Noosa is a nice little surf town, situated on the Sunshine coast. The ironic thing for us on this trip is that during our visit to the sunshine coast, we've had around half an hour of sun, and the rest of time it has just rained. Ah well, what will be, will be. It was a tad frustrating however watching the Ashes on TV from sunny Adelaide, whilst we were inside our hostel with the rain pouring from the roof. Especially as we had contemplated going down to watch the 2nd test down in the baking hot sun of Adelaide.

In Noosa Heads itself, the beach is literally a 2 minute walk from our hostel, and on the first day of us being here I attempted to body surf (I'm way not cool enough to actually surf). Even body surfing turned out to be much of a task. There were more life guards on the beach than there were beach dwellers. It was a nice beach though and I managed to act like a big kid with the waves.

The day after, we got the free courtesy bus from virtually straight outside the hostel to the Australian Zoo which was a good experience and another thing to tick off the list. I heard mixed reviews regarding the zoo, but I'm not very familiar with animals and wouldn't dare touch them, so maybe I'm not the best person to ask if you want an expert opinion on the place. I would still definitely recommend at least one visit to the world famous zoo however. You also get to watch a video on the bus about Steve Irwin and the Zoo, and then a different video on the way back. Like I said, I'm not really an animal person, but it was a thoroughly interesting and an entertaining day out nevertheless, even if it did chuck it down, and I forgot my raincoat.

To summarise, Noosa is a nice little surf town with up-market bars and restaurants. There are a fair few within the distance of a hop skip and a jump to the beach, but suffice to say, they're not cheap. 2 slices of toast with Butter was the same price as you would pay for Chinease Takeaway in the UK. It seems to be a place where people have money, but a nice quiet place to visit for a few days all the same. The next stop is the hustle and bustle of Sydney. My next blog will be written in New South Wales, so goodbye Queensland, and I'll see you in March (when I depart from Brisbane International to go to Auckland).

Just a quick update - the sun did finally come out on the last day, and I walked around the national park in Noosa along the coastline for around 2 hours, which was all good practice for the Inca Trail. Five minutes into the walk, I was all shattered and sweating, and praying for rain again. I need not have prayed for rain, a few hours later, it did not disappoint. Just like the majority of our stay at Noosa, we witnessed a downpour.

Speak soon