“I love you Mummy. We are best friends in the whole world!”

Kalyra skipped along the path holding my hand as we headed toward the Fairy Princess shop.

She had just run into Dora, her favourite explorer, so similar to herself. Dora gave her a big cuddle and as she stood between her and Diego holding their hands for a photo her smile burst outward in radiating happiness.

A smile that wiped away the frustration I was feeling only moments before. It had been a long day at Dreamworld, and Kalyra has been testing my patience for the last couple of weeks with some out of the ordinary tantrum foot stomping behaviour.

Being at one of Australia’s biggest theme parks, did not stop her demands. It was tiring work exploring the park with her. But, one look on her face when she met Dora and danced with Dorothy the Dinosaur not long before, made me wake up to myself and realize it was all worthwhile. This was the place where children’s dreams come true.

Dreamworld is located on the Gold Coast, only a short drive from Surfers Paradise. It has something for all ages with thrilling rides, entertaining shows, wildlife and children’s rides.

We first headed for the Wiggles World. Kalyra ran straight for Dorothy’s tea cups, dragging me into her dizzy world with her. We spun and twisted and had a great ride together. This warmed up her bravery to get into the Big Red Car to explore the Wiggles House. She was nervous at first but her eyes burned brightly with delight once we saw Anthony’s kitchen and Dorothy’s rosy garden.

After having photos with Henry the Octopus and Dorothy the Dinosaur we moved to meet some real Australian animals at the wildlife centre. She was ecstatic to feed the kangaroos and pet the cuddly koalas.

She was completely enthralled on Daddy’s shoulders as we watched the tigers leap around their enclosures, drink milk and climb trees.

No trip to a Child’s theme park would be complete without a couple of rides on Merry-go-Rounds, airplanes that look like Blues Clues, steam train rides, and swinging chairs.

We decided to take Kalyra on a bit more adventurous log flume ride. She protested the whole time during the 45 minute wait that she did not want to go on it, only to change her mind enthusiastically at the last minute. She laughed her head off at nervous Nanny in the log beside us and spoke of how much fun she was having the whole gentle boat ride through. And then we started to go up.

“Where are we going Mummy?”

“We are just going up to go down the big slide for the splash. Hold onto tight now and Mummy has got you. This is going to be lots of fun.”

We hit the lip and slowly went over, picking up speed halfway through to fly down to the great big final splash. There was stunned silence in front of me. After she had a moment to absorb what had happened, she turned to look at the big drop and up at me and said quite calmly but assuredly, “I don’t want to go on that ride again Mummy”

And then she laughed at how funny it was when we got off and she saw how wet Mummy and Nanny were!

Of course a trip to Dreamworld that involves lots of excitement, rotating rides, and Easter Sunday chocolate eggs can only end in one way. Kalyra fell asleep as soon as we started our drive home and as soon as we pulled up to the supermarket car park to organize something for dinner she violently woke up and threw up chocolate all over herself and Mummy.

“I love you too honey. We are best friends in the whole world.”

Many thanks to Gold Coast Tourism for hosting our trip to Dreamworld.