Eloise's ninth birthday was nearly a year ago, and the inevitable march of time means that our passes are due to expire soon. Marion, when quizzed about her weekend plans, volunteered a visit to Wet'n'Wild to which we were invited along with the Jessicas.
Nicole was at work and uncertain of transport logistics so I wasn't sure if the car would be available, so Eloise travelled down with Marion and Hannah in the morning and Tony went with his rabble separately.
I was a bit ambivalent about the whole thing as Lyra played merry hell last night, waking up in the small hours full of beans, apparently under the impression that contrary to the evidence offered by the pitch blackness outside it was actually morning and that we should be getting ourselves out of bed and on with the day rather than sticking bottles of milk in her mouth and grumbling that she ought to be asleep. This went on for what seemed like several hours and we were all buggered this morning (with the exception of Eloise, of course, as she always sleeps blissfully through this sort of thing).
Nicole and I decided to take a chance take a chance take a take a chance chance on her snagging a lift home so we dropped her off at work and headed off down to the Gold Coast, arriving around two o'clock with a Lyra who had been fast asleep for half an hour and was somewhat grumpy.
I tracked Tony down at Calypso Beach, and got Lyra dressed in her swimming nappy against considerable and vociferous resistance before going to join the others in the Wave Pool.
It always bemuses me why anyone would want to spend any time in the Wave Pool at Wet'n'Wild, after all, why drive an hours to spend all your time in a swimming pool? And if waves are so great, what's wrong with the sea, dammit? But the girls seem to love it, inexplicably (in my view), so we wasted (in my view) half an hour in there before going to appreciate the rides.
First on the list was the Slide Race thingy where you line up at the top of a set of big long undulating slides down which you race.... hence the title.
Lyra wasn't up for it, and not allowed to anyway so with Penny, Lyra and I went to Buccaneer's Bum (or Wet'n'Wild Junior as it is now called) for a go on the mini-rides there. I didn't think Lyra would be up for the slides but with Penny's assistance she was in the event game and they did some sliding together, making me a bit proud.
Then we roamed around in the general kiddy pool area, and up on the battlements, observing that a shade was advancing on the horizon, with towering clouds with deep grey underbellies soon blotting out the sun.
And indeed before long we were indeed asked to leave the pool with the tannoy announcing "inclement weather conditions in the area."
And so, Wet'n'Wild became an interesting place, reminiscent of a kind of reverse-disco where the attractions were empty, surrounded by legions of people looking perplexed, because it wasn't raining, it wasn't windy, there wasn't any thunder, or lightning, and it all seemed a but cautious and premature.
We went back to our camp at Calypso Bay and ate some food, wondering what was going on, watching the river flow past, bedecked with empty floating rings, attended by lifeguards with no life to guard. Tony wanted to get some ice cream so off we went to the ice cream shop, leaving Marion to hold the fort with Lyra. The sky continued to darken.
Rumbles of thunder on the five minute walk to the ice-creamery. We got to the ice cream shop just as it started to rain. We bought ice cream as the rain intensified. We ate ice cream as gusts of wind blew the rain into the ice cream shop.
It occurred to me that Marion and Lyra didn't have that much shelter where they were. Tony lent me a plastic bag to protect my money and my bone, and I strolled back with the lightning and thunder cracking around and the rain hammering down and the wind gusting. I found them underneath a pergola, Lyra cuddling up and Marion signing singing to her. Lyra somewhat shellshocked.
We got all the stuff together, piled it up on the pram, and wheeled back to the ice cream shop through all the previously mentioned inclement weather conditions.
After the rain let up - about half and hour - we took stock. Wet'n'Wild would be closing in around half an hour and an unspoken consensus took shape that saw is thinking about getting changed, realising all our stuff was soaked through, deciding not to get changed after all, heading out for the car, and going home.
So a couple of hours drive for a wade in the Wave Pool and a paddle in Buccaneers' Bum. What a day!
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