Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Katie's Travels
Noosa has got to be one of the nicest places on the east-coast. It is actually quite a big place, but I stayed primarily in one part of it - Noosa Heads. On Lucie's recommendation, I stayed at the YHA Halse Lodge - which has got to be one of the nicest hostels in Australia! Set up into a hill, with a long steep driveway it is an old colonial style house, with a large veranda surrounded by rainforest. As you sit outside having your breakfast on the veranda in the morning, you can see abundant wildlife all around. Parrots in the trees (and Lucie even had an encounter with a large adult koala, which climbed down out of a tree and sat right in front of her on the driveway!).
Anyway, on that first night, Lucie couldn't make it to Noosa as planned, so I was on my own. Well not really, I met a couple of nice people in my room and went to the welcome meeting for a few free glasses of wine and some vouchers for cheap food and ice-cream at various places on the main street. I also saw a flyer for a 2 hour surf lesson with some surf champion guy followed by free 2 hour kayak hire. All that for only $39. I booked it. Next morning, I met 2 german girls - Anna & Yvonne - out at the top of the drive who were also going. We waited to be collected and then we headed down to the beach and donned our wet-suits and collected our surfboards. Headed down to the sand on what was the most beautiful and deserted beach ever! After running through the basics of paddling and catching a wave on dry land, we entered the water and tried it our for real. Unfortunately the sea was rougher than normal and so the conditions were not ideal for a first lesson. Even after the 2 hours I still hadn't managed to stand up on the board. I just found it so difficult, trying to keep my balance whilst bringing my leg up underneath me to stand up, whilst moving at speed! The 2 girls were both snowboarders and so already had a huge advantage and were finding it relatively easy. However, it has certainly given me a taste for it and I am determined to give it another go when I get to Perth, where the surfing is supposed to be some of the best in the country!
After our lesson, the 3 of us grabbed our vouchers and headed to a little Italian place in town for a $7 pasta lunch. Then after a look around the main street and the little touristy shops there, we headed back down to the river to collect our kayaks. They had a 2 man one and I was in a 1 man. Had hoped Lucie would have arrived in time to join us, but her bus wasn't getting in until later. So we set off following the river as it meandered through Noosa, past the most extravagant millionaire pads with their own private beaches and jetty's with their yachts moored up at the end of the garden! This was true luxury living and I couldn't imagine a nicer place to live!
So after such an active day, I met Lucie that night and we went and sat on the beach, under the stars and chatted about what she'd been up to the last few days. My muscles were already beginning to hurt and I knew I would be in a lot of pain the next day!
Sure enough, every muscle in my body ached the next day! Luckily, we had planned a day of nothing but lying on the beach - bliss! Also had a swim in the sea and took great pleasure in being battered about by the waves! Then went for another $7 meal followed by, you guessed it, COFFEE & CAKE for $6.50 hahaha! Then after nipping back to the hostel for a quick shower and change, we headed to Noosa National Park and walked right around the coastal path for great views of Noosa Heads and up to Rainbow Beach. Had hoped to spot some wild koalas, but as we were losing the light, this was near impossible. We watched the sunset and then walked back to the hostel to watch some tv.
The following day we packed a lunch and hoped on the free courtesy bus to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. Spent the whole day here and watched crocodile, snake, tiger and exotic bird presentations. This was also the first time I'd seen wombats - these guys are on a par with koalas in terms cuteness! And had my first encounter with a red kangaroo as opposed to the smaller grey ones. We walked round to the Sumatran tiger enclosure and were watching them swimming in the pool. One was standing on the rock beside the pool and it suddenly caught Lucie's eye on the other side of the glass - after staring at her for a few seconds, it leapt of the rock and crashed into the glass and splashed down into the water, RIGHT AT OUR FACES!!! Apart from the glass, we were inches away from it! Then it stood up in the water and started pawing at us! Was a pretty amazing encounter!
I also fed an elephant, stroked a 4 year old American alligator and held a Burmese python - which felt like it weighed about 5 stone and I thought it was crushing my collarbone as it wound its way around my neck!
Then, exhausted we headed back on the bus - watched a movie about the life of Steve Irwin (who was apparently up in north Queensland tagging crocodiles) and then arrived back at Noosa Heads. From here I said goodbye to Lucie, as I was leaving on an early bus. Hopefully we will meet again in Sydney at Christmas, but we'll definitely be keeping in touch.
Thoroughly enjoyed my time in Noosa, but was now very excited about my next stop - Hervey Bay and my 3 day/2 night 4wd camping safari on Fraser Island!
- comments