When exploring the vast continent of Australia, it is always important to check not only where you are going, but also what time of year you are going. With vastly different climates and seasons, occurring across the country, you’re likely to find yourself in a tight spot if you don’t do your research.
For anyone in the Northern Hemisphere, it is essential to remember that Australia’s seasons are out of sync with yours. Australian seasons are usually the opposite of what the Northern Hemisphere experiences, so if it’s summer up there, it’s winter down here.
The basics
To break it down, each of Australia’s seasons consists of three full months per season.
Each season begins on the first day of the calendar month, so summer is from December 1 to late February, fall from March to May, winter from June to August, and spring from September to November.
A comparing things to the northern hemisphere, it is important to keep the first day of the month in mind, compared to the 20 th or 21 st. By doing this, you can be sure to traverse the world with little to no hiccups, depending on the weather.
So remember: each season in Australia comprises three full calendar months, rather than, for example, starting on the 20th or 21st of the first month and ending on the 20th or 21st of the fourth month.
Climate variations in Australia
When traveling to Australia it is important to remember that there are four official seasons within the Australian calendar. However, due to Australia’s large geographic size, the country has a lot of climatic variations.
For example, the southeastern and western sides of the country have a comfortable climate that never really goes to incredible extremes, although the northern parts of Australia are incredibly tropical.
The northern parts of Australia tend to identify two well-defined weather seasons: the wet (roughly November to April) and the dry (April to November) with temperatures that remain tropical. It is also important to note that temperatures within the warmer sections of northern Australia can rise by 30 to 50 degrees Celsius (86 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit) during the wet season, particularly in the Australian outback, and drop to about 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) during the dry season.
Which season receives the most rain?
Autumn is undoubtedly the season to receive the most rain. Autumn occurs begins March 1st and
Think of a dark ride at a traditional amusement park. On steroids. Curse of DarKastle is a 20th century style game through a haunted 15th century gothic castle using 21st century technology. As with the dark rides of yesteryear, there are creepy corridors, colliding things in the fake night, and a ton of scary “tricks” or tricks. But Curse’s cheats use 3D animation, CGI, motion-based mobile vehicles, and other new-age features. It’s an impressive achievement, particularly for a seasonal park.
- Excitement scale (0 = Wimpy!, 10 = Yikes!): 5
- Loud noises and “haunted” theme can scare young children, virtual free fall, some twists.
- Attraction type: 4-D, roving motion base simulator, dark ride
- Height restriction (minimum, inches): 42
You have to deliver it to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. With its rich theme, breathtaking scenery, and superior food, it’s a seasonal regional park, more or less, believed to be a year-round destination park. And it doesn’t skimp on its rides and attractions either. Fans of thrill rides love the place for its world-class roller coasters. And park fans of all thrill tolerance levels love the park for its themed ride, unique motion simulator presentation, elaborate shows, and other attractions more typically found at Disney and Universal parks.
With Curse of DarKastle, however, Busch Gardens Williamsburg has raised its own bar. At the time it debuted, the park said it was the most expensive attraction in its history.
The ride uses engaging 3D computer-generated imagery (yes, for all the progress made in developing the attraction, you’ll still have to wear those silly 3D glasses) and multi-sensory effects like fog, blasts of cold air, and water droplets. But unlike theater-based shows, which have static seats and a single screen, Curse features nine different screens arranged in a massive 40,000-square-foot building. In dark fashion, guests move from scene to scene (or screen to screen, if you like) in vehicles.
In this case, the vehicles are itinerant movement bases. DarkCastle’s seats move in sync with projected action to immerse riders in their virtual world. But, the seats are in eight-passenger “golden sleds” that are on the move. Not only do they pitch and wink in concert with the projected images, but the vehicles speed up, slow down and turn wildly as they travel through the ride. In a scene transition, they even do a herky-jerky bounce like they’re walking up the stairs.
Would you be able to handle the trip?
The combination of 3-D imagery and roving motion bases provides the attraction’s designers with an incredible palette of effects. Crossbows, fireballs and other projectiles are launched at the riders. Although the vehicles never leave the ground, they magically appear to rise and fall freely. With all the frenetic action, both virtual and real, is DarkCastle exclusively for the brave?
While the ride is thrilling and sure to get the adrenaline pumping for thrill ride junkies, it’s not a thrilling ride at full throttle. “We believe we have created a unique experience,” says Larry Giles, vice president of design and engineering for Busch Gardens. “(DarkCastle) is dynamic enough to engage teens, but it’s fun for the whole family. For children, it is a rite of passage.
If you like motion simulator attractions, you should do it right. If you are not sure if you want to board it, I recommend that you give the ride a try. Except for turning (which is brief) and forward motion (which is not particularly fast), vehicles never actually move more than a few inches in any direction. If the action becomes too intense, you can close your eyes and the illusion, along with your anxiety, should subside. But you’ll want to try and keep your eyes peeled for the wild fun.
DarkCastle uses many of the same features as the groundbreaking The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure. It’s so good? No, but keep in mind that I consider Spider-Man to be the best themed attraction anywhere (and Universal had a considerably higher budget to develop their ride). Spidey does a better job combining his projected virtual images with the real environment. And its effects, particularly its free-fall sequence, are sharper and more jaw-dropping.
The Universal ride also has the distinct advantage of familiar characters with established appeal.
Awoooo Terrible things happen!
But the history of DarkCastle is easy to follow. Located in the German section of the park, the walk is loosely based on King Louis II of Bavaria. According to the lore presented in the pre-show, centuries ago, the future king met a mysterious woman who transformed into a wolf and predicted Ludwig’s fate as an evil monster. Faster than could be said, “Awoooo”, terrible things began to happen in the castle. The ghost of King Ludwig still haunts his castle, we are warned… so stop by and keep your arms and whining psyches inside moving vehicles at all times.
The sleds travel through a series of eleven chambers, including Ludwig’s study, kitchen, and a large fireplace, where the monster who would be king unleashes all manner of 3-D mayhem. The final scene, sorry, my lips are sealed, it’s especially impressive.
The pedigree of the ride’s developers is pretty impressive too. Among the creative team are the magicians behind the attractions at Universal’s parks. Brent Young of Super 78, the Los Angeles store that created the CGI animation for DarkCastle, says it took thirteen months to produce the three minutes and twenty seconds of footage from the trip. Since three-dimensional attractions require two separate images (one for each eye), and the scenes in DarkCastle were so detailed, it was a race that pitted the processing powers of their computers against time to render and manage the massive amount of data from digital film.
Young says that after bringing the DarkCastle creative team together about a month before the journey opened to fuse everything together, he was delighted with the results. “It’s even better than we imagine.” And, he believes, the technology will continue to evolve. “This will not be the last trip of this kind.” To which I say: “Awoooo!”
