Day 5 - Hot-air balloon and dreamworld

We had an super early night yesterday (sleeping at 8.30pm) as we need to wake up at 3am to get ready for the Hotair ballon ride. The girls were brief the night before on the day's programme and thus, very co-operative in going to bed and as well as waking up at 3am in the morning.

What surprised me was little Nic woke up too with no fuss. I had initially planned to "lift" him up and go but after finishing up the milk which I put in his mouth while still sleeping, he actually woke up! Everyone was ready and waiting for the coach downstairs by 4am. (The sky was already bright by then)

It took us closed to 2 hours to reach the launch site and the kids took the chance to nap on the bus. Once there, they were so excited at the sight of the Hot air balloon, even little Nic! Too bad, he couldn't go up with them so he stayed with me and watched in envy (but no crying..phew) as hubby and the 2 girls took off.

I was worried that the temperature up there would be cold but the girls said that its very hot when the pilot turn on the fire. According to the pilot, the temperature is closed to 100 degree C when it heat up!

Spot them? They are in the first row right where the word "The best balloons" is. They took the 30 minutes flight and said the view was great. They even flew higher than the clouds. Its a great experience for the kids.

Little Nic was so excited to see the balloon coming down and couldn't wait to go near it. They had this so-called "balloon games" which was actually getting us to help keep the balloon, which is a very tough job especially under the hot sun!

After the tiring job of keeping the BIG balloon, we went over to O'Reilly's Grand Homestead & Vineyard for a good Champagne breakfast. The girls gave a try at the Champagne but don't like the taste.

Next, its another hour drive to our next exciting destination - Dreamworld! The kids napped again and thus very refreshed by the time we reached @ 10am. The weather was terribly hot!!!

We had bought the 2 day World Pass though internet and hubby again throw the task of planning the day route to me. Dreamworld is much bigger than the other 2 "worlds" and the map looks confusing too. Even an "expert" like me have difficulty matching the the rides with the map. And it got plenty of rides too! So, I decided to cover the Nickelodean Central first before little Nic takes his beauty sleep.

But even over there, he doesn't have much option but the girls were having a great time! Next we crossed over to the Tiger Island to watch the Tiger show. Hubby actually wanted to try the Tower of Terror but gave up after seeing the queue.

Next, we crossed over to the Wriggles World. While the girls went with hubby on the "Mick Doohan's Motocoaster", little Nic and I had our lunch.

And when the girls were back with hubby, its their turn to have their lunch while little Nic and I went on some kiddie ride.

The kids love this Big Red Car, not because its fun to ride but love the song. I think its one of the Australian's Kiddie show and even till now (back home) the kids are still singing the song! Its very catchy and Little Nic can sing the chorus and even the action of "toot toot"!!

Surprisingly, little Nic was not feeling sleepy by then. We follow the flow and went over to check out the Australia Wildlife which is like a mini zoo. For the first time, I seen what a Tasmanian Devils look like!

The only attraction there for the kids were the kangaroos and koalas....

For the sake of little Nic who now very into cars, take a few round on this Vintage cars.

Next, the girls went for the Log Ride and Gold Rush. Wanted to let little Nic takes the Log ride but he couldn't take it anymore and fell asleep while queueing, which was less than 1 minute!

Little Nic had been waiting all day to take photo with these 2 bears but missed the chance as he was still napping and we didn't want to wake him up.

And this photo sum up the day activity. Every one was tired by then. Got on the theme park bus and home we go. The fare was rather expensive...it cost us AUD12.00 from the theme park to our apartment which was not very far away.