The 'Sunshine Coast', Byron Bay and Nimbin!

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So we arrived at Noosa and checked into the YHA, which was located really close to the beach and all the designer shops- fun times window shopping!! Noosa was a really nice place, but there wasn't a whole lot to do there and eating or drinking out was really expensive, so we just had a few days of chilling on the beach!! We then moved to a different hostel over the other side of town, and spent another few nights there- again, not a whole lot to do, and the weather had taken a turn for the worse, so we had a few drinks and a bit of Trivia (where we came first...again!!) and that was about it!!

We then moved onto Mooloolaba where we planned to stay for two nights as it was only 20 mins or so to Australia Zoo, so we figured we would get the most from a full day at the Zoo if we were staying there. Also they have a really cool Aquarium there, so we wanted to check that out- and check it out we did!! Such a fun day, Sarah was freaked out by the tunnel with the sharks etc swimming over head, but other then that it was all good!! Unfortunately the weather was terrible (there was a HUGE storm along the whole of the east coast) so we were stuck in our hostel room for the next few days and missed going to the Zoo. Luckily, we still had the car for another couple of weeks so we decided to head off to Byron bay and Surfers Paradise and go to the Zoo when we came back up to Brisbane for our flight to Sydney!!

So we headed to Byron Bay and checked into the infamous 'Arts Factory Lodge', a place we had heard about from so many people along the coast, and a place we were really looking forward to! Only problem was that we had moved a good bit further down the coast and were in NSW at this stage and the place was FREEZING at night!!!But we didn't let that spoil our fun, and just wrapped up well at all times! One of the main reasons we were in Byron was also to head to Nimbin, an infamous town as the citizens have totally rebelled against the government and law, and take and sell drugs on the street and have a crazy liberal sense of life! Well we were only there about 30 seconds and we were being offered "Mary-Jo-Anna" cookies on the street- a 3 pack of cookies for $10!! Well we couldn't pass up an offer like that and so bought two batches each let the good times roll!! Nimbin is also where Sarah found her 'inner hippie' and invested in a hippie hat, a hemp scarf
and fisherman pants to help complete her new look and lifestyle!! Dave just kept his hobo look- he has that area pretty much boxed off at this stage!!!

Back in Byron- we ate our cookies, had a few giggles (and a LOT of food- thank god they had ginger in them- one of Sarahs most hated foods, because if they had have been tasty and we had taken a liking to them, we would have needed 2 seats each for the flight home- one for us and the other for our belly!!) and a few drinks and chilled the night away! Overall Byron was a pretty quite, chilled, stoner hippie place, and while we loved it at first after 3 or four days it got a boring, especially because the weather during the day wasn't warm enough to go to the beach or anything, so by our last day we were pretty much dying to find something to do-- thats when Zorbing was mentioned to us! The idea seemed class- and it was something that we had both seen on TV but never seen in real life- so we jumped at the opportunity to do it! basically you get strapped into a big huge ball and rolled down a big hill- just for fun!! So we went and did that- and it was a
good laugh- deffo not worth $45 when only 2 days later we spent a full day in Warners Brothers theme park Movie World and had a brilliant time for $60....Zorbing only lasted about a minute!!! But it was still fun- just don't bother doing it unless it's free!!!

Anyway, bright and early the next day we headed off to Surfers Paradise and were super excited at the prospect of Theme Parks, Pub Crawls and warmer weather!!!

We'll update the blog with the last part of the east coast asap so check back soon!

Love,
Sarah & Dave!

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