Sunny Coast Adventures!

Dave and I on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland

Hello everyone!

Well, what a week! So I accepted the job offer at the Mater Foundation as a Fundraising Coordinator, which is a fantastic opportunity to learn lots more about fundraising - especially events!

So its a great start to build on my career, gain some extremely valuable experience and to start my life properly!

And to top it all off, we had a lovely (if not a bit wet!) weekend camping on the Sunshine Coast, just north of Brisbane!

We started the weekend exploring the coast, with a trip to the tres famous Eumundi Markets. We always love to eat and explore our way through every market we can get our hands on! It was a little bit wet at first, with my legs covered in specs of mud before we left the car park...but it did get a bit nicer. Although my thongs (flip flops!) had seen better days and had to be thrown away after stinky Happy (the car) out.

We spent a bit of time at Noosa - mainly trying to find a car park space, truely atrocious facilities! But is a really cute little town - kinda a small vibe like Byron and nice and chilled, even though it was still the school holidays. And the ice cream shop at the very end of the street past the information centre comes HIGHLY recommended!

Penis Mangrove

This picture is of one of the many mangroves as found around the beaches. I tend to think that most of them look like they are growing large penises. Dave doesn't share this idea, but I think there's the proof.

We ended up camping at Ocean Trailer Tourist