Tropical Fruit World

My family go on a summer vacation every year and last year we decided to spend some time at the Gold Coast. We decided that we’d skip the major attractions as we had been to them before and explore lesser known areas. So we chose Tropical Fruit World. Tropical Fruit World is actually located in New South Wales but the Gold Coast is close to the New South Wales border so we were able to visit.

Tropical Fruit World is a working farm/tourist site where tropical fruits from around the world are grown. The farm first opened as a tourist attraction in 1983 as Avocado Land. In the 80s avocados was considered an exotic fruit and which few had tried. Now avocados are a familiar fruit in Australia and widely available. Avocado Land was changed to Tropical Fruit World in 1995 which better reflects the park.

After we paid for our tickets, we were given an itinerary of all the tours and fruit tasting available. First we headed off to fruit tasting. We tried many fruit but I can’t remember all that we had. The one memorable fruit was the canistel which is a fruit from Central America. It is a yellow fruit that has the texture of a hardboiled egg yolk.  It doesn’t taste like an egg yolk though. I don’t remember the taste but I do remember the texture. It can be eaten on its own or made into jams and custards.

When the fruit tasting was over, we went on a tractor ride which toured the park. There were many different fruits around the park which were all labeled. The guide pointed out some notable fruit and some facts about it. I learnt that mangoes originated from India and were brought to other countries by the British during colonial times. Some tourists from overseas were excited when they saw fruit from their country. My dad was happy when he saw some Asian fruit.

We also had banana tasting on the tour as well as macadamia cracking.

The tractor tour lead to a playground and a miniature train ride. It was raining so we had to wait until the rain had stopped. My mum and I decided to go on the train even though it’s mostly for kids. The train went faster than I expected so I thought it was a fun experience.

We went on a boat ride afterwards. We were all given bread to feed the ducks. My brother Paul ate the bread and mum told him it wasn’t for him. I had heard that bread isn’t good for ducks but the bread isn’t the sole diet of the birds and they don’t rely on it.

The boat stopped off at a petting zoo. We all fell in love with Sherman the horse. He was a gentle giant. There were also kangaroos, emus, donkeys and sheep to feed.

It was our last stop in the day so we took the tractor ride back to the start of the park. We all loved going to Tropical Fruit World and I would recommend it for foodies and families.