Paradise Country Farm, Gold Coast

Paradise Country Farm is actually not in my list of places to visit while in Gold Coast. However, when I purchased the Matta Fair package last March, it came together with Paradise Country Farm. And, I was also excited to try its Halal steak. Steak OZ mesti sedap, kan..? He..he..

We were very fortunate as the bus stop was only a few metres away from our apartment. We got on bus TX2 to Paradise. Actually, the same bus will also go to Movieworld, Wet n Wild and Dreamworld. Before heading to Paradise, I collected our tickets to Paradise, Movieworld and Seaworld at Movie World's counter (which was suggested by the bus driver). Tp sebenarnya, if we stopped at Wet n Wild pon x apa as we could collect the tix at Paradise.

Ambik tix dulu... Look at Farah, and I rest my case!

Little did we know that we had to walk almost 2km to get to Paradise Country Farm. Rupa2nya, x ada bas or any other method of transportation to go in. Adoila...so we walked. Nasib baik hari  x panas and the environment pon soothing aja. While walking, we met a Malaysian couple on their way out and they told us, it would be another km to reach the farm...Oh My! So, my suggestion to all of u who want to visit Paradise Country Farm, RENT A CAR unless u prefer walking...Well, i don't! My children seemed not to take the walking as anything serious as they really enjoyed running here n there...:) However, if u do want to take the public transport, take bus TX2 and stop at Wet n Wild. So, x lah jauh sangat jalan...

Starting our journey...ha..ha...

Top: We thought it was another 300m...ha..ha..actually it was 300m to
Australian Outback. Bottom: Rehat sat...Faris claimed the horse was
smelly and it was, indeed!

According to one of the workers,  there used to be a train to pick all the guests from the main road but the service was shut off due to an accident last year.

Top: Entrance to Paradise. Below: This way to the restaurant..

When we arrived, the worker gave us our lunch voucher, the map and the schedule of the shows. Since we were starving like mad..he..he.. we headed straight to the restaurant. The restaurant serves halal food and it has a halal certificate to prove it. At your voucher, there will be a time indicated for your buffet lunch as u will be served in stages... Only a few groups will be served at once...So, ours was at 1.15 pm.

Beef Steak...sedapnyer....!

Side dishes sections.

Sijil Halal

Sedapnyer kami menjamu selera...he..he...

Top: reserved 4 us!. Bottom: the lights above us

This is where the chef cooks the meals

They also have fish instead of meat and chicken. I do recommend both
fish and chicken. 

The food was delicious and sumptuous. The steak was so tender and juicy but i prefer it to be well cooked instead of medium cooked... The side dishes were tasty too. Side dishes ni ambikla berapa banyak pon nak makan... While enjoying our lunch, we met a Malay lady originated from Christmas Island and her name is Khamisah. She can speak Malay fluently. She is so nice, she offered us a ride to the bus stop. kami pon apa lgik, mcm org mengatok disorongkan bantal la... She said she will punch out at 3.00pm and so we waited. Kami pon masih belom explore lagik tempat  tu kan... Jom layan gambar... Too bad, I don't have a photo with her...:(

U can't smoke anywhere in Australia. So, in Paradise Country, this is where
u smoke after u dine! [Faris n Farah lecturing papa...]

This is where they keep the equipment for Sheep Shearing Show

Some of the animals there

Tercapai jugak hajat Farah nak membelai2 kangaroo.

One of the shows, paddock show

Top right: At the bus stop waiting for the bus to Pacific Fair.
Bottom: Khamisa's car...

On our way back from Paradise Country Farm, we decided to stop at Pacific Fair. We bought some groceries, Pyrex and of course Faris bought Transformers robot again... The pyrex was really cheap, a box containing 11 pieces of pyrex cost me about RM130. Cheap, isn't it? My plan was to buy Corelle at Target, but i couldn't find any there.

Looking at Pacific Fair reminds me of Jusco Maluri...:)

SEAWORLD, GOLD COAST

Our second day in GC, we went to Seaworld. After breakfast, about 9 plus, we walked to the bus stop and caught bus 750 to Seaworld. The journey was about 15 minutes aja. X jam pon... We had to get on the bus after 9 to get the off peak price. We had breakfast at home where i cooked spaghetti..wah..pagi2 dah mkn spaghetti.. I brought the food from Malaysia...he..he..

The weather seemed not so good. In fact, it was pretty bad...:(

Upon reaching the bus stop, we would pass the ducktour counter 1st.
This was the view after the rain last night. Look at the roadside, all wet n watery!

