TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
Day 65: Flying to the Sunshine Coast and ridiculously beautiful Noosa
Good afternoon, and as I write this I am sat in lovely Wellington, having arrived on the KiwiRail North Explorer on Thursday, hauling me from Auckland over eleven hours. Great journey, but hear about that in a few reports time; TODAY’s report is a QUEENSLAND one.
After two months of 60% travelling, 45% partying, and maybe 5% work in Sydney, the Easter semester break arrived on Wednesday. Well, actually it arrived two days later on Friday, with me skipping Thursday’s tutorial (sorry, not sorry) - Wednesday is my day off - but boy had I got plans for Easter. Those plans, specifically, were to fly to the Sunshine Coast, tilt train to Brisbane, local train to Gold Coast, fly to Adelaide, fly to Auckland with Qatar in the Q-Suites, get the Northern Explorer 12 hour scenic train down to Wellington where I’d stay with my fabulous great-aunt, get a ferry to Picton, a 6 hour scenic train to Christchurch and fly back to Sydney with Emirates
And today, Wednesday 5th April, was the start of this exciting adventure.
Unfortunately, due to the washing machines in my apartment taking ridiculously long times, I was not able to sleep the night before going, so I spent the late evening and early hours of the morning having a gossip with my iconic housemate Michaela, before shoving my things in my backpack and her little carry on case (mine has wonky wheels its a nightmare) and running for the early bus to Sydney Central at 3am-ish. Trains from Newtown, Erskineville or Macdonaldtown had not yet commenced running, and although I’d probably have been fine taking the first ex-Erskineville of the day, it’s just not worth the risk purely to avoid a bus. Sydney Central was unusually deserted, particularly the terminus platforms (1-15) which were completely empty bar some locked up trains, and there were only a couple of people on the commuter platforms (16-25).
Though I was expecting a Waratah, probably a B Set, a pair of Millenniums in the shape of consecutively numbered M3+M4 screamed in with their 1996 stock-esque motors and whizzed me to Domestic Airport, where Opal charged me the rip off Airport premium at the gates, and I sat down with a mocha and breakfast wrap in T2 Departures. The wrap, containing egg, mediocre bacon, an admittedly irresistible spicy tomato relish and very soggy watery spinach, was bland and a bit cruddy, though I improved matters somewhat by requesting a big pot of the relish for dunking purposes.
Narrow seat alert!
The Jetstar seat allocation lottery (you think I’m paying to pick my seat for a 1 hour flight? pah) had surprisingly gifted me with 10F, which while a bit closer to the front than I’d liked, as I prefer to haunt the back few rows which tend to be emptier, was satisfyingly a window seat. Unfortunately a load of very noisy babies joined me on the A320, and a mother with baby on lap was in 11F immediately behind me; my heart did sink fearing the baby may scream, not that I’d blame her as she was tiny and it must be very scary at such a young age, but said baby and so happy and quiet. (I waved at the lovely little thing as we got off and her mum waved her arm back at me - adorable) The other children were so loud though, and I could hear Wheels On The Bus blaring from a tablet for at least half an hour. Bad parenting. Sorry if you don’t like me calling it what it is. Do not subject passengers on a flight to children’s nursery rhymes. If you want to entertain your little one, buy them headphones.
Bought a ginger beer - it’s my little tradition on flights to partake in a ginger ale or beer, where available - and there’s nothing much more to say about that flight, other than the views of the Sunshine Coast when landing were spectacular. To my dismay, the hourly bus running from the Sunshine Coast Airport to the famous town of Noosa was next due in 57 minutes, and as my trip was to be a fast-paced (and I mean exactly that, NOT rushed - I am talented at planning itineraries that get the main sights/activities in a place done in a short amount of time so that when leaving somewhere, I still feel like I’ve properly seen it) one, waiting around at the airport for an hour was just not an idea I felt accustomed to accept. So I decided to walk and see what I could find.
Well, if you take an immediate right, a left, another left, and then walk straight on for just under half a mile or so, you find yourself at a beach! Perfect, I thought, not even been in the Sunshine Coast for forty-five minutes and I’m already at the beach; although I didn’t stay on that beach as a bus from here to Noosa was due imminently. It would get me there far quicker than waiting for the bus at the airport would. I should add that the Sunshine Coast lived up to its name; there was not a cloud to be seen in the deep sweep of blue overhead, just a very bright hot sun. A pretty perfect welcome to Queensland, Australia’s sunshine state.
