Day 2 in Noosa…our fist stop was the Coles supermarket in town after getting a shock at the restaurant prices last night - pasta and sauce in the hostel for us tonight! We dropped the shopping off and got ready for our first surfing lesson!

I was very excited, Laura was quite excited, and Kel was nervous and not really excited! It's something I think everyone should try when in Australia, so we all decided to give it a go.
We were picked up from the hostel and driven to the Western end of the main beach away from where we sunbathed yesterday. We were given a Baywatch style red vest to put on and we collected our boards (soft ones for when we fall off!) before heading down to the beach. We were shown the different parts of the board and told what to do if we got caught in a rip(!). Apparently, you need to swim parallel to the shore and let the waves carry you in , rather than panic and try and swim against the tide which tires you out! Then we got on the boards in the sand and practiced pushing ourselves up from a horizontal position. No standing up yet, but it was time to practice in the sea! This first bit was easy - we all managed to get ourselves up and ride in on the waves, just about!

Back on the beach, we were shown how to get to a standing position from laying flat on the board. Unfortunately, it involved timing an coordination so I took a few tries to get it right! We were all finding it tricky, but we were determined to get up on the board - back to the sea! The instructor was out there with us and helped us to position ourselves on the board then he yelled out when it was time to start paddling! I managed to stand up a couple of times for about two seconds each time before falling head first into the sea! Apparently I was trying to ski on the board rather than surf…Laura eventually managed to get up like me when she was given a bigger board. And Kel…well, let's just say that surfing isn't really her thing! Spanish - yes, surfing - no! It was all good fun though and we had a laugh for the couple of hours we were out there.

When our time was up we were all aching and exhausted - the waves are tough! After a quick rest at the hostel, we were back out again on a sunset cruise along the river with some BYO wine - this was much more Kel's thing! We cruised past some spectacular houses along the river, but still got a shock when we were told that they're worth between $6 and 8million each! Must start playing the lottery again when we get home! The original river mouth had been filled in years ago to create beaches and the river bank where the houses are. Unfortunately, the ocean is slowly eroding the sand banks and the council have run out of money to try and solve the problem. As the guide said, unless something is done soon, the millionaires will be able to surf up to their front doors - maybe we'll wait a while before investing!

As the sun set over Noosa, we arrived back to the hostel, where we had a classy jug of snakebite between the three of us! Bed was definitely screaming out at us by that point so an early night it was!

We're off to the home of the Crocodile Hunter tomorrow…