So we shopped around the other car rental companies in the airport there and settled on a little Corolla hatchback from Avis. It was an automatic transmission, instead of the little stick shift that I was looking forward to puttering around the Sunshine Coast. Oh well.
We piled in the car and drove off north to Noosa. It's only 140 km north of Brisbane and the drive was uneventful. Mostly, I was focused on getting used to driving on the left hand side of the road with a right-hand-drive car. Wierdness! The windshield wipers and the turn signal indicators were on the opposite sides from what I was used to. So, at first, I kept turning on the windshield wipers when I intended to signal a turn. Oops!
I got the hang of it eventually though. No worries! I drove us to our apartment at the Noosa Outrigger Resort in Noosaville. It was located across the street from Noosa River. Our apartment was pretty huge! Two floors -- two bedrooms, two bathroom and a balcony on the top floor; and a kitchen, living room, third bathroom with laundry, and two more balconies on the lower floor. Underneath it all was a covered spot to park our car. Pretty sweet. It was the biggest place we've stayed in Australia, and also the cheapest! Three cheers to getting the weekly rate!
In the morning (Sunday), it was time to get ourselves sorted out in Noosa. We drove to the grocery store to buy food for the week. We drove to the bottle shop (that's what Aussies call a liquor store) to buy fuel for the week. I was astonished to find a huge bottle shop only a few blocks from our apartment. I picked up a few specialty Belgian ales that I found there, including a bottle of Forbidden Fruit -- the very beer that started my fancy beer fetish.
After procuring essential supplies for the week we drove to the main beach in Noosa Heads. We wandered around the main shopping area, Hastings Street, and the first part of the national park on Noosa Hill. Noosa Heads is located on a small bay off of the ocean, where the Noosa River enters the water. Noosa Heads is separated from the ocean by the big hill in Noosa National Park. The other side of the hill faces the ocean at Sunshine Beach. That was our next destination. Unlike the main beach in Noosa Heads, Sunshine Beach has big waves and crashing surf. All of these locations are really pretty. Noosa is a really nice place! We drove along the coastal road some more before returning to our apartment to soak in the pool. For dinner, we made shish-kebabs and corn-on-the-cob on a poolside barbecue beside our apartment.
The next day (Monday) was a big one. Our destination was the Australia Zoo -- the very same zoo owned and made famous by Steve Irwin -- the Crocodile Hunter. It was only about a forty minute drive from Noosa.
My Lonely Planet, published in 2005, indicated that the admission price of the museum was AU$27. However, when we got there, we found out that that admission price is now AU$49. I guess that after Steve Irwin's death, they jacked up the price.... by a lot.
The zoo was pretty awesome though. We saw alligators, crocodiles, kangaroos, snakes, koalas, wombats, wallabies, cassowaries, emus, a tiger, elephants, lizards, tortoises, kookaburras, and a lot of different kinds of birds. The crocodile feeding shows were pretty cool. Steve Irwin would have been proud! We got to pet kangaroos and koalas! My sister says that she made friends with them! I hope the animals remember us.
After the zoo we stopped off at the Big Pineapple. It's a 15 metre tall pineapple located on a pineapple plantation in Nambour. Those of you from Ontario may know about the Big Apple beside the 401 highway in Brighton. The Big Pineapple is in the same category as Big Things as the Big Apple. Apparently Big Things are very commonplace in Australia. I'm sure that this isn't the first Big Thing that I'll see here. I do intend to visit the Big Banana in Coff's Harbour, at least! My sister bought some awesome looking pineapple and ginger jam. It looks really tasty. I hope that she enjoys it when she brings it back to Canada. Even though it's really tacky, the Big Pineapple was really fun. Once we climbed to the top
On Tuesday morning we intended to drive to Brisbane to do some shopping and sight seeing. However, we didn't go because it was raining SO HARD. We decided to try and go shopping somewhere closer instead: Maroochydore (only about 25 km away). After driving for five minutes though, I decided against it. The roads were awash with water and I could barely see. We had to stay in Noosa that day. We went to the Noosa Civic shopping mall for coffee and wandered around. It was pretty small though, so it couldn't occupy us for very long. We headed back to the apartment.
Once we got there, the rain let up a bit, but the skies were still drab and gloomy. We figured it could rain again at any time. I went for a bit of a walk, but stayed near the apartment. I walked by the river and checked out some surf shops. I bought myself a rash guard and a second pair of board shorts. We these articles of clothing, I was finally ready to try surfing when I get to Byron Bay next week! I headed back to the apartment and tried out my new swimming costume in the pool (even though it was raining lightly).
We spent the rest of the day at the apartment. I played Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on my DS, sorted through photos, drank beer and Licor 43 (my favouritest liquer in the world), and played San Juan (a card game) with my sister. We made sausages and baked potatoes on the barbecue. The whole time it was raining. Bummer.
This morning (Wednesday), we looked at the weather report. It was supposed to rain again today and tomorrow. Lovely. In the morning though, the sun was still shining, the skies were blue, and it was really warm. I took the opportunity to take myself out on a bike ride for two hours. When I left at 8:30 AM, my sister was still sleeping, so it's not like I was using up shared family time! heh heh heh
I biked along the river shore, to the main beach, up a big hill to an awesome look-out over town, down to Sunshine Beach, to the end of the spit at the end of Noosa River and back. I reckon it was about 20 or 25 km.
When I got back, my sister was up and, after a quick dip in the pool, we decided to go to Hastings Street for lunch and the main beach. We couldn't find parking near Hastings Street so we went to Noosa Junction for lunch instead. We went to the super little cafe where we had some really nice sandwiches and fresh fruit juices and smoothies. It was a nice light lunch that I really appreciated.
After lunch we walked along the shopping boulevard in Noosa Junction for a while. My sister wasn't feeling well after lunch, so we sat down for a bit for her to recuperate. After a few minutes, we were on our way again. We found the first Baker's Delight store (the same company that run's Cob's Bakeries in Toronto), and bought some tasty sweet scrolls for later.
It wasn't long and we were all Junctioned out and we drove back to Hastings Street. This time, I succeeded in finding parking. We shopped for souvenirs. My sister got some Billabong flip-flops and a cool beach towel. While we were there, the sky started to turn gray and we felt the first drops of rain for the day. We headed back to the apartment. My sister and dad went for a quick swim while I stayed in the apartment to write this blog entry.
Before dinner, my sister and I decided to walk to the Woolworth's grocery store to pick up a bit more food. When we left it was only spitting lightly. It was only about a walk of four blocks, but on the way, it started to rain a lot harder. We didn't bring any coats or umbrellas, so by the time we got to Woolworth's we were pretty wet. We did our shopping and tried to stall for time to see if the rain would let up, but, no luck. We walked back in the pouring rain and got soaked. Doh. At least it was warm out. We were wearing our flip-flops, so we didn't really get soakers! hehehe
Even though the weather forecast calls for rain tomorrow, we booked a trip to Fraser Island for that day anyways. Hopefully the biggest sand island in the world isn't washed away by a flood before we get there!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Noosa, Australia
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