Waiting for the bus, the toque beanie, jacket and jogging trousers felt like hell in the mid thirties degree heat. Jacket came off immediately, signature beanie was swapped for a cap (I don't like caps because my ears look big in them, but it was too hot for a trademark beanie and I was not prepared to go naked-headed and have the bush of curls wafting in my face) and as no one was in the vicinity I swapped the trousers for shorts while sat on the side of the road! Timing was on my side; I managed to get this done before anyone drove past, so no one was treated to a free eyeful of the Calvin Kleins today. The bus, infuriatingly, like Tasmanian ones, did not take debit card nor contactless payments, and exclusively took payment by the state public transport card, Metrocard. Not a very creative name is it, unlike Opal.
(My NSW bias is coming through) Or Myki, which is a satisfactory enough attempt from Victoria. The driver told me to get on for free, so I did willingly, and was taken to Noosa Heads. Couldn’t check in to my hotel until 2pm, and it was about 10am at present, but I was able to drop my bags to allow me to go and check out the beach.
The beach was very impressive, not just because of the softness and supreme whiteness of the sand but predominantly the colour. Crystal clear up close but then an incredible greeny turquoise from a distance. I had a nice walk along the beach and a clamber onto the rocks, which allowed me to get a good view of the coast. I'm limited to nine pictures so I'll show main beach later under the sunset. As mentioned before, while five years ago or so a swim in the faultlessly transparent sea would have been a must, these days I’m reluctant to get wet or sandy, so this wasn’t done; instead, I walked round to the Head where the cove-style sort of Marina was at Sandy Cove. A fair people were jetskiing here, and this part was arguably even more picturesque than the beach itself.
A bit further on is a beach specifically for owners of dogs, which aren’t allowed on the main beach, and if you like dogs like I do this is a great place. About fifteen very excited and rather wet dogs surrounded me at once looking just as thrilled to be at the Sunshine Coast as I was.
In the very attractive village square was an ice cream parlour selling apple and rhubarb crumble and strawberry cheesecake flavours of ice cream, with real crumble and cheesecake chunks respectively, so a scoop of each on a cone was had as seemed appropriate in the heat. And then Grill’d is an Aussie burger place that I’ve come to like; their “zucchini fries” are a particular favourite of mine as a major courgette lover, and there was one in Noosa town centre, so I ordered some of those and ate them on the outside patio. Sugababes “Red Dress” started playing - the less heard yet far superior original version featuring Mutya Buena (the version that usually plays on the radio is the Radio Edit with Amelle Barrabah’s chain-smoker vocals instead), which is embarrassingly an all-time favourite song from my childhood, so that definitely further improved my mood. And by the time I’d finished that, the hotel were ready for me to check in just 500m away, so I did that and let my phone and power bank charge for a bit.
Something I definitely wanted to visit while in Noosa was the Fairy Pool, a beautiful natural pool formed in the rocks. Typically, it’s completely safe, but a very high tide could see waves completely hurl overhead and push you into the side of the rocks, so I was glad the waters were calm. It’s a long walk through the Noosa National Park to access, but the end result is worth it, so I set off for the Fairy Pool. You just turn a sharp right at the southern end of the beach and the path ascends, giving you a nice view of the bays from above. The path then enters the Noosa National Park, where one may catch a glimpse of a wild koala in the trees if lucky, though this is rare and they’re very good at keeping hidden, and then after about 2 miles you get to the fairy pools. Let me tell you, wearing sliders was a big mistake that I immediately regretted upon climbing down a ridiculously steep and slippy hill of big, unfortunately loose rocks to access the pool - which was beautiful, about a metre deep and warm.
By the time I returned the sun was setting over the beach, and I had a little paddle as the sea was still warm, then returned to Grill’d for a burger which I ate when back in my room. It was only about 7 but I was tired so rested for a bit - until phoning Translink at around 9:30pm to check that the first bus to Cooroy station (about ten miles away) would be running despite the Easter holiday timetable alterations, because that single bus was my only hope in hell of catching my booked connection to Brisbane, unless I forked out for an expensive taxi which I was understandably reluctant to do.
The good news: yes, the bus was running. The bad news: no cash, debit card, credit card or Apple Pay accepted. Strictly GoCard only, and the only place that sold GoCard was a convenience store over in Junction village about a mile and a half away, closing in twenty five minutes, and I’d have to trek for a mile and a half in the dark through the woods. That wasn’t fun, let me tell you. I feared anything could run out and nip me. What was even more annoying, was the need to PAY $10 just to buy the card, which is such a cheek when it’s the ONLY option for the buses. It effectively makes a $1 fare $11. Oh well.