Seaworld from the bus stop. For those who are driving, there are ample parking space and it's free! Look at the gloomy sky [sigh...]

Even though the weather was not on our side but there were still busy crowds mushrooming Seaworld on that day as it was a Sunday.

I didn't have to Q like these people as I already had my tickets with me..he...he... So, kami pon masok teros.. Masok2 jumpa mechandise shop and si Spongebob tengah berlegar2 ria kat situ... Personally, out of all the parks I had been to in GC, i like Seaworld the best.

A photo with Spongebob. I'm not so sure why the photo looks so stretched... 

Nothing much to tell here..So, let's just look at what u can do at Seaworld.

Pedal boats are chargeable but since it was drizzling, so they had some kind of
happy hour and let people rode for free.

This is the new attraction. Will be opened at the end of June.

Here is the information on show time for Seaworld. U will only get this once u're there. They won't reveal it even in the website. The time might change from time to time.. Hope this will help those who want to plan yr time there. I found it difficult to plan my day when i did not have the show time.

SpongeBob Parade - 12.15pm (The parade was cancelled when we went there as it was drizzling)


Sea Detectives Sea Lion Show - 10.15 am and 2.30pm


Imagine Dolphin Show - 11.15 am and 3.30 pm (must watch!)


Jet stunt extreme - 1.15pm and 4.15 pm


Dora's show - 11am and 3pm.


Ray reef feeding session - 11 am and 3 pm


Penguin feeding session - 10.45 am and 3 pm

Jom sambung tengok gambar...

Some of the animals...

Top left: Penguin Encounter, Bottom left and right: star fish and stingray.
You can touch them with yr bare hands. 

Some of the rides...

And some of the shows...

Farah loves Dora. So, kami pon tengoklah Dora. Faris was a bit reluctant
to watch as he thought the show was for kids...as if he's not a kid, huh!

This is my favourite show!

This is a MUST watch show and it's called Imagine Dolphin Show. 

Still on the dolphin show

Fish detectives sea lion show is a short comedic skit involving the two
cute and intelligent sea lions named Buddy and Clawde. The show is about
20 minutes. 

Jet Stunt Extreme Show

This is where visitors have picnics while watching jet extreme stunt and also the parade. There was no parade on this
day due to the unpredictable weather condition. 

Meanwhile, The penguin Encounter is also my favourite...

The entrance

Very true, indeed!

This is the penguin learning centre where u can press the penguins' head (ala... bayang2 hitam tu),
and the details will appear on the screen. It looked like we conquered the place as no one
was interested to know about the lil penguin species.... It tells u info like
population, habitat, characteristics, etc. What a fun n interactive way to learn!

More inside the penguin encounters

Below is the monorail. It has 3 stations. It helps give you the great overview of the whole park. The 3 stations are the main station, the mid station (near shark bay) and the last station which is only for Seaworld Resort guests.

The main station

Top: Main Station, bottom: the monorail

Another great way to see the view of Seaworld is by the Skyway. When I went to Sentosa the other day, we needed to pay for the skyway but this one is free..he..he.. But, the sky way will not operate if the weather is windy. It will still be operating if it's raining but not during windy condition. I had no photo of us on the skyway as it was raining quite heavily when we were inside the skyway.

This lovely photo of the skyway is courtesy of Themepark Insider at www.themeparkinsider.com

Smoking is a dfinate NO NO at Seaworld. However, there are a few special venues such as the pic below for smokers to smoke..:)

Add caption

There are a few merchandise shops here. I didn't buy anything. I thought of buying the hoodie sweater but after looking at the quality, i think it was not worth buying one. They also have bargain goods like AUD10 t-shirts and the towels which cost lesser if u buy more. People say Seaworld also offers cheap items to go at the end of the day. Well, I can't confirm that as I didn't wait until the end. I was out at 4pm. I couldn't stand the rain anymore and i was quite worried my children would fall sick.

One of the available merchandise shops. 

Broadwater Cafe serves Halal food and it's the only Halal eating outlet around.

What did I buy at Seaworld? Besides popcorn and fish n chips, I bought the tumbler for AUD6. Refill is AUD2.

I guess that's about it! Will tell u more stories later... Bye!

Touch Down@Gold Coast, Queensland.

