Waking up from our Mt. Coolum golf club retreat early, we drove down to the Little Boat Espresso house for our morning pick me up.

This was sorely needed, as today, we were getting a tour of the Sunshine Coast courtesy of Marion Blanchfield, and her husband.

I met Marion back in September when meeting Jo Heath for a Dunelm concert in Pimlico. Jo and Marion were both waiting to check into their airbnb for the night, but because their host was over an hour late, I chatted to Marion a lot. Turned out she was from the Sunshine Coast, and she was very keen indeed to hear about our plans for our Australia trip. She gave me her email address, and suggested we get in touch when we got near.

So that's what we did!

Driving over to Marion's house for 8.30 (yes, 8.30!), we met her husband Tom, and got into their air conditioned Mitsubishi Pajero.

They then proceeded to drive us all around the locale, stopping at various points. We drove to Noosa Heads (which is disgustingly touristy), walked around Noosa Woods (which was gorge). Stopped at the big Pelican (we saw it in the guide book... Marionne and Tom were confused), and went to the local ginger factory.. As apparently they grow that here. Here, Marion and Tom bumped into their daughter - quite a coincidence!

The nicest stop was probably Peregian Beach, a nice little town where Marion and Tom run the local Post Office. Out of all the local towns that link up to make the Sunshine Coast, this one felt the most 'real', with Noosa, Moolooba, Caloundra and Maroochydore all slightly touristy and fake. Here we stopped for a(nother) very tasty coffee and drove on up to the hinterlands.

Up in the Glass House mountains, some 400m above sea level, the countryside turned all England. Rolling hills, and green valleys were the course of the day, but it was the partly cloudy sky that made me believe it was Yorkshire.

We stopped off for lunch at a gorgeous little restaurant in Montville. Here we chatted about Australian ways of life, the royals and privatising the rail network. Turns out Tom doesn't like Aussie politicians...

Driving through Nambour, the governmental area of the Sunshine, we passed Eumundi, where apparently there are artisan markets 3 times a week (but not today!).

Now some five hours into the tour, we travelled to Aussie World - which includes a funny looking pub that mocks the look and feel of an outback pub (was a little twee), but more importantly, stopped at the Big Pineapple (again, another guidebook recommendation). It was quite cool actually. You can go inside and climb to the top! Alice's opinion may differ. Tom also confirmed to me how Aussie 'gigantism' is definitely a thing.

And with that, this was the end of the six hour tour! We felt a little bad we didn't have anything to give Marionne and Tom, so we donated the Anzac biscuits we bought at the ginger factory. We plan to send them a surprise thank you postcard from Brisbane next week!

A little drained from six hours of small talk, we decide to return back to our golf course retreat to chill. Watched some cricket (the first day night test match in Adelaide), the film Napoleon Dynamite and ate cous cous with Parmesan cheese.

Living the dream.

AF