Sand, sea & sport
Rene young joins a Guinness Book of World record attempt in sunny Surfers Paradise.
There’s excitement in the air and sand between our toes as we join 1200 people on sundrenched Surfers Paradise Beach to smash the Guinness World Record™ for most sandcastles built in one hour. It’s a scorching 35 degrees, and while Cyclone Gita has blown in a cooling breeze that takes the edge off, the blustery conditions are not ideal to beat Germany’s title of 2230 sandcastles.
In true Aussie spirit, we aren’t going to let a little wind shake us. Kids with castle moulds in hand eagerly edge towards the firmer sand, tasked with the important job of placing the topper on our sand mounds as we dig, making it an official sandcastle. When the whistle blows, we jump to work, enveloped by the wonderful feeling of coming together.
The world record attempt is part of the annual 17-day Sand Safari Arts Festival celebrated at Surfers Paradise, which offers a host of fun and free family things to do.
Fun on the foreshore
Big, bobbing, inflatable jellyfish line lively Cavill Avenue, leading the way to Surfers Paradise Beach where cephalopods float in the breeze. Giant, colourful squid cast long shadows on the soft golden sand and provide a shady refuge for parents with prams and kids cooling off with ice-creams.
Along the foreshore, life-sized sand art installations are on display. After toiling over our paltry 60-centimetre-tall sandcastles, there’s a new appreciation for the meticulously carved sculptures. Inspired by the Gold Coast theme of ‘Sand, Sea and Sport’, our favourite was a frogman racing a gallant seahorse by American artist Kevin Crawford, which happens to be this year’s winner. Kids are encouraged to create their own sand art by the sea with activities set up along the promenade.
Every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday evening the foreshore welcomes some 100 stallholders selling art, crafts and produce. Its central location allows us to ditch the car in favour of an evening stroll along the beach.
Although small in size, the market packs a whole lot of heart. We meet James at Backa, his passion for cured meats producing the most mouth-watering red wine salami. Natasha at the Fudge Hut lovingly creates
buttery-sweet fudge, old-school musk sticks and giant choc freckles, and at She Sells Seashells, our daughter is kindly gifted a star-shaped cluster of shells “just for being her”.
Dazed and entertained
Off the beach, Surfers Paradise is chock-full of entertainment. The kids zip around the mall on a motorised dragon, past old favourite Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, Australia’s largest Timezone and Infinity, the area’s latest indoor amusement centre, which promises to “explode our senses”. Curiously, sensory overload requires donning white shoe covers and gloves. Kitted up, our kids eyeball a glowing alien foetus in a jar and ask what we are doing? It occurs to us that we have no idea what is in store.
We are soon immersed in rooms filled with lasers, strobe lights, disco balls and smoke machines. In the shadows, we dodge huge inflatable orbs, blindly squeeze through a rubber corridor to heavy techno beats and dance on a floor of seemingly never-ending neon music notes. Right about the time our eyes adjust to the dark, a flash of light stuns us. We emerge from the trippy experience to see our family snap plastered across screens, a look of bewilderment on my face and eyes firmly shut. Our dazed kids do not know what has hit them, though it only takes a hot minute for their pleas to do it all over again.
Fresh family food scene
Fast food and fish and chips aren’t the only options in sunny Surfers. You’ll find a fabulous selection of contemporary family eats. A welcome addition is Knox Dining with a menu focusing on healthy food with an Asian twist, plus there’s a great kids’ menu and an al fresco dining area overlooking a new playground.
At lunch, we can’t go past burgers and fries at iconic Betty’s Burgers & Concrete Co., finished with Betty’s famous thick and creamy ‘concrete’. The gluttony continues with dinner at Vapiano where we sip on lychee martinis as tasty pasta creations are cooked before our eyes. Our kids enjoy wood-fired pizzas shaped as bunnies and there’s still room to squeeze in a decadent Tim Tam Smash.
Sandcastles in the sun
The power hour of sandcastle building is wrapped up with a burst of boisterous cheer. A brow beaded with sweat and two cheesy grins from our little sand-toppers are our reward for a job well done. We are so caught up in our sandcastle building, we don’t realise the magnitude of our efforts until we stop to admire the sea of sandcastles surrounding us.
Unfortunately the wind has blown away some of the 3000-plus sandcastles toppers and only 1589 are counted. While a World Record title would have been sensational, there is pride in knowing that Germany would be shaking in their boots had Mother Nature been on our side. With any luck, we’ll go for gold next year.