Noosa was great, and I was glad I’d chosen to spend what little time I had on the Sunshine Coast there. Next time I’d go to one of the less touristy places just south.
The next day would see me journey down to Brisbane, a great city. Thanks for reading, and please do join me for that! Thoughts and comments as always welcomed.
RESPONSES TO PREVIOUS COMMENTS
Australia and NZ do sunsets really well. I can't wait to show the sunset I was greeted with on the Northern Explorer when arriving into Wellington.
I can't take complete credit for the images looking "perfect," it's not all my photography skills (I never considered myself any more than an average photographer) but the brilliant ability of the iPhone 14 Pro Max to accurately reflect how colours appear in real life far better than any phone I've had before. I was told photos was a major improvement and that was largely why I bought it.
I had my first portion of fish since the incident yesterday and it was very nice, but I was definitely tentative and as for fishBURGERS, it'll be a long time. An exception is the McDonald's Fillet O'Fish, as with chains like that you always know what you're getting, and I am a fan of that very divisive burger. Although McDonalds always tastes different in England to Wales/Canada/Australia/abroad, so I'll only be eating it in England.
I get very little sleep to be honest. Red Bull helps. So does Starbucks.
I do love these almost piece-by-piece comments.
The emboldened is exactly spot on... my mantra is, be it a beach, waterfall or river, if you haven't heard of it, chances are it's nicer than the famous alternative.
Thanks for these comments. 1am for me now, so goodnight!
NEXT REPORT: Day 66: Queensland’s Tilt Train to Brisbane, and exploring this great city
Good afternoon, and as I write this I am sat in lovely Wellington, having arrived on the KiwiRail North Explorer on Thursday, hauling me from Auckland over eleven hours. Great journey, but hear about that in a few reports time; TODAY’s report is a QUEENSLAND one.
After two months of 60% travelling, 45% partying, and maybe 5% work in Sydney, the Easter semester break arrived on Wednesday. Well, actually it arrived two days later on Friday, with me skipping Thursday’s tutorial (sorry, not sorry) - Wednesday is my day off - but boy had I got plans for Easter. Those plans, specifically, were to fly to the Sunshine Coast, tilt train to Brisbane, local train to Gold Coast, fly to Adelaide, fly to Auckland with Qatar in the Q-Suites, get the Northern Explorer 12 hour scenic train down to Wellington where I’d stay with my fabulous great-aunt, get a ferry to Picton, a 6 hour scenic train to Christchurch and fly back to Sydney with Emirates
And today, Wednesday 5th April, was the start of this exciting adventure.Unfortunately, due to the washing machines in my apartment taking ridiculously long times, I was not able to sleep the night before going, so I spent the late evening and early hours of the morning having a gossip with my iconic housemate Michaela, before shoving my things in my backpack and her little carry on case (mine has wonky wheels its a nightmare) and running for the early bus to Sydney Central at 3am-ish. Trains from Newtown, Erskineville or Macdonaldtown had not yet commenced running, and although I’d probably have been fine taking the first ex-Erskineville of the day, it’s just not worth the risk purely to avoid a bus. Sydney Central was unusually deserted, particularly the terminus platforms (1-15) which were completely empty bar some locked up trains, and there were only a couple of people on the commuter platforms (16-25).
Though I was expecting a Waratah, probably a B Set, a pair of Millenniums in the shape of consecutively numbered M3+M4 screamed in with their 1996 stock-esque motors and whizzed me to Domestic Airport, where Opal charged me the rip off Airport premium at the gates, and I sat down with a mocha and breakfast wrap in T2 Departures. The wrap, containing egg, mediocre bacon, an admittedly irresistible spicy tomato relish and very soggy watery spinach, was bland and a bit cruddy, though I improved matters somewhat by requesting a big pot of the relish for dunking purposes.
Narrow seat alert!
The Jetstar seat allocation lottery (you think I’m paying to pick my seat for a 1 hour flight? pah) had surprisingly gifted me with 10F, which while a bit closer to the front than I’d liked, as I prefer to haunt the back few rows which tend to be emptier, was satisfyingly a window seat. Unfortunately a load of very noisy babies joined me on the A320, and a mother with baby on lap was in 11F immediately behind me; my heart did sink fearing the baby may scream, not that I’d blame her as she was tiny and it must be very scary at such a young age, but said baby and so happy and quiet. (I waved at the lovely little thing as we got off and her mum waved her arm back at me - adorable) The other children were so loud though, and I could hear Wheels On The Bus blaring from a tablet for at least half an hour. Bad parenting. Sorry if you don’t like me calling it what it is. Do not subject passengers on a flight to children’s nursery rhymes. If you want to entertain your little one, buy them headphones.
