since we had a bit of time left before we were to return the car by 6 PM, we stopped by Dream World and took pictures. We reached Surfers Paradise and returned the car by 5.30 PM. No time to return the car in full tank already. They charged expensive price per litre, but we can we do?
I wonder where my dad hang this painting at home
The week we went there was Indy week.Indy is a car race event that is held every year in Gold Coast. No wonder Surfers Paradise was crowded, several major roads were closed as they were used for the race track. The following morning was our last day there, and so we forced ourself to wake up at 3.30 AM to catch the sunrise. We reached the beach 3.45 AM and what we saw? Pitch black sky. Not until 4.30 AM could we see the sky gets brighter. And the sun rose about 5.06 AM. What a wait that was, but it was a worthy wait as the scenery we saw was simply amazing. That made me appreciate God's creation more. Again, we spent our day in Surfers Paradise, catching the crowd who were going to Indy race. Some words drawn up in the sky was great. The pilot was so accurate in drawing out those letters.
We headed to Gold Coast Coolangatta airport in the evening to head back to Melbourne.
After 5 years of development, Windows Vista is finally finished. Few days ago, it has been announced that Office 2007 is complete as well.
stupidity at its ultimate !!!