It has been 2 days since I came home from GC and alhamdulillah everything went well except for the moody weather on a couple of days. Well, that's normal and it's out of our jurisdiction, anyway. Since we are always late for our flight, so this time around, dengan semangat baru.. we were already at the airport by 7.30pm which was exactly 2 hours be4 the flight. However, dah kalau memang keluarga kartun tu tetap kartun, we were still the 2nd last group to board that night. The last group was a group of Australian. It happened like this.. Sampai2, we checked our departure's detail at the screen..Then, lepak2 kat body shop, bought maxis prepaid for my son, hubby tukar duit lagik..he..he..lastly, we went to Marrybrown for dinner.. Suddnly, tngh tangkap gmbar bubur, I saw the boarding time on the tix that the gate will be opened at 8.45..masa tengok tu dah pukul 9 lebih sikit... apa lagik.. makan x habis, packed semua..lari ke gate mcm ribut... tp kejadian lari2 ni memang dah biasa sangat dah dngn kami..so, x da lah cemas sngt cuma bila baca kat monitor, gate already closed, baru cuak sket.... sampai2 kat pintu, 2nd last...selamat kami!

Waktu snap bubur ni lah perasan yg kita dah lewat... To my surprised,
bubur ni dpt lepas naik atas flight... Ni x kira liquid ke..?Even the customs who were checking
 our stuff didn't really check on us as we were already late...

This is what they always do during flights. PSP, phone, laptop, etc. But
only for an hour or two for Farah...Lepas tu, melasak!

The flight was 95% full and the journey was smooth sailing and we arrived on time. The duration from KL to GC is about 7 1/2 hours. Queensland time is 2 hours ahead of Malaysia. So, we landed at about 7.35am which was about 5.35am Malaysian time. Masih subuh kat Msia. I couldn't sleep at all during the flight, tried to but couldn't. Farah was not helping either. At that time, I felt like not taking her on any long haul flights anymore. Serik betol dngn si kecik tu. She didn't sit still even for a second until she fell asleep at 1am [sigh].

Nak landing dah...

Gold Coast from our plane.

Sampai2 aja Coolangata Airport, I was so afraid of the food that we brought. As we know, Aautralia practises very strict rules on food brought into the country. If I'm not mistaken, there were 4 different officers asking me about the food that we brought. I just told them briefly and they seemed to be OK with it. Lane 2 has a dog sniffing all the bags but luckilly we were told to go to lane 6. A guy checked our food bag and asked me what's inside the packet and I told him it was a paste. Alhamdulillah, all my food went through... I met a family at Paradise Country Farm and the makcik told me that her mayonnaise was confiscated during the checking.  We landed at 7.35am and we were out of the terminal at about 8.30 am, nearly an hour. The airport was basically not very big, ala2 sebesar airport kat Kuala Terengganu. The current temperature at that time was 14 degree Celsius and the weather seemed cloudy but alhamdulillah not raining the whole day.

Once out, I searched for Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle counter to buy the Gocard for our entire trip in Gold Coast. U won't miss the counter, kaler oren.. There are 2 counters actually, one at the international arrival and the other one at the domestic arrival. It's very easy and convenient to use the GoCard. u'll get about 20% off the paper tickets. Basically, the system is like our touch n go card or Oyster card in London where u need to top up the card with money as little as AUD5. U can top up at any 7/11s or from the bus drivers. We topped up our credit with the bus driver. It's fast and easy! HOWEVER, do not forget to tap your card both on the way in and out of the bus or u'll be charged the maximum journey fee, the next time u tap your card.

This is an adult Gocard. Child one is orange in color.
Photo courtesy of Surfside website. 

Farah waiting for me to buy the Gocard

We waited for bus 702 to Surfers Paradise. Since it was a Saturday,
so we got an off peak price for the whole day in addition to the 20% off
for Gocard holder. So, we paid AUD4.35 for adults and AUD2.18 for kids.
Normal single paper ticket is AUD7.90 for adults and AUD4 for kids.

Farah in bus 702. Dora pon  ikot ke GC tau. The airport bus has extra
luggage compartments for the bags. 

From Coolangata Airport to Surfers Paradise took us about 45 minutes. That's the normal journey time. When I was in GC, never encountered traffic jams whatsoever... Even though there were road works here and there, but the traffics were smooth flowing. Bus system in Gold Coast is very efficient and tip top. They are very punctual and customer friendly too.

We stayed at a one bedroom apartment at  Tiki Village International at Surfers Paradise. Very central to everything and cheap too. I got the apartment from my time share deal. I will blog about the apartment in a separate post.