Noosa Longboards

Greg surprised me by planning a trip to Noosa and on Saturday morning we drove north. We drove along the Sunshine Coast for about two hours and after a few wrong turns, we finally arrived in Noosa. Finding our resort was somewhat of a challenge but we were pleasantly surprised when we finally arrived at the quiet retreat tucked away in the hills. We checked in to our hotel and immediately wished it was our apartment. It was new, fresh and lovely which made it a perfect getaway spot.

Famished, we walked down the hill to the buzzing Hastings Street. We settled for an outdoor cafe and I decided on the veggie spring rolls. (I don’t always like to talk about food, but these were so good, we actually went back the next day.) The sun was shining and we hustled back to the hotel room to put our swimmers on and rushed to the beach. We skipped the shops and made our way down to the beautiful white sands and found a nice spot to throw down our beach towels.

Bliss. I read, Greg people watched. Once he started to get red, we decided to go grab a bottle of wine and a snack and go back to the hotel room. We sat on our balcony enjoying the serenity and just relaxed. Dinner was nothing to write home about but they can’t all be winners.

The next day we woke up early to enjoy our Sunday in the sun. Before lunch we walked up and down Hastings Street, this time venturing into all of the shops and boutiques. We ventured into the Noosa Longboards shop which I fell in love with.

This locally owned shop is like Hollister, only authentic, and I can fit in their clothes. They have skateboards, surfboards, books, DVDs clothes, hats, shoes, soaps, pictures, memorabilia and even a pinball machine. The owner was super nice and quick to strike up conversations, and, he didn’t even ask if we were Canadian! I tried to stop myself from buying an adorable maxi dress, I even walked out of the shop, but I eventually walked back in and purchased it. My shopping habits are different here, I find that I hold out for the special items that mean more than going to the mall to find something for that day. We love the markets and the
boutique shops and our wallets can tell.

After we were shopped out, we found a plot of sand and relaxed on the beach again. Again, Greg started getting red so we decided to leave Noosa and take the scenic trip back to Brisbane. We left the comfort of the GPS and followed the signs on the Tourist Drive to the Glasshouse Mountains. The Glass House Mountains were named by Captain James Cook as he sailed north up the coast of what is now Queensland in 1770 as part of his epic voyage aboard his ship HM Bark Endeavour. They were so called as the shape of the mountains reminded him of the huge glass furnaces (glasshouses) back in his native Yorkshire. (Wikipedia)

You can see the majestic mountains from the highway and all the way up the narrow tourist drive but each kilometre is more and more beautiful and when you finally reach the lookout point the almost 360 degree view leaves you speechless. We had an absolutely wonderful weekend taking in the views from beaches to mountains and definitely plan to go back to Noosa again.

Rugby and Coolangatta!

So it's been a while but here's a quick catch up. We went to our first Rugby game, so much fun! It was pretty tame compared to what we expected. Australia won! We still don't understand the game but still had a blast.

The next day we went for a runjogwalk around the city in the drizzle. We're runwalkjogging the Bridge to Brisbane which the locals participate in every year. This year it supports Children with Autism and it's on the 29th of August. As planned, we enjoyed dinner and drinks at the Storey Bridge Hotel, SBH, with Stephanie. One of the three restaurants was hosting Christmas in July. It was rainy and chilly outside and appropriate for the so called holiday, but we ate at the more happening side of the SBH.

On the 30th, we rented a car and went to Coolangatta for the weekend. After sitting in traffic, we arrived a little before 5:00 giving us enough time to take pictures from our balcony before deciding where to go to dinner.

We ended up at Aztec. That's right, we gave in and had Mexican food for the first time in Australia. After an intense conversation with the waitress who told Stephanie it was indeed too complicated to put refried beans on a separate plate, we all ordered enchiladas. For most Mexican food restaurants I've ever eaten at, it's not a hard concept to serve enchiladas with rice and beans. However, the idea has not caught on in Australia. Neither has cilantro. They also seem to think black olives is an acceptable garnish for burritos. Fair enough. We did not get sick and it was actually acceptable for as desperate as we are for Mexican food. After dinner we walked down the street to what we thought was an iviting beach pub. Ha. They wouldn't get Greg in with his flip flops, aka, thongs, so he went back to the hotel and changed his shoes. Fifteen minutes later, the big so called security guy with an unmistakable mullet walked over and told Steph and I that we would need to finish our drinks because we were wearing flip flops, aka thongs. We looked around as if saying, "Buddy, look around, we're the least of your worries." However, out of fear of being deported, we obediently left to change our shoes. When we came back, as luck would have it, ten other people came in the bar wearing thongs, cut off shirts or fifthly tennis shoes, not to mention, more mullets. None the less, we told the so called security guard how we felt and after he tried to chat up Greg, we left.

Saturday we were supposed to go whale watching but the hostess called to tell me it was too windy and we would have to go on Sunday. Fine, beach day it is. It was overcast and somewhat chilly but we had a great, relaxing day. Greg went and walked around while me and Steph tried to lay out. It looked like it was going to rain so we took that opportunity to take a much needed nap.

Greg, of course, came back hungry and told us to get up. After lunch, we found a quiet spot on the beach and enjoyed the rest of the sun.

We had pizza and beer for dinner and debated on trying to go back to the same bar. We we found out it was $10 to get in, we respectfully declined.

We woke up to a beautiful surf on Sunday, completely different than Saturday. The wind had died down and we knew it would be an exciting day.

Yes, it is winter here, and yes, there are sharks. However, Greg and I geared up in wet suits for our surf lesson with Dan. We both surfed, one, better than the other, but I did in fact stand up on the board. The whole objective of surfing right? No shark bites or major injuries so surfing was a success!

Whale watching was also a success! We set out from the Tweed Heads Golf Course, which is really a country club/casino. We tried to have lunch there with no success, evidently Sunday's are pretty popular with the locals. After about fifteen minutes on the boat we saw the first whale. He came right next to the boat but kept going, so did we. We stopped to see a whale who actually jumped out of the water for us.

Next stop, momma whale and her baby. They came right up to the boat! The guides were so excited about seeing momma and baby. Greg said he saw the hostess in the bottle shop afterwards probably buying some bubbly to celebrate. Their video footage was supposed to be on the local news that night but we didn't see it. After leaving momma and new born, we saw two whales jumping together. They were magnificent!!!

We tried to get as many pictures as possible but didn't want to view the whole experience behind the camera screen. Which is why most of my pictures are of the sky or water but we did manage some cool shots. Overall, our weekend in Coolanagatta was amazing and we had so much fun!

That's all for now. We'll fill you in on the rest as it happens. Hope y'all have a wonderful week!!