| |||||||
Monday 6 - Thursday 9 April 1998 | |||||||
| Did nothing much all week, in preparation for more of the same on the long weekend. Had a really hard game of Squash at Willoughby on Wednesday, loosing 1-3, but there were only 2 points in the game scores so peeved about that. The team won overall though so who cares? On Thursday had a few quiet drinks after work at the now becoming regular Berry Street Tavern. Forgot Kim had no keys (as Greg was going to stay at our place over the weekend and had hers) and locked her out. Luckily I arrived home not long after her (having to walk home in the rain) as she'd been to Balmain after work. | |||||||
Friday 10 April 1998 | |||||||
| Got up hideously early to catch our flight to Brisbane which boarded at 7:50. The drizzle turned into torrential rain as we checked in and thought ourselves lucky to be leaving Sydney. This delayed the plane a little, but just happy to escape as it was to rain like this all weekend and parts of Sydney would be flooded! Seemed very weird to have no passport control after landing and picking up the luggage, and for there to be a group of people waiting for friends at the gate. Had a bit of hassle when picking up the car as they thought I'd only paid for three, rather than four days, soon sorted them out though and headed North in the now upgraded Commodore (3.8l V6 - grin). Traffic was a little heavy out of Brisbane, but this was the morning (about 10am by now) of the Easter weekend so what do you expect? Took the scenic ocean road and arrived at Noosa early afternoon. Checked in at the Noosa International and inspected the place. For some reason we ended up with a massive suite in this very quiet hotel come apartment complex (we had two sofas and dinner seating for eight in the open plan lounge). Also had a huge wraparound balcony with views into the treetops of the palms and whatever growing round the place. Didn't bother to unpack now (and I never did) and left for Sunshine Beach just down the road. Sydney beaches aren't bad, but they just don't have the mile after mile sand of Queensland, so was very happy to be there. Couldn't decide what to eat for dinner, so unfortunately ended up taking a KFC meal deal back home to eat on the balcony. Went for a few drinks in the very quiet resort bar (which was sunken in the middle of the pool BTW). Great cocktails, but not very alcoholic so stuck to the beer after the half price intro. Just sat around and was entertained (?) by the barman, who I'm sure thought he was Tom Cruise from Cocktail or something. It started to rain a bit which put us off walking down to the high street and other bars. Never mind, good excuse to crash out pretty early due to the very early start. | |||||||
Saturday 11 April 1998 | |||||||
| Got up early as I can't seem to fight the 6:30am body clock alarm forced upon me by Kim's crazy working hours. Decided to take a drive north and check out a few of the sights up there. Despite being an apparently popular tourist area (we are only an hours drive from Fraser Island) this part of the world was very deserted compared to anything but the quietest parts of Europe, so very relaxing. Went to Boreen Point on Lake Cootharaba then on to Kin Kin.
We were planning on driving up the Cooloolah way to Rainbow Beach, about 25kms of dirt road which was passable in 2WD vehicles, but not after any rain. Given the night before we decided to give that a miss as it was very sandy. Besides that, we didn't have a very good map and the road forked just a few hundred meters into it's length with no indication of which way to go. Took an alternate main road route, which was still not sealed but at least not as sandy and bumpy as the Cooloolah way. Rainbow beach was pretty busy... well, as busy as things get round here which means there were at least 20 people to be seen on a beach 20kms long. Sat and sunbathed for a while before wondering off to the pie shop for some refreshment (pies, sausage rolls, coke and milkshakes).
After being there some time I realised that this really was a busy beach, not for the usual surfers and bathers though, for driving on. All the time we were there, there was an almost constant line of 4WD vehicles driving onto the beach some was down from us and travelling South to look at the Coloured Sands of Teewah. Made me wish I'd hired a 4WD myself so we could check it out, and drive on Fraser Island for that matter. After most of the afternoon here, we headed back to Noosa to have dinner at Raging Bull restaurant, which was part of the resort complex before crashing early again. | |||||||
Sunday 12 April 1998 | |||||||
Decided to take it easy after all the driving around the day before and go somewhere close to relax. That happened to be Castaway beach where we spent most of the day. Didn't really do much at all in the evening either. Stayed home, ate nibbles and watched a movie on TV.
| |||||||
Monday 13 April 1998 | |||||||
| Time to pack up and head back to Sydney. The flight wasn't until very so decided to do a bit of tourist stuff on the way back to Brisbane. First stop was Maroochydore, then on to Mooloolaba (I'm not making these names up - honestly!) where we visited Underwater World. Big aquarium type place with underwater tunnels and the like. Very much a typical tourist attraction being built on a wharf with the usual shops, arcades and attractions. Wondered down to the beach and ate lunch (great fish and chips) while watching the world go by. Instead of the main highway back to Brisbane took a slightly more scenic route through the Glasshouse Mountains and Beerburrum. Drove to a lookout point and admired the strange landscape (these 'mountains' being volcanic mounds in an otherwise flat landscape).
Arrived in Brisbane too early so tried to call Yvette, but she was down in NSW. Went to Deception Bay and took a long walk on the beach and sea front before showing up at the airport an hour or two too early. Shame there's no duty free shopping on the internal stuff, eh? | |||||||
| |||||||
