Dreamworld
When I was a kid, I absolutely loved going to theme parks. My cousins and I spent every school holiday at the Gold Coast visiting Dreamworld one day, Movie World the next, and then Wet'n'Wild and Seaworld a few days later. Five kids under the age of ten, roaming free in a theme park and riding the newest roller coasters again and again. I won't lie - my childhood rocked!
Fast forward twenty years and I finally made it back to the most badass theme park of the lot, Dreamworld. There was definitely a feeling of deja vu waving hi to Kenny Koala on Main Street, getting soaked on Thunder River Rapids and squealing upside down on the Wipeout.
You can throw out the idea that theme parks are only for families and children, because us big kids had an absolute blast of a day! Now the only question is, do you dare to go on all the rides?
Ever the adrenaline junkies, we faced our fears by tackling the scariest rides first. Rip off the band-aid, you know?
Word of caution - the Tower of Terror moves backwards these days - a rude shock for me when we started moving at 176km per hour in the opposite direction to what I was expecting!
The Claw was also way scarier than it looks - whether you are eight, twenty-eight or fifty-eight, you're gonna be a screamer.
For the rest of the afternoon, we returned to the classic rides that we loved so much in the nineties (yep, we're officially old!).
Rocky Hollow Log Ride.
Thunder River Rapids.
And last but not least, the Wipeout.
My mum had dragged me onto the Wipeout when I was little and I cried all through the ride because I was so scared. Well, today I can proudly say that survived the Wipeout without any tantrum or tears. Fist pump!
Other than the usual suspects of rides, there were a tonne of new areas to explore including Shrek's Faire Faire Away and Kung Fu Panda's Land of Awesomeness.
No joke, it was pretty awesome.
And with no parents to boss us around, we gorged ourselves on hot dogs and chips for lunch and finished the day with big ice creams.
I'm already making plans to visit Movie World and Wet'n'Wild again. I suppose some of us insist on never growing up!