Bought a ginger beer - it’s my little tradition on flights to partake in a ginger ale or beer, where available - and there’s nothing much more to say about that flight, other than the views of the Sunshine Coast when landing were spectacular. To my dismay, the hourly bus running from the Sunshine Coast Airport to the famous town of Noosa was next due in 57 minutes, and as my trip was to be a fast-paced (and I mean exactly that, NOT rushed - I am talented at planning itineraries that get the main sights/activities in a place done in a short amount of time so that when leaving somewhere, I still feel like I’ve properly seen it) one, waiting around at the airport for an hour was just not an idea I felt accustomed to accept. So I decided to walk and see what I could find.
Well, if you take an immediate right, a left, another left, and then walk straight on for just under half a mile or so, you find yourself at a beach! Perfect, I thought, not even been in the Sunshine Coast for forty-five minutes and I’m already at the beach; although I didn’t stay on that beach as a bus from here to Noosa was due imminently. It would get me there far quicker than waiting for the bus at the airport would. I should add that the Sunshine Coast lived up to its name; there was not a cloud to be seen in the deep sweep of blue overhead, just a very bright hot sun. A pretty perfect welcome to Queensland, Australia’s sunshine state.
Waiting for the bus, the toque beanie, jacket and jogging trousers felt like hell in the mid thirties degree heat. Jacket came off immediately, signature beanie was swapped for a cap (I don't like caps because my ears look big in them, but it was too hot for a trademark beanie and I was not prepared to go naked-headed and have the bush of curls wafting in my face) and as no one was in the vicinity I swapped the trousers for shorts while sat on the side of the road! Timing was on my side; I managed to get this done before anyone drove past, so no one was treated to a free eyeful of the Calvin Kleins today. The bus, infuriatingly, like Tasmanian ones, did not take debit card nor contactless payments, and exclusively took payment by the state public transport card, Metrocard. Not a very creative name is it, unlike Opal.
(My NSW bias is coming through) Or Myki, which is a satisfactory enough attempt from Victoria. The driver told me to get on for free, so I did willingly, and was taken to Noosa Heads. Couldn’t check in to my hotel until 2pm, and it was about 10am at present, but I was able to drop my bags to allow me to go and check out the beach.The beach was very impressive, not just because of the softness and supreme whiteness of the sand but predominantly the colour. Crystal clear up close but then an incredible greeny turquoise from a distance. I had a nice walk along the beach and a clamber onto the rocks, which allowed me to get a good view of the coast. I'm limited to nine pictures so I'll show main beach later under the sunset. As mentioned before, while five years ago or so a swim in the faultlessly transparent sea would have been a must, these days I’m reluctant to get wet or sandy, so this wasn’t done; instead, I walked round to the Head where the cove-style sort of Marina was at Sandy Cove. A fair people were jetskiing here, and this part was arguably even more picturesque than the beach itself.
A bit further on is a beach specifically for owners of dogs, which aren’t allowed on the main beach, and if you like dogs like I do this is a great place. About fifteen very excited and rather wet dogs surrounded me at once looking just as thrilled to be at the Sunshine Coast as I was.
In the very attractive village square was an ice cream parlour selling apple and rhubarb crumble and strawberry cheesecake flavours of ice cream, with real crumble and cheesecake chunks respectively, so a scoop of each on a cone was had as seemed appropriate in the heat. And then Grill’d is an Aussie burger place that I’ve come to like; their “zucchini fries” are a particular favourite of mine as a major courgette lover, and there was one in Noosa town centre, so I ordered some of those and ate them on the outside patio. Sugababes “Red Dress” started playing - the less heard yet far superior original version featuring Mutya Buena (the version that usually plays on the radio is the Radio Edit with Amelle Barrabah’s chain-smoker vocals instead), which is embarrassingly an all-time favourite song from my childhood, so that definitely further improved my mood. And by the time I’d finished that, the hotel were ready for me to check in just 500m away, so I did that and let my phone and power bank charge for a bit.
