Sand Safari at Surfers Paradise…

Earlier in the week I went again to Surfers Paradise to see how the sand sculptures were progressing.

Some were still a work in progress.

Three sculptors were busily scratching away at the large piles of sand. A total of 50 tonnes in 3 piles.

The theme this year is the DreamWorks Heroes. Characters from Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Shrek and more.

But some were already for viewing and photographing.

Others were waiting for finishing details.

Not many people around midweek, a good time to look around.

 The expressions and detail fascinated me.

This sculpture of a dragon with Donkey received the people’s choice award for the favourite sculpture.

How cute is that. Look at the peaceful expression.

They also had a pavilion set up with piles of sand for you to create a masterpiece.

Along the back wall were instruction sheets. I was amused to see this mother having ago, but it was just watching for her son. The ice-cream obviously more important.

Streets ice-cream company are the sponsors and an ice-cream was very welcome on this very hot day.

The sculptures were situated along the beach front. Where the life guards were keeping watch over a small group of beach goers.

Of course, like every where in the world today, the cell phone is never far away.

The judges will be announcing the overall winner this coming weekend.

So I’ll leave Shrek to say “Good bye”.

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Thursday doors : Sand Safari…

What a surprise I got when I went to see how the sand sculptures were progressing along the beach front at Surfers Paradise. I was happily wandering along taking lots of photos (I will be putting them in another post soon) and this was one of my favourites.

The irrepressible Donkey from “Shrek”, I loved his cheeky expression. Then I noticed the 3 mice peeping at me. So I moved round a bit to get a close up of them. Look what I found…

A very realistic looking door. So I went round to the other side.

Another door.

Not a real door, but so life-like I thought I would show them in Norm’s door challenge this week.

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Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time),

Surfer’s, sea, sun, sand and sand sculptures…

What better way to spend a sunny Sunday. It’s mid summer and we live in Australia’s tourist mecca. The beach is crowded with beautiful tanned bodies and the ocean is the perfect place to cool down.

The Gold Coast has 40 kilometres of pristine beaches and it’s not often we come to Surfer’s Paradise, preferring our own, usually, less crowded beach at Burleigh, but this weekend we have been drawn here to see the annual sand sculpting competition. 

We first pass Peter Pan and Tinkerbell who are sheltering inside the Paradise Centre. Then it is out into the heat to join the crowds admiring the rest of the displays.

The winner

AFTER three days of battle, a New South Wales person has been crowned the 2015 Australian Sand Sculpting Champion.

Jino van Bruinessen was awarded the title on the Surfers Paradise Foreshore yesterday for his sculpture of Winnie the Pooh and friends.

Interpreting this year’s theme of ‘Magical Friendships’ featuring Disney, the winning sculpture weighed in at more than 10 tonnes and took around 26 hours to create.

Bruinessen pocketed $2500 and also won a second trophy for the People’s Choice Award.

Here are some of the other entries.

 

One of the sculptors is still putting her finishing touches to her creation.

No additives are put into the sand, only water. The sand is a heavy grade, also known as “brickies sand” and it comes from the mouth of rivers. It has more squarish grains and will stick together better than the fine sand found on the beaches.

 The finished sculpture is sprayed with an environmentally-friendly biodegradable spray that gives them a water resistant coating.

This little fairy is fascinated with them.

I took this photo of the beach and when I downloaded onto the computer I discovered more sand creations. Can you see them?

I can’t make out what the one on the right is. Any suggestions?

These young Asian girls have just been out for a surfing lesson. Those are big boards for them to handle.

Late afternoon and the sun slowly sinks behind the hi-rise buildings giving some welcome relief in the shade.

It has been an interesting afternoon but I can see the golden arches of Macdonald’s tucked in among the hi-rise buildings.

Time for a coffee and an ice cream sundae before heading home.