Noosa Heads, Rainbow Beach

I'd describe Noosa as the posh touristy town of the East Coast! It's in a gorgeous setting, and has a lovely national park at the end of the peninsula area. The residential areas look totally luxurious and everything's extremely expensive...you'd need a lot of money to spend some time there!



We camped really near the beach, and in the morning went to the N.P. to explore the trails - really worth stopping there though, the area is lovely. After a legendary Copenhagen icecream (seriously, the best so far!) we made a brief stop at the nearby Ginger & Macadamia Nut Factories. Then we headed north to Rainbow Beach to check out our options for a Fraser Island trip.




Decided to book through Dingo's Backpackers to do a self-guided 4WD tour, then walked up to Carlo Sandblow that evening for views out to Double Island Point.



In the morning we walked at Rainbow Beach - the cliffs are made up from 90 different colours of sand. According to aboriginal tales, a spirit of the Gods who represented the rainbow was killed in a fight there, and his scattered spirits coloured the sands forever. On to the Bymien Picnic Area, where I ran through a forest track to Lake Freshwater, then back via a 4WD track (seemed like a good idea until I'd run 2km uphill in sand).










Got back to Dingo's for the Fraser Island briefing, and met the rest of our 'team' for the adventure.

See more pics!

Glass Mountains

In the same area as Australia Zoo are the Glass Mountains. Similar to Mt. Warning, these were all formed from a shield volcano billions of years ago! They are the remaining 'plugs' that formed when the lava was spreading (or something like that... :) ) They were really interesting to see, and we hiked/climbed up to the top of the highest one called Mt. Beerwah. This is the only time I have ever come across a walk that has the following sign, and actually means it: "Steep climb - only for fit and experienced hikers"


















It was great fun, but you wouldn't want to attempt it if you didn't like heights!

See more pics!

The "croc hunter"

We went to Australia Zoo after leaving Brisbane last weekend, and it was pretty impressive. There were tons of animals and shows that were well done, and interactions in several of exhibits. We watched demonstrations on awareness and handling of snakes, tigers, exotic birds and crocodiles, all of which were fascinating.






Also got a picture of us with a Burmese Python, which I'm quite impressed with myself for doing :) If anyone knows the fear I've had of snakes since I as early as I can remember, you might not believe me...so thought I'd better chuck up a picture for evidence!!






We got to feed elephants too! The koalas and elephants were my favourite :)

See more pics!

Brisbane

We've just spent the last couple of nights in Brisbane, with friends of Patrick's brother. Really nice to have read bed and get caught up on washing, charge up our electronic gadgets, clean the van, check e-mails, and update the blog!





Spent the day yesterday walking around the city - thought several areas were nice along the river. Southbank was interesting to see, and the river running through the city makes it similar to Melbourne in a way. The city centre has a good atmosphere, and we found a fun sushi bar to go out to last night.




Heading north from here today - we're going to head to the Australian Zoo where the 'croc hunter' lives! I'm trying to psych myself up to maybe hold a snake...its definitely going to be difficult :)

See more pics!

Mt. Warning to Lamington N.P.

We got up at 4am to hike up to the top of Mt. Warning for sunrise (apparently the first point the sun hits in Australia). Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy which was quite disappointing because the night before had seem really clear and starry. Oh well...it was a good effort anyway, and a nice hike.



On to some more national parks. Natural Bridge was amazing - you can walk behind the falls in a wee cave area and watch them coming through the roof above your head. Lovely spot!


Springbrook was really impressive too - definitely some token viewpoints for the lazy tourist, but a few hidden and beautiful spots for the slightly more adventurous.














The next day we went to Lamington N.P. and walked a 14km looptrack down to the creek through rainforest areas. It was really pretty and well worth doing. I ran round Moran's Falls and Python Lookout, which also had impressive views over the canyon area and more waterfalls. Randomly bumped into friends of the Robsons who I stayed with in Christchurch - the guy recognised me as "the Scottish tennis girl". Funny - its a small world as they say!

See more pics!

Coffs Harbour, Maclean & Byron Bay

Heading back towards the coast, we reached Coffs Harbour and walked out to the viewpoint for great views around the bay.



Driving north from there we took a major ferry crossing (all of about 60m) to take us into the great town of Maclean (Scottish town of Australia).


Actually, it was pretty interesting. All the pukamani poles (usually designed with aboriginal symbols to portray cultural values) were painted with different tartans and names of Scottish clans. I took a few pictures (obviously) and even managed to find our own family tartan (Lamont) just as we were leaving...it was quite exciting really :)




On to Cape Byron (the most Easterly point in Australia), where the lighthouse viewpoint gives an impressive overlook of the surrounding bays. A bit touristy in the town, but the weather was fantastic and the views really were spectacular.

See more pics!