Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Goodbye Heron Island, Hello Zorbing

Greg was disappointed that he didn't see much yesterday while snorkeling so he decided to try his luck early this morning.  Getting up early really paid off.  Apparently this snorkeling was the best, even better than his two dives.  He wanted to see sting rays, he saw about 40 of them, so many that they were laying on top of each other.  He saw sharks feasting on little fishes and tons of sea turtles.  I really regret sleeping in with Drake!

Like most hotels in Australia, upon Greg's return we had to pack and check out of our room at 10AM and leave our luggage outside for pick up.   We had an issue at check out.  It involved a upgraded room that was given to us without our knowledge, then the resort tried to charge us additional fee for the upgrade.

In the end we were able to sort out the misunderstanding, but we ran out of time to do anything meaningful and we weren't too interested in the free bird watching tour.  We just lounged around the pool and bar.  Lunch wasn't included after checkout, it costed $25 AUD per person.

At 2PM, we hopped on the ferry back to the mainland, Gladstone.  Flights to Gladstone and out of Gladstone were all pretty much at the same time everyday, so the ferry's departure time all coincide with the flight time.  The ride back was much smoother than coming in, I barely felt it.  I also took stronger medication.  Drake again was happy as a clam, didn't get seasick at all.


When we arrived at the Gladstone marina, the bus to take us to the airport was already waiting for us.  We flew back to Brisbane for the night.

The next day we rented a car and headed for Surfers Paradise.  I had seen on TV a few years back about zorbing.  There was a place on route, so we had to stop at Ozball.  There were two types of rides and we tried them both for $120 AUD.  It was regularly priced at $45 per person per ride.  It was really quiet and  we were the only customer there so they gave us a deal.  The price even included baby sitting!  The operator who caught us at the bottom also watched Drake. I hope that wasn't bad parenting...

A dry ride which involved us being strapped inside of the giant plastic ball and pushed off the hill.  We were tossed around like laundry for about 5 minutes.  It was so much fun!  I wanted to do it again and again despite being a little dizzy.  The second ride was the wet ride.  The inside of the ball was fill with about 3 litres of water.  We didn't have our bathing suits with us so they provided us with board shorts and towels.  We hopped in and again was pushed off the hill facing forward.  We were able to face forward during the ride.  It felt like we were about to face plant into the grass any moment.  I wanted to do it again and again despite the yellowish water!


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