Sunshine Coast

I sat down to write the second post about our trip soon after we returned home, but got sidetracked by several other things. We got back to Melbourne midweek and started planning for our Cinco de Mayo party while getting back into the swing of things at work (I am being called in to substitute on a more consistent basis now, which is great), and I let the blog post slide to the end of my list of things to do. Hopefully I can remember all of the best parts of our trip without leaving anything significant out!

Since we were in Brisbane for a wedding, I thought we should take a few days and explore some other areas of Queensland that were within a few hours drive. From Brisbane, you can go south and explore the Gold Coast or you can go north to check out the Sunshine Coast. Most Aussies that I had spoken to recommended the Sunshine Coast, and when Erik visited Oz about 10 years ago he remembered not being super impressed with the Gold Coast, so that made our decision about which direction to go pretty easy.

On Sunday morning after the wedding, we head north out of Brisbane towards Noosa. I had been told that we had to stop at Glass House Mountains National Park. These "mountains" are actually extinct volcanoes that most likely formed about 27 million years ago! The park is obvious to spot once you get close, because the peaks of these mountains stand out among the remainder of the land, which is relatively flat. To get to the Glass House Mountains we drove on Steve Irwin Way, which would have taken us all of the way to the famous zoo if we had chosen to visit it. However, given our recent experience with kangaroos and koalas, I didn't feel a visit to the zoo was necessary! The drive down Steve Irwin Way was reminiscent of being in Northern Minnesota. The two lane road is lined with thousands of pine trees on either side. However, once we got closer to the mountains, we noticed landscape and flora that was very similar to that of Hawaii.

From the lookout on Mount Tibrogargan. Mount Beerwah to the left and Mount  Coonowrin on the right.

We did a short hike of Mount Tibrogargan but did not hike up that mountain. Apparently it's a really popular place for rock climbing and we actually heard a few climbers while we were strolling around the base of the mountain.

This is where we spotted the climbers. Obviously they are too small to see in this picture.

Crazy looking fern!

After our short hike, we drove to the lookout point of the Glass House Mountains for a different view. The picture below is probably all that many people see of the National Park, as it has easy driving access and signage from the road.

At this point it was getting late in the day but we still wanted to do a bit more hiking, so we headed to the base of Mount Ngungun. This hike was quite steep and rocky in a few places, but the reward at the top was worth the work.

Can you spot Erik in this picture?

Did I mention it was humid in Queensland?! I actually enjoyed it, as it is relatively dry and cool in Melbourne this time of year and it was a nice change to have some warmth and humidity. After the hike we hit the road again on our way to Noosa, arriving after dark and after a mix up about which condo we were renting. Once we got settled, Erik grilled dinner and we enjoyed the most delicious roadside pineapple I've ever tasted. In the morning we walked down to the main beach in Noosa and spent some time relaxing on the beach and laying in the sunshine.

The unique thing about Noosa is that it's a beach town right next to a National Park. It also has waterways that run through the town, making for a very picturesque place (given the nice warm weather and the beautiful beach, I was harassing Erik about why he did not get a job on the Sunshine Coast!). It is "famous" for the triathlon festival that is held there every November, as it seems to be one of the most popular triathlons in Australia. After some beach time, we headed off for a walk along the Coastal Track in Noosa National Park. This hike reminded me a bit of the Bondi to Coogee cliff walk we did in Sydney.

Watching the surfers in Tea Tree Bay. Huge numbers of surfers here, even in the middle of the day.

These characters are everywhere you turn, similar to the roosters on Kauai

Sadly, the sun is setting on our last night in Noosa.

That evening we grilled our dinner again and then headed into the town of Noosaville for dessert. It was really quiet with not much open, but we stumbled upon a place called Amo Gelato. The guy behind the counter was incredibly friendly and he didn't have much other business, so we proceeded to taste just about every flavor of gelato they had available! Everything was made from local. real ingredients and the taste was evident of that. The almond and praline flavor was our favorite, and we also tried tiramisu, rocher (made from Ferrero Rocher chocolates), and chili chocolate.

In the morning we headed back towards Brisbane along the Sunshine Highway, which runs right next to the ocean and provides beautiful views. We stopped at Mount Coolum, which I had been looking forward to hiking the top of, but instead found this:

Unfortunately the trail was closed for work (even though we did not see or hear any work taking place...this also happened to us when hiking in the Dandenongs), so we'll have to return one day to check out the views from the top of Mount Coolum. At that point we decided to hit the beach in Mooloolaba, another town along the Sunshine Coast.

We were able to soak up some sun before the rain came in and ended our afternoon a bit early. Fortunately, that worked out well because we were able to meet Dave and Jaylene, the bride and groom from the wedding in Brisbane, and their charming son Zane, out for an early dinner. We ate delicious burgers at a place along the river in the CBD, and it was great to be able to spend some time with the newlyweds before boarding our plane to head back to Melbourne. So long, Sunshine Coast, hope to see you again soon!