Monday, November 06, 2006

Noosa

Noosa is Queensland's upmarket resort. It's a bit like Marbella in Spain, but with bush turkeys running around the main street, Hastings Street.

We got to our house exchange after a short flight from Newcastle to Brisbane on Jet Star. We picked up our hire car and drove on up the Bruce Highway.

The house exchange is as the name implies a house exchange! Dan and Mary-Jane stay in ours and we use theirs. We found and arranged it all over the Internet. So here we are in Noosaville swanning around in a three bedroomed house with a swimming pool. Very nice.

We took a stroll down Hastings Street today. I bought a sun hat, we had lunch at Season, a fabulous lunch. We looked round a couple of galleries and a bookshop.

I think we'll hack three weeks here - no trouble!

Since then we've had one day of monsoon like rain which was welcome by all, us included. It was a Saturday and we spent a lovely lounging day surrounded by newspapers! Quite the home from home! Our swimming pool was topped up and it turned the water several degrees cooler.

We've spent time on the beach. We wandered round Eumundi Market, a left over from the hippie era, but big business now. We've caught a ferry upriver to Tewantin, which means 'the place of dead trees' for the Aborigine Murri people. We followed a short heritage walk round the sights of the 'old' town. A Commander Heath first surveyed Noosa River in 1865, a sawmill was established in 1879, the timber was sent by paddle steamer to Brisbane. Further development occured during the rush for gold in Queensland and continued as the resort became established with popular fishing and pleasure trips taking place, boarding houses and The Royal Mail Hotel providing holiday accommodation.

Noosa River - looking towards extinct volcano Mount Coonowrin part of Glasshouse Mountains.

I try and do half an hour in the pool each morning and evening - one hour a day! I'll be super fit by the time we get home, although the evening session is more of a cool down than exercise!

We are off to Fraser Island later this week. This is the largest sand island in the world. We are promised forest walks, sandblow viewing, swimming in freshwater lakes, a long drive in a four wheel vehicle along the beach, and a night of romance beneath the stars - as long as we can fight off the dingoes! All this of course depends if we can get up at 5.30am for collection at 6.00! We have no alarm clock as such but every day we awake at dawn to a racket of birds - chorus is not appropriate here, as it is more a squawking, screeching sort of racket! Knowing our luck they will decide to stay asleep the day we need to be awake.

Nick is flying in from Sydney this weekend and next weekend my friend Julie is joining us, so lots of catching up to do there as it is a year since we last saw her and she is just about to become a grannie!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds lovely. Glad house swap has worked out - sounds great!

axx said...

Yup, its cool. Great location.