Noosa, now down as one of our favourite places, is somewhere that we planned to stay for 4 nights and just like Koh Tao ended up being there for 8. We left Rainbow very early the morning after our Fraser Island visit and arrived into Noosa Junction at around lunchtime. We were greeted by a free shuttle bus that took us on to our hostel. "Dolphins" was a very small, friendly hostel with all the walls painted either bright pink or bright turquoise. After getting settled in our 5 bed dorm, which had its own kitchenette and bathroom (very cosy), we caught the free shuttle back to Noosa Junction to have a look around. We walked down the main street, which had a few clothes shops, gift shops, a Coles supermarket, a cinema and most important….a fish and chip shop! Deciding to explore further afield we caught the local bus into the neighbouring area; Noosaville. Noosaville is positioned along a very pretty river with little fishing boats and huge pelicans floating on the water. We walked down to the river and sat looking out over the water, which was very pretty in the afternoon sun.

The next day we packed a picnic and set off for the Noosa national park Coastal walk. It was a lovely sunny day and we were pleased that the walk started on the beach. We walked along the shore and watched people surfing in the large waves. The walk was around 3 hours (one way) and took us along the jagged coastline where we had amazing views of the rocks and ocean below. At one point we could see dolphins out to sea, jumping around a little sailing boat. In another section we found little pools edged with coral and sandy bottoms, formed in the coastline rocks. We climbed down to get a better look and watched the waves spilling over to keep the pools full. The path eventually lead out to Main beach, which is another area within Noosa. Main Beach is the more up-market area and behind its gorgeous stretch of sand and holiday homes is posh shops, ice cream parlours and bars. We wandered past the bars and restaurants feeling a little too scruffy to even dare look at the menus. We went to a local newsagent and got a magnum each….who needs a posh restaurant eh. We sat and ate these in the sun before catching the shuttle back to our hostel.

On the third day we decided we would walk the national park forest walk, which goes inland rather than along the coast. We also decided we would catch the shuttle out to the end point and walk back towards the hostel. The end point was at Main Beach again, so we caught the shuttle to Noosa Junction, and then walked over the hill to Main Beach. We sat on the beach for a while and were even brave enough to go for a swim. We rinsed off in the outdoor showers afterwards, changed and ate lunch on a picnic just set back from the beach. Once fed and watered we were ready for our second national park walk through the forest. At the entrance to the forest we spotted a wild koala bear sitting up in the highest branches of one of the trees. All curled up and fast asleep J. The walk didn't take as long as the coastal one but was just as pretty with sunlight breaking through the trees every now and again and different types of birds twittering away in the branches above. We eventually came to the end of the path and out onto the streets near to our hostel.

The next day was Cheap Tueday! This means theres probably somewhere offering cheap food and all the cinemas do cheap cinema tickets. We were booked in to see the new Batman film later on that day and so high on the list of things to do today was to find a cheap meal prior to this. We ended up spending the day walking from Noosa Junction, to Main beach and on to Noosaville, which took some time. At Noosaville we found a dominos, which was doing a cheap pizza deal….any large for $6.95! We ordered a large each and sat by the river to eat as much as we could, amazingly neither of us could finish our last slice, bloody big pizzas…must be going soft J We then set off on the long walk back to Noosa Junction and made it to the cinema just in time. The film was great and after we walked back to our hostel and headed straight to bed, exhausted by all the walking….miss our cars!

We spent the next few days enjoying the use of the BBQs in the park and meeting back up with Nikki and Ben 2. We had a couple of days on the beach before preparing to move onto Brisbane, which was only a couple of hours down the road. As we had already visited Brisbane at the beginning of our Aus trip, so we only stayed for a couple of days. We got some fantastic weather and enjoyed walking around the city in the hot 'winter' sunshine.