Thursday 6th May 2004
Not too many kilometres today but it was still a full day just
the same. We were able to take it a little slower (No, we were
not standing still!) this morning as it was our plan to visit Sea
World today.
After purchasing the tickets from the Caravan Park office to attend
Sea World, we made a telephone call to an old friends of the family,
Les and Patti Nash who once were in the crayfishing business in
Western Australia. Patti answered the phone and we had a great
chat, with the result of a visit to their home coming up in the
next few days. We look forward to that.
Then it was off to Sea World just after 10am, arriving shortly
after it opened. Our first activity was a visit to Dolphin Cove
to see the show that the dolphins put on twice each day. We have
to say that we don't really like animals kept in captivity just
for the profit of the human race, however these dolphins do have
quite a large area and appear not only to be well cared for, they
really do seem to enjoy putting on these performances.
After the dolphins, we went to the Polar Bear swimming pool where
one of these animals were lazing around in an area simulating a
summer in their place of origin. Then it was on to Shark Bay where
some people were swimming with some of the smaller sharks and rays,
however just through a sheet of glass or perspex, there were a
number of much larger sharks and rays waiting for a feed. We viewed
the sharks from above water and also through glass into their domain.
Next was a display by humans, it was a water ski display that
provided some very skilful skiing exhibitions. 'One of us' thought
it must have used quite a bit of energy and that we should re-charge
the stomach before going too much further. This was achieved without
a great deal of effort before we took the mono rail that travels
around the whole of Sea World.
The next performers were sea lions or seals. We have to admit
that we have never seen anything like these seals, we agree that
although the humans in the 'play' performed their parts quite well.the
sea lions did a much better job and didn't miss a line or action
all the way through the performance. Bearing in mind that although
they may be tame and friendly to their trainers, these animals
are still wild animals and do this all for food and affection,
they are not physically restrained at any time during the performance.
When videoing their performance at one stage I couldn't keep the
camera still because it was so funny.
After this we needed a seat so we took one, it was an expensive
seat because it was in the Sea World helicopter that took us for
a flight out over Surfers Paradise and down to Burnliegh Head and
back again. It only lasted fifteen minutes and we though we had
actually bought the helicopter when we paid for our tickets, but
it was a great experience. 'One of us' had never been in a helicopter
before and loved it, the other one had been in a lot of helicopters
before when in Vietnam, but never before in one just for fun like
this.
Next was a ride in the Skyway (Chairlift with enclosed seating)
that took us over the top of a number of the exhibits in Sea World.
This was a return trip and we found ourselves back near the souvenir
shop so 'one of us' had to visit that location and added to the
load the caravan has to carry.
The last exhibits we attended were the Aquarium which consisted
of a good number of smaller aquarium windows containing a variety
of fish. Then we went on to the 'Reef Discovery' Live Underwater
Show which is in fact a short film and
then an
informative
presentation
in front of a huge glass front of an aquarium.
After all this it was now 4:30pm, over 6 hours since we walked
in and as the park closed at 5pm, we though it must be time to
leave. This was a great day and we would highly recommend it to
anyone who had the chance to visit Sea World in the Future.