Checking into Flashpackers in Noosa (thanks to Annabel for the recommendation) was a welcome surprise, a super clean hostel, a room with only 3 beds (no bunks) and an en-suite with hairdryer and hair straighteners!Everyone in Flashpackers was really friendly and it was a small enough hostel so that it was pretty easy to speak to most people.Noosa is a really lovely place, very chic with lots of good shops and restaurants.

On arriving I headed down to Main Beach with a few people from Flashpackers where there was a surf carnival in progress.Surf carnivals are races run by the local surf lifesaving clubs where nippers (kids) up to adults swim, paddle and kayak around a course - looks like seriously hard work!

On Sunday morning with Lindsay and Laura from my room I headed down to the marina to a small craft market that was in progress.It was so hot, so after a quick wander around we popped into one of the restaurants on the waterfront for an iced coffee.In the afternoon I went to Peregrine Originals music festival with Aisha, Courtney, Ruth and Tom who I had met in the hostel.It was a really great way to spend the afternoon, sipping cider in the shade, watching the bands.Once the music had finished it got a little too "alternative" and we saw a guy get arrested and carried off by the police.Unfortunately, he had a small child with him and the mother was nowhere to be seen.For some reason I ended up looking after the baby until his granddad turned up to care for him, poor little thing.

It was still really hot on Monday, so it was really nice to chill by the pool and have a relaxing day.I did manage to book in for a Fraser Island and Whitsunday sailing trip though.It was quite strange going into a travel agent and booking up the next few days as I have been so used to winging it! In the afternoon I went down to the beach and watched the kite surfers in the mouth of the river.As I was watching the kite surfers black clouds were building over the land and, by early evening the storm had broken and the rain was coming down hard.As it was two of the girls in the hostel's birthday we didn't let the storm stop us and ended up having a fun night drinking in Flashpackers (after the complimentary wine and cheese) and then in Sogo in Noosa Junction.

Tuesday was a perfect day to nurse a hangover as it was still raining and so everyone just hung in the hostel watching movies, surfing the internet and doing laundry.Around lunchtime we heard the news that another large earthquake had hit Christchurch and coverage was on the local news channels for most of the next couple of days.It feels like there have been so many natural disasters in this part of the world recently, but I don't know whether it's just because I am closer to it being here.In the late afternoon once the rain had abated I walked down to nearby sunshine beach for a walk.It was incredibly windy and I got a good exfoliation from all the sand being blown around, but it was impressive watching the ocean foaming and crashing onto the beach.

The wind had died down a bit on Wednesday but it still wasn't too hot, so it was a perfect day to do the coastal walk around the Noosa Heads National Park.There were too many nudies on Alexandra Bay (the local nudist beach) and there weren't many koalas in the trees, but the walk was beautiful and the sea was still very dramatic after the storm.A bunch of us headed down to KB's in Noosa Junction for a few drinks and some funny people watching on my last night in Noosa.Quite sad to leave such a lovely spot, but really excited about Fraser Island in the next few days!