Something I definitely wanted to visit while in Noosa was the Fairy Pool, a beautiful natural pool formed in the rocks. Typically, it’s completely safe, but a very high tide could see waves completely hurl overhead and push you into the side of the rocks, so I was glad the waters were calm. It’s a long walk through the Noosa National Park to access, but the end result is worth it, so I set off for the Fairy Pool. You just turn a sharp right at the southern end of the beach and the path ascends, giving you a nice view of the bays from above. The path then enters the Noosa National Park, where one may catch a glimpse of a wild koala in the trees if lucky, though this is rare and they’re very good at keeping hidden, and then after about 2 miles you get to the fairy pools. Let me tell you, wearing sliders was a big mistake that I immediately regretted upon climbing down a ridiculously steep and slippy hill of big, unfortunately loose rocks to access the pool - which was beautiful, about a metre deep and warm.
By the time I returned the sun was setting over the beach, and I had a little paddle as the sea was still warm, then returned to Grill’d for a burger which I ate when back in my room. It was only about 7 but I was tired so rested for a bit - until phoning Translink at around 9:30pm to check that the first bus to Cooroy station (about ten miles away) would be running despite the Easter holiday timetable alterations, because that single bus was my only hope in hell of catching my booked connection to Brisbane, unless I forked out for an expensive taxi which I was understandably reluctant to do.
The good news: yes, the bus was running. The bad news: no cash, debit card, credit card or Apple Pay accepted. Strictly GoCard only, and the only place that sold GoCard was a convenience store over in Junction village about a mile and a half away, closing in twenty five minutes, and I’d have to trek for a mile and a half in the dark through the woods. That wasn’t fun, let me tell you. I feared anything could run out and nip me. What was even more annoying, was the need to PAY $10 just to buy the card, which is such a cheek when it’s the ONLY option for the buses. It effectively makes a $1 fare $11. Oh well.
Noosa was great, and I was glad I’d chosen to spend what little time I had on the Sunshine Coast there. Next time I’d go to one of the less touristy places just south.
The next day would see me journey down to Brisbane, a great city. Thanks for reading, and please do join me for that! Thoughts and comments as always welcomed.
RESPONSES TO PREVIOUS COMMENTS
Turkish Delight is always good, I actually like perfumed foods but the ice cream is never perfumed unlike the real thing, it's just a flavour.I mean when can you have an ice cream if not in hot weather? Was the Turkish Delight any good, i find it can be hit and miss - some seem almost nauseatingly perfumed.
Spectacular, really spectacular - but then all the sunsets you've posted in this thread have been quite the kaleidoscope of colour
Every one of those images just looks 'perfect', it must have been a thoroughly enjoyable trip
That's a shame, but I can sympathise with how off-putting it can be to have one really bad experience with a particular food that basically stops you eating it for a while. My experience was also seafood, though not fried fish.
Wow, do you get any sleep mate? Or is it all a Red Bull-fuelled haze...?
Australia and NZ do sunsets really well. I can't wait to show the sunset I was greeted with on the Northern Explorer when arriving into Wellington.
I can't take complete credit for the images looking "perfect," it's not all my photography skills (I never considered myself any more than an average photographer) but the brilliant ability of the iPhone 14 Pro Max to accurately reflect how colours appear in real life far better than any phone I've had before. I was told photos was a major improvement and that was largely why I bought it.
I had my first portion of fish since the incident yesterday and it was very nice, but I was definitely tentative and as for fishBURGERS, it'll be a long time. An exception is the McDonald's Fillet O'Fish, as with chains like that you always know what you're getting, and I am a fan of that very divisive burger. Although McDonalds always tastes different in England to Wales/Canada/Australia/abroad, so I'll only be eating it in England.
I get very little sleep to be honest. Red Bull helps. So does Starbucks.
I do love these almost piece-by-piece comments.
They were nice little day trips, definitely not as impressive as things like my trips to Port Stephens/Blue Mountains, etc. but overall really enjoyable ways to make good use of the free time. The dodgy food was hugely distressing as I have a fear of throwing up - mind you it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be - but most food I've had in Australia has been brilliant. Oh, apart from a samosa due to which I'm still on paracetamol six days later, but wait until the Gold Coast-Adelaide report for that
It is very, very nice. Cronulla, Bundeena, Thirroul, Port Kembla and Bombo are my favourites. Wollongong I find overrated.
The emboldened is exactly spot on... my mantra is, be it a beach, waterfall or river, if you haven't heard of it, chances are it's nicer than the famous alternative.
Thanks for these comments. 1am for me now, so goodnight!
NEXT REPORT: Day 66: Queensland’s Tilt Train to Brisbane, and exploring this great city
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