Our week at Kings Beach on the Sunshine Coast began in a rather interesting fashion, what with us having to drive through torrential rain provided by Cyclone Marcia. It took us two hours longer than expected to reach our destination, with us wondering at several points whether we should find somewhere new to spend the night. We eventually made it, all a bit shattered, though none as much as Neil who had done a fine job driving us through it.
To treat ourselves we decided to go for a short wander and find a place for a drink. Well. This was a mighty silly idea. Being that the rain was still pouring down and while we all had waterproofs, mine was the only one that covered my bottom half (hurrah for one dollar Indonesian ponchos!) We ran into the first place we saw open, had a soggy drink and headed back to the apartment to dry off.
Having stayed in for several nights during our time on the Gold Coast, we decided to head out to see what the local nightlife had to offer, resulting in what could possibly be the most hilarious night of my life! We had been told by the managers of our apartment block, as well as from some online research, that the RSL club was the place to be. This turned out to be something akin to an Australian Butlins, not a great one at that. Safe to say I’ve had wilder nights at the line dancing with my grandparents! We did, however, have a great laugh at the sorry state of affairs, making the night more than bearable.
The weather began to brighten up over the next couple of days and we took advantage to make our way to the local Sunday market. This turned out to be one long street with a great diversity of stalls, from clothes and food, to skull ornaments and homemade glass jewellery. What really made the experience for me was the buskers littered throughout the street, adding a great ambiance to the occasion.
We began the next morning with a rather disappointing trip to the local Glasshouse Mountain lookout, where our ability to ‘look out’ was seriously impaired by the number of leafy trees in the area. I am far from having anything against trees, but either they should be lower or the lookout should be higher to make this experience worthwhile!
From here we made our way to Mooloolaba (hope you have as much fun trying to pronounce that as we did), another coastal town a little further north. This was a great place seeming to have quite a buzz about it, with many more people out and about in the streets. We spent the rest of our afternoon here enjoying lunch and some quality beach time.
Our night ended on a real high, all of us staying up till past midnight, our eyes fixated, on a jigsaw puzzle. That’s right, a jigsaw puzzle. The nightlife was still leaving much to be desired and the persistent rain wasn’t helping our cause. It did remind us how much we all enjoyed the little challenge though, as well as how difficult a 500 piece problem can be when half of the pieces are all the same few colours!
After another day spent at Mooloolaba, filled with sand, sea and relaxation, we made our way early on Wednesday to Eumundi mid-week markets. Very impressive in size and variety, it took us around three hours to make our way around the place, having to stop for lunch for an energy boost mid way. There were even camel rides taking place in one corner! Buskers were also spread around this market, once again seeming to add a festival-like vibe to the atmosphere. The town itself had a wonderful old world feel.
We spent the second half of our day in Noosa, a more upmarket coastal area, where we discovered some bars and restaurants stayed open until 10pm! We had a lovely evening meal on the beach front before driving back to Kings Beach.
Our final full day together we spent in the area around our apartment. The afternoon, in true holiday fashion, we spent next to our swimming pool. We had managed to find a Thai restaurant open until 8:30pm (very late by local standards) and couldn’t help laughing as we rushed down the street at 7:30pm to make sure we made it in time! We were however, rewarded for our efforts with great food and service.
Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye! I had an absolutely fabulous month full of laughs, ridiculous situations (don’t ask us how many times we got lost in cast parks) and many great adventures. So thanks to my aunt and uncle for being my travel buddies for so long and helping to create some awesome memories. Until next time!
