Nnnnnoosa, Peregian, Coolum, Eumundi

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Geo: -26.3833, 153.15

6-13Dec09
Decided we needed to see southern Queensland and booked a week in the Sunshine Coast in Sept. then I got a new job so had to reschedule until December which as it turned out was fortuitous as by then I was 6 months pregnant and C was covered in road burn but that's another story.

We had planned to take 10 days with a 2 day road trip either side but that wasn't possible with our jobs and it was no great loss as we had already done road trip from Sydney to Byron and Noosa is about another 4 hrs on, so didn't miss any new experiences there really as we ended up driving down as far as Nimbin (near Byron) and back for the craic.

So we flew up at 9am to Sunshine coast airport at Maroochydore with Virgin in no time at all and rented a trustee Budget car for the week - airport around a half hour from Noosa. I had heard a lot about Noosa in the last 2.5yrs having never heard of on any prior trips to Oz in the previous 10 yrs. And if course it was different to how I imagined it.

There is no Noosa as such. 'Noosa' is really made of up 3 towns, Noosaville, Noosa civic/junction and Noosa heads with a number of surrounding beach towns Castaways, Tewantin, Sunrise & Sunshine Beaches & a then a number of coastal towns incl. Peregian & Noosa National Park & closer to airport Coolum where there was a big Golf tournament on that some Korean guy was winning all round him I saw on the news.

We were based in Sunrise beach which between Noosa Junct. & Peregian beach and had no village of its own. Went for self catering apartment on Ventura St which was really nice (found it on stayz website).

We arrived on a Sunday and had a couple of hours before check in so we went straight to Noosa Heads. Big mistake as the traffic was like rush hour Sydney mid week! The town was obviously planned with a much smaller population in mind and has what seems like 6000 round-abouts. So gridllock on the 1st morning of your 'get away from the city to the beach' holiday was not exactly what we were banking on! The town is on the beach hence all the traffic and when we did park way out we walked up the beach which was nice and then hit a strip of really glossy shops on Hastings st. - with all the big name designers shops you get in Caslereagh St. in Sydney city centre which personally is not what I was looking for or expecting.

I was thinking hippy, barefoot, laidback beach town. Eventually we had lunch in 'Cafe le Monde' which frankly had a very up its own ass attitude and which I see describes itself on the web as "Noosa's iconic outdoor restaurant and lounge bar - al fresco beachside dining and modern Australian cuisine." What B.S., read 'overpriced food the same as everywhere with some idiotic menu restrictions' (for some reason we were not allowed to have a bagel and fruit at the same time, only a croissant & fruit was permissible). Weird.

There seemed to be a 'Loaded' magazine style photo shoot going on around the corner in an Italian restaurant though, I am normally not that observant and I only noticed because I was waiting for C to get the car and pick me up after I got some supplies. So there I was loitering outside the window where naked boobs were being photographed - they must have I thought I was some sort of pregnant lesbo perv!

We also drove through Noosaville which has a river and was less hectic than Noosa Heads and after 10 million more roundabouts we found our accommodation and Sunrise beach. It was a 2 storey apartment with its own balcony & very nice it was too. After a siesta we went to the beach which we had to ourselves and was gorgeous and later drove over to Noosa junction to get some fruit & beer (as you do) and got the yummiest pizza ever from 'Capers' to have on our balcony. Saw some gorgeous Vivienne Westwood shoes in a shop window. Later we watched the movie '40 year old virgin' which we hadn't seen and is amusing.

Next day I don't know why but I was up at 7:15am (well there's an hours time diff. with Sydney in summer so my body thought it was really 8:15am maybe) so there was time for leisurely breakfast and at 8:40 we went Nimbin-ward for our roadtrip. This involved passing the Brisbane sky line along the way which was quiet fetching. We also crossed the Gateway Bridge 1,627 metres (5,337 ft) in length which is a road bridge at the centre of the Gateway Motorway (M1) and is very impressive. Word to the wise you can call the toll number within 48hrs and pay by credit card if you don't have a tag. Then we drove down the Steve Irwin way (I am not joking - they were embarrassed by him before he carked it but that's untimely death for ya) & through the very scenic Currumbin valley way and had lunch in Cafeind in Nimbin and after a hangout & look around the hemp museum etc. we headed back which took 4 hours exactly. Next day I was inexplicably awake at 6:30am! Spent the whole day reading and beaching and eating yummy deli food that we stocked up on at some point that day. Meant to go to the National park but it just was too hot.


On the Weds our in-utero baby started making visible kicks - like you can see my belly move! So we thought we'd better get some spices in there and had dinner in the "Magic of India' in Noosaville which sadly was only average, then again we saw no actual Indians working there. Following this was another great day doing nothing but read on the beach, on the couch, on the bed, on the balcony... followed by dinner, Persian this time, in Peregian in a restaurant called 'Qom' which was the nicest dinner we had all week.

Friday we had cabin fever a bit so took a drive to the kitschy Big Pineapple (disappointing) and came back via Coolum beach where we had Italian fare in 'My place' that was just ok. Coolum is fairly bustling beach town and they were having a parade lead by a scots bag piper to light their town Christmas tree which was vaguely entertaining which we ate.

Eumundi markets is on every Saturday (and Thurs evenings in Dec) and is really good, the village itself is lovely with an excellent book & clothes shop (separate establishments) so we were both happy and we had a great afternoon browsing followed by cake & coffee in a nice cafe there. Storms came in Saturday night after a stellar week of sun so leaving on Sunday was less hard even though the sun was back by then, had a last coffee in Peregian on Sunday morn and a look at their markets before heading for lunch at the nice little airport and the 12:20 flight. And I never did go back for my Vivienne Westwoods 😞

An extremely tame but relaxing week.

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