The Goldcoast: Theme Parks and Tired Kids

Driving across the boarder from NSW into QLD is kind of a non-event and the kids were shocked that there was no big flashing sign or welcome balloons or trumpeting fanfare in sight. "Are we in Queensland yet? Are we in Queensland yet?" they kept asking until finally we were and then the reply from the back of the car was, "Oh." Needless to say, arriving at the Broadwater Tourist Park was exciting for other reasons - my brother Damon and his wife Kristie and their two children Araminta and Eli were joining us on holidays for two weeks starting now - cousin time had begun!

                                           

This caravan park is perfect if you want to be right in amongst it all - it's less than 10 minutes from all the theme parks, you can see the roller coaster at Seaworld from across the bay, Harbour Town Shopping Centre and Pacific Fair are a short drive away and so is Cavill Avenue. But it's busy and pretty noisy and not the kind of place you can really enjoy the simple pleasures of 'camping.'

                                              

We took on Seaworld, Movieworld and Wet 'N' Wild with the kids - it kind of reminded me of the routine of school after the third day - get up, pack morning tea, fill drink bottles, make lunches, suncream on, hats on, line up in straight lines for the rides, drag home tired kids, early dinner and to bed. And repeat. But the kids had a ball (Arley and Araminta especially getting gamer and gamer with each day and wanting to hit the roller coasters and speed water slides despite being well under the height limit for most...) and it took us oldies back to when we visited the theme parks as kids all those years back. The tip is to jump online and grab discount three-parks-in-one tickets which mean you can go back and forth as many times as you like, by-pass the initial long line up to get in and do shorter days without feeling like you aren't getting your money worth.

It was nice, too, actually setting up our caravan properly and not having to rush and get packed up and off to the next spot each morning. It takes about half an hour to get all the gear out and the bikes off and the annex up, and with three kids at your feet saying, "Can we go on the jumping pillow pleeeeeease?" over and over again, 'relaxing holiday' isn't the first thing that springs to mind....

And while we're talking about building patience, a word on sleep in these early days of our trip. Throwing a six, four and two-year-old into a small space together and expecting them to nod off easily into the world of dreamy-dream land was never going to happen. I knew that but still, I don't think I'd really prepared myself for the night-time tom-foolery that comes hand-in-hand with three kids, over-tired from big days adventuring, out of their normal routines, on holidays with possibly ice-cream and other some-times treats in their systems, high on life and completely oblivious to the fact that a bunch of grey nomads are already well and truly snoring in their Winnebagos just an arm-stretch away.

We've had to pull out the big guns - there's been plenty of threats about certain children missing out on certain activities the next day if the noise didn't stop. We've warned of confiscating bikes or scooters or hard-earned pocket money. And yes, I admit, in the heat of the wrestling and laughter and singing Peter Coombe's "Spaghetti Bolognese" at an unacceptable bedtime caravan park volume, we have threatened to abort ship altogether and turn this caravan around.... but quite simply, we've come to see that time is the only remedy. Patience and understanding that the kids are getting used to this new setup as much as we are, and a bit of space to settle into a new routine of sorts, is what we've been trying to go with. And it seems to be getting easier each night. Either that or the holiday beverages are numbing the pain!