Caloundra

We have just had a luxury week in Caloundra, a little holiday destination on the Sunshine Coast, where we stayed in a great hotel, went to Australia zoo, dabbled in kayaking, climbed another of the Glasshouse mountains and generally just relaxed. It was great to do some more exploring and relaxing after working in Brisbane for the last month and a half! Thanks very much Ian, perfect timing!

1. The hotel - We stayed at the Worldmark resort which was very fancy. We had our own little appartment with a kitchen, lounge, double bedroom and a spa tub. We also had a sweet little lagoon style swimming pool with a water slide and a hot tub on the ground floor! Lovely jubbly!

2. Glasshouse mountains - We were lucky enough to have the lovely Tom and Bethan with us for a few days so we decided to check out the Glasshouse mountains. They rented a car for a few days which made getting there nice and easy, so we packed some lunch and set off with no real directions apart from following the mountains. To be fare we were in good hands because Tom drove us all the way from Brisbane to Caloundra without looking at the directions once, which is made even more impressive given that he has only been in the country 2 days!! We climbed mount Ngungun which was rated as doable for us mere mortals. It wasnt too hard to reach the top but it was tiring. Han tried to make it hard for herself by twisting her ankle but fortunately it wasnt as bad as first thought and we all made it up! It was a really nice day so we chilled on the top for a bit, taking a ridiculous amount of photos (standard for travelling). Tom and Bethan climbed to the top of a really tall rock for a photo (crazy daredevils) then we headed back down which took longer than needed due to a woman who loved to talk, burning Hannah and Bethans ears for 10 mins!!

3. Mooloolabah beach - After mount Ngungun, we headed to Mooloolabah for some beach action. After chatting with locals in Caloundra, this was described as the nicest and hippest place to go as aposed to the 'sleepiness' of Caloundra. Who describes their own town as sleepy??!! On the beach; me and Tom played with the pro frisbee doing some good catches through the legs; Han and Bethan made the s***test sand castle of all time and we saw the sun go down!

4. Australia Zoo - the zoo was really good! It was a bit of a Steve Irwin memorial centre but we didnt mind because he was a legend! Some of the highlights were seeing the otters get fed (greedy little gits), a friendly wombat that ambled up to the fence because he thought we were setting him free, seeing a kangaroo with a joey in the pouch, feeding the elephants, the crocoseum with the show and watching Han try to take photos of red pandas (about 10 days too slow with her trigger finger)!!

5. Kayaking - We rented a kayak and took it out on the cove outside our hotel. First we paddled over to the sand island in the middle, then we failed to make it to the lighthouse that we were heading for due to a shortage of water meaning we kept beaching ourselves! The journey back to the beach was against the tide so it was bloody hard work especially when the water was that shallow that I got out and dragged us for half the way!!

6. Luxury meal - We went out for dinner for the first time in about 4 months! It was a nice feeling to have our dinner made for us in a nice Thai restaurant and reminded us of Asia, which seems like years ago now.

We were pretty chuffed to have had our luxuy week away which amazingly felt like a holiday and it was brill to spend some time with our friends. Cheers Bethan and Tom and Ian for booking it for us!