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Category: Adventure

Home Category: Adventure (Page 9)

Wild and wet

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary’s Wild Island Adventure Splash Zone is now open offering kids up to theage of 12 a range of super- fun timed water jets, streams and waterfalls to run through. Where else can you get up close to native and exotic wildlife and then cool off in a water park this summer?

As part of the Wild Island Adventure precinct, Splash Zone sits adjacent to Wild Island Playground. Set amongst a stunning landscape of sub-tropical flora and fauna and surrounded by sculptures of Australian wildlife and natural features, this playground offers plenty for kids to climb and explore – including a spider’s web, flying fox, adventure play options and more! Access to Wild Island Adventure Splash Zone and the playground is available with the price of your entry ticket or membership.

 

WWW.CURRUMBINSANCTUARY.COM.AU

 

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Beat the heat

WHEN THE GOLD COAST IS 45 DEGREES OUTSIDE AND 90 PER CENT HUMIDITY THIS SUMMER (OK, WE MIGHT BE EXAGGERATING A LITTLE), THERE’S ONE PLACE WE ALL SHOULD BE…

The Gold Coast has a summer stereotype of hot days spent on sun-kissed beaches.

It’s a place where we seek out refuge from the heat and humidity among waves, or by consuming dripping icecreams in the shade of a beachside palm tree. But here’s an idea. When it’s hot outside and you’ve had your fill of melting confectionary, head to the (literally) coolest place on the Gold Coast – Planet Chill.

You don’t often think about going ice-skating while you are on the Gold Coast but you should add it to the itinerary with thanks to an ice-skating rink located right in the heart of Surfers Paradise at Paradise Resort. Planet Chill is suitable for all kids, big and small (3+ years) and you don’t have to be staying at the resort to enjoy the ice rink – it’s open to the public.

With your Planet Chill entry ticket, you’ll be able to borrow a pair of ice skates (BYO socks, of course) and a helmet. To make it a little easier for beginners to stay on their feet, Planet Chill also offers cute fibreglass penguins for kids to hang on to, to help make those ‘icecapades’ more bump-free. There are also ice hockey sticks and pucks to borrow, for free, if you’d like to practise your shots into the nets. They even have the option for you to DJ your favourite skating tunes, with a digital music library rink-side.

And when you need a break from the ice, you can chill out (pun intended) in the “Chill Zone” with air hockey and foosball tables right alongside the rink.

Planet Chill offers a range of sessions to choose from, with bookings available online or via the tablets located in the resort’s lobby. As numbers for each session are limited, Planet Chill recommends pre- purchase of tickets to avoid disappointment.

THE VITAL INFO

  • A two-hour session starts from $20 per child (3-5 years old, $10, with a paying adult).
  • If you buy three tickets you’ll get your fourth ticket free!
  • Bookings are essential as maximum capacities will apply.
  • Cancellations must be made by the booking cut-off times for each session, or the cost will be forfeited.
  • Children 0-2 years of age are not permitted on the ice.
  • Children aged 5 years and under must be accompanied by a skating adult.
  • BYO socks. We suggest wearing a jumper and long pants on the ice.

WWW.PARADISERESORT.COM.AU

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Island hopping

Looking to explore beyond our golden beaches? You’re in luck – we’re blessed with a number of picturesque islands here in South East Queensland, most of which are just a hop, skip and a jump (and a barge) from the Gold Coast.

K’gari

Boasting over 123 kilometres of undisturbed rainforests and picturesque shorelines, it’s little wonder that K’gari is a top destination for travellers (a few notable former royals included). The World Heritage-listed destination is the largest sand island in the world, and the only place where tall rainforests grow on sand dunes. But the jewel in K’gari’s crown is no doubt Lake McKenzie, the perched lake with water so pure no fish or animals can live in it. Its particularly white sandy beaches – which are composed of pure, white silica – and clear aqua water make it a true tropical paradise, perfect for lazing about in a beach chair or snapping the dreamiest Insta photo. Take special care when you visit – such a natural wonder is well worth protecting, and the local community take incredible measures to ensure it stays as pristine as it can be.

North Stradbroke Island

Otherwise known as Minjerribah – and colloquially as “Straddie” – this is one place where time slows from a sprint to a leisurely stroll from the moment your car rolls off the barge. From the rocky headlands and sprawling beaches to the inland sand dunes and lakes, Straddie is best described as a little slice of paradise. Surf the breaks at the popular beaches (Main Beach if it’s a north-westerly wind, or Cylinder Beach and its neighbouring beaches if it’s a southerly), hurtle down the towering sand dune at Deadman’s Beach, fish off Adder Rock, or simply relax on any beach while the kids play. You’re sure to leave Straddie feeling relaxed and replenished, but beware of PSD (post-Straddie depression) – an infliction most commonly experienced as your barge or water taxi glides away from the Dunwich jetty and you watch the island shrink back into the horizon.

Moreton Island

Many a Queenslander has fond memories of sunny summer days spent snorkelling the wrecks at Tangalooma – it’s practically a rite of passage. But it’s not just the snorkelling that will draw you to Moreton Island. The shoreline, restaurants, water sports and accommodation are all well worth the journey, but it will no doubt be the dolphin encounters that you’ll be raving about for years to come. A friendly pod of wild dolphins has been returning to the shallow waters at Tangalooma for years, giving people of all ages the once-in-a- lifetime opportunity to feed them by hand. And the dolphins aren’t all you’ll see – from wobbegongs in the shallows to humpback whales out at sea, Moreton Island is a natural playground for some of our region’s most breathtaking inhabitants. There aren’t many places you can soak up the island life, disconnect from the hustle and bustle and reconnect with nature, all just a couple of hours from Surfers Paradise.

Further afield…

If you’re keen to venture beyond South East Queensland, Australia’s east coast offers no shortage of island escapes. Lord Howe Island is the picture of paradise, with twin peaks, turquoise lagoons and just 400 visitors allowed at a time. The Keppel Islands, off Yeppoon, promise barefoot beach days and coral snorkelling without the crowds. Up north, Hamilton Island reigns as the Whitsundays’ most famous – a resort playground fringed by the Great Barrier Reef. Magnetic Island, a quick ferry from Townsville, blends laid-back tropical living with wild koalas and hiking trails. And for a true castaway experience, Lady Musgrave Island offers reef camping, sea turtles and crystal-clear waters so blue they almost look edited.

 

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Malaysia: The east coast

Malaysia offers Aussie travellers a cheap and cheerful break, filled with good times and great food. The biggest problem you’ll have with planning your Malaysian getaway is deciding to go east or west. Let us help you decide…

My boyfriend and I had three main criteria when making our Easter travel plans: we wanted a cheap, island paradise with plenty to do. That wasn’t Bali. Or Fiji. Or anywhere else that had been hyped up and, as such, could potentially let us down. Was that really too much to ask?

As it turned out, it wasn’t. Our trip to Malaysia’s popular eastern holiday spots – Redang Island and the Perhentian Islands – blew our minds, without blowing our two-grand(ish) budget. We flew in and out of Kuala Lumpur, making sure we allocated two days there for shopping time, but spent the remaining 11 days on the east coast. Put simply, it rocked.

REDANG ISLAND

The closest island to the mainland city of Kuala Terengganu, Redang is home to a number of snorkelling sports, resorts and beachside restaurants. Most resorts offer complimentary bus and boat transport from the airport, which is a huge bonus – especially when your chauffeur can explain why a stern man in uniform is demanding an additional 30 Ringgit before you can board the boat (it’s a Marine Park pass). Redang and its surrounding waters are a protected marine area and, once we arrived, we understood why. The water is as blue as it looks in the travel brochures – if not bluer – and is home to turtles, rays, sharks and colourful fish we’d only seen in Finding Nemo. When we hiked through the rainforest across the island, from our resort on Pasir Panjang to stunning Teluk Dalam Besar beach, we saw chevrotains – ‘mouse deer’ is the best description I can offer – brightly-coloured lizards and teeny tiny birds.

Our resort, Sari Pacifica, was palatial, with a towering lobby and open restaurant that looked out over the pool and cerulean water beyond. When we first arrived, we went all out enjoying cheap, delicious food and drinking less cheap but equally delicious drinks, floating in the pool and wandering around the resort, all the while joking a cameraman was about to jump out of the bushes and tell us we’d been punked. When we dove into the ocean for the first time, we expected it to be freezing cold – still searching for some kind of downside in what was otherwise tropical paradise – but nope. It was the perfect temperature, warm yet refreshing. Halfway through our first day, we knew we’d chosen the perfect destination.

PERHENTIAN ISLANDS

Two main islands (Besar and Kecil) and three smaller, unpopulated islands, make up the Perhentians – a magnet for backpackers and families alike. Besar, the larger island, is sprinkled with “expensive” resorts (by Malaysian standards – we’re talking about $100/night) on its western and southern coasts, and rugged rainforest and coral reefs just about everywhere else. Our resort – the creatively-named Perhentian Island Resort – was relatively isolated in comparison to our southern neighbours, meaning we had the sea on our doorstep (and plenty of turtles, all swimming in the shallows to avoid the busy snorkelling spot ‘Turtle Point’) all to ourselves. Restaurants are few and far between on Perhentian Besar, save for a couple of restaurants at neighbouring resorts, but that wasn’t a drama. Just across the bay, easily accessible by “water taxi” (a dingy), Perhentian Kecil more than makes up for it.

Backpackers drive Kecil’s economy, and the food and bar scenes thrive as a result. Fire twirlers perform most nights at 10pm, and you can happily bar hop along the beach while you wait for the show to start. During the day, Kecil – like Besar – offers cheap snorkelling tours (usually around $30 for a full day) and is also home to the famous ‘windmill’ hike. I say ‘famous’, because it featured in just about every Malaysian travel vlog we watched on YouTube when trying to decide where to go. It takes about 20 minutes to trek up to the windmills, and it’s all downhill to the undisturbed Blue Lagoon on the other side from there. Don’t get me wrong: this hike is not for the faint of heart. While there is a staircase leading down to the lagoon, most of the wooden planks are missing, meaning you have to go “off road” or cling onto rusted railings most of the way. With that being said, it’s a fun challenge and a great photo opp (but not super achievable if you’re getting over four days of suspected food poisoning – believe me).

Redang and the Perhentian Islands have distinctly different vibes, but are the same in all of the best ways. The locals are friendly, which means the tourists are too – there’s really nothing to get angry about there. Almost everywhere is quiet and peaceful, and even the “busy” places aren’t all that busy. There’s an unspoken agreement to protect the wildlife – locals comb the beach every morning cleaning up washed up litter, and there are clear instructions posted around the resorts explaining what to do when you come across a nesting turtle. They know how special this part of the world is, and they intend to keep it that way.

To say that Malaysia ticked all of our boxes would be an understatement – we were planning our next trip before we’d even boarded the boat back to the mainland.

Explore The West Coast HERE

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Malaysia: The west coast

Malaysia offers Aussie travellers a cheap and cheerful break, filled with good times and great food. The biggest problem you’ll have with planning your Malaysian getaway is deciding to go east or west. Let us help you decide…

OK, I’m going to be totally honest from the get-go. I am totally biased when it comes to all things Malaysia. You see, it’s the (literal) Motherland for me – my mum actually comes from this land of tropical beaches, food comas and blissed-out relaxation. So anytime we head north-west across Australia, we know we are heading in the direction of some kind of Asian holiday heaven #becausegenecode.

Having stayed in Malaysia’s capital before (and shopped ’til we dropped, like every other Aussie who passes through Kuala Lumpur), this trip, we targeted Penang. It’s a connecting flight through Singapore or KL but the little bit of extra effort pays big dividends.

Just to get the geography out of the way first, the biggest chunk of Penang is an island off the west coast of mainland Malaysia but there are also mainland suburbs of Penang, connected to their island sister by two mega bridges or a ferry ride. Georgetown is island Penang’s historic major city but we instead headed for the laid back white sand beaches of Batu Ferringhi. While we’d heard all about the amazing nosh on offer and had been salivating over the thought of cheap and tasty Asian street food for months leading up to the trip, we were probably not prepared for the actual food overload that was to come, nor had we considered Batu Ferringhi to be the ultimate adventure destination that it played out to be.

Getting around Penang is super easy and cheap if you have Asia’s equivalent to the Uber app, ‘Grab’, downloaded on your phone. Based in Batu Ferringhi, it cost us the equivalent of an Aussie takeaway coffee to be driven to all the major local tourist locations – two coffees if you wanted to go far. And there’s little-to-no wait for a driver – this place is crawling with Grabs. What I love about any international holiday is talking to the locals and then eating where those locals eat and playing where they play. And, better than any tourism website, you’ll get this valuable local intel from your Grab drivers – so be prepared to chat your way through your drives.

While we didn’t want to base ourselves in the city, Georgetown was definitely high on our to-do list for its history and culture. The city offers modern businesses, cool bars, funky boutiques, shopping precincts and awesome street art, but it also retains its colonial traditions through well-preserved heritage buildings and, as such, has been listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. Walk the streets of Georgetown to get your up-close-and-personal history lesson or a tour of the most internationally famous street art installations – or jump in a rickshaw for a super-cool perspective from the streets. There are also free government- funded ‘CAT’ buses that do laps of the city if you want the cheap tour – be warned that it can be quite the cattle call though.

Once you’ve looked around the streets, another world awaits by the water at the Clan Jetties. These six separate jetties are each named after the ‘clan’ that lived there, dating back more than 100 years. This community is home to rows of houses on stilts, built over the water and joined together by interlinked rustic boardwalks. The homes’ inhabitants encourage you to walk through their over-water neighbourhood, buying trinkets from the market stalls that are situated by their front doors. Look past the stalls and into their homes, and you’ll get a glimpse of this very unique community’s way of life.

Georgetown is also your gateway to Kek Lok Si (Malaysia’s largest Buddhist temple) and Penang Hill – a cool, rainforest zone some 800-vertical-metres above the city that’s accessible via one of the world’s oldest (and very fun) funicular systems. The funicular crawls up the 2km track in a few minutes and at the very top awaits some crazy-good views as well as some touristy fun. This is also the last patch of tropical rainforest in Penang, so the flora and fauna here have been protected since 1960.

Back at the Batu Ferringhi end of town, there were a few tourist destinations that we researched for our to-do list that turned out way better than we expected – don’t you love when that happens while on holidays?!

Entopia Butterfly Farm was one such place. It sounded interesting enough on the websites, and you’d expect insect prettiness, but this place kept us fascinated for hours and hours. You walk through an amazing display of various animals before entering the butterfly sanctuary. Hundreds (even thousands?) of butterflies buzz around your head and, many times land on you to explore the strangers in their home. It’s an Instagrammer’s dream! There are many interactive displays along the way, and then you get to hang out with two ladies whose sole job it is to individually glue hundreds of shiny butterfly cocoons to sticks, for storage by the Entopia breeders while they await the butterflies’ hatching. You’ll never look at a butterfly the same way after you’ve been through Entopia.

The other surprise package for us was Escape. Marketed as “Malaysia’s No. 1 theme park”, we got mixed responses from the locals on this one, before we decided to bite the bullet and go. One Grab driver told us to stay away – it was “too dangerous” for tourists, he said. Another said it was too expensive and not worth the money. But with a free day up our sleeves and our intuitions telling us to have a crack, we went. Besides that, we were in love with themarketing that encouraged visitors to enjoy the “play and values of yesteryear” and “inject reality into a world over-dependent on an isolation-inducing electronic lifestyle”. Labelled “Low Tech, High Fun”, Escape is actually two separate parks, on either side of the main road. One side is a waterpark and the other is filled with adventure. Literally. High ropes courses weave their way through the park, with rock climbing, bungy slingshot and trapeze lessons also on the menu. And there’s an epic downhill trike course – the start line is only accessible by vehicular troop carrier up the side of a mountain. While many of the activities would leave any Aussie Workplace Health and Safety officer with heart palpitations, it was the best fun day. The. Best. Fun. And there was definitely something at Escape for every member of the family and their ability level.

Beyond the cool touristy things, or just relaxing by the water’s edge, about the only other thing you must do while in Penang is eat. Lots. The food is SO cheap and it’s SO good. Seek out hawker food centres. Gorge yourself on satays (we were paying about $9AUD for 30 sticks), binge on Malaysia’s national dish nasi lemak and wash it all down with a Tiger beer, or six. Whatever your taste, if you aren’t sitting on the plane home to Australia admiring your food baby, you haven’t holidayed hard enough.

WWW.ENTOPIA.COM
WWW.ESCAPE.MY

Explore The East Coast HERE

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