Wet and wild is one of the premiere and pioneering water theme parks in Gold coast Australia and one of seven water parks operating under the Wet ‘n’ Wild brand. Opened in 1984 and adjacent to Warner Bros. Movie World (also owned by Village Roadshow Theme Parks), it an open air water park comprising of 17 water slides, 4 pools and is open all year round including winter (where the water is heated). I was there smacked in the Australian Winter and with the exception of the occasional wind chill, the park is still largely an enjoyable experience.
The water rides are largely modular and not built into the landscape presumably for ease of maintenance. The park itself is segmented into 2 main areas, each catering to what you seek at the park. Mainstream areas with family rides include the children-orientated Buccaneer Bay play area and chill-out Calypso Beach if you seek a spot for relaxation by the Giant Wave Pool. The warm Whirlpool Hot Springs in the cold winter month was a joy, reminiscent of the hot springs I enjoyed in Iceland.
My favourite rides will include the Super 8 Aqua Racer, a duelling eight lane timed mat racer slide as well as Aqua Loop, a trap door release slide which drops you vertically (really nice) after a countdown timer, allowing you to plummet down the slide and pull up to 2.5G and through a loop allowing up to a top speed of 60 km/hr. Miscellaneous slides will include your usual staple tube slides, such as the River Rapid, a collection of four looping body slides with two of the slides fully enclosed.
A good slide is one which is fast and full of twists, turns and good airtime. The Extreme H2O Zone as the name suggests is home to the Kamikaze half-pipe, comprising of two U-shaped half pipe slides where you get to slide off the edge off one and oscillate using gravity. There is even a four-person clover-leaf funnel slide (Tornado pro-slide) and Mach 5 a large slide complex housing five different slides. No water park is of course complete without the signature Black hole ride (a dark slide with some cool internal “drilled-hole” lighting).
The park itself is not large and is you will be pretty much done with all the slides in the park under 3 hours including re-rides. Admission prices to the water park are also much cheaper than other Village Roadshow Theme Parks to justify the smaller park. It will be advisable to grab the on-going park combination ticket to the water park together with Seaworld and Movie world for the price of one ticket.
Check out more photos of Wet and Wild here.
