Crikey

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It was not a fun filled drive to Noosa from Brisbane, apart from the giant pineapple the one and a half hour drive was pretty dull. But we arrived in time for lunch at Noosa Junction and stocked up on some food and drink for our self contained unit at Coles prior to checking in. We are staying at the Noosa Parade Holiday Inn, but not the Holiday Inn that you will all be thinking of! Saying that though it is rather nice, spotlessly clean and comfortable. Blew the budget on lunch, so had a lazy rest of the day, took a walk to Hastings Street in Noosa Heads, one of the main tourist areas and relaxed on the beach, before heading home for some fruit toast and a night of cable tv, the height of luxury for us!

The following morning we planned a walk in the Noosa National Park, although being our typical selves we headed off in flip flops, so we cut the trip short doing the shortest (1km route) before heading back and hitting the beach. In the evening we headed out for a bottle of vino and a rather nice Italian meal on Hastings Street. Hastings street has some fancy restaurants, seafood,, Italian and mod Oz mainly and a couple of nice bars including a french style sidewalk cafe which does a good coffee.

The following day we were up and about early to catch the complimentary coach transfer to Australia Zoo. The weather was awful, chucking it down with rain and chilly, well chilly ish. We were very excited at the prospect of seeing the crocodile hunter - well the legend that lives on. It was a great day out, massive amounts of friendly staff, but unfortunately no sign of Terri, Bindi or Bob, or even Wes for that matter. We went to both showings in the Crocoseum, even though both were identical, except for different Croc’s. We queued in line with the kids to feed the Elephants, saw the baby and not so baby tigers, observed the venomous snakes and were reassured by the fact that many live up and around north Queensland, along with the Croc’s and us! At least following the Australia Zoo trip we now know that you can run away from a Croc successfully without having to zig zag - they don’t run that fast and for all our visitors sakes we can now administer first aid in the case of a snake bite.

Thankfully the following day the weather had picked up so we headed to Noosaville. We stopped for a picnic along the Noosa River and made a reservation for dinner at a Japanese Café. The restaurants in Noosaville were slightly more adventurous than on Hastings St and we struggled to choose between the Turkish and Japanese. Then surprise surprise we headed to the beach, you would think our tans would be coming along a bit now, but the sun factor 30 seems to be doing it’s job a bit too well, never mind give it a couple of years and Aly might look like someone who has been on a two week holiday to Spain. Turns out we made an excellent restaurant choice, with wonderful sashimi and Japanese hot pot and a couple of Sapporo Beers.

For our final full day we headed back to the Noosa National Park in more appropriate footwear and completed the 7km coastal and inland loop.

The Noosa area is really beautiful and we really enjoyed our stay, it does get pretty crowded though, so we are grateful to be leaving before the Christmas rush. There are some lovely shops with some lovely prices! A decent variety of restaurants, less so for the budget conscious and a pristine beach and if you’re in to waves you’re even allowed to swim in the sea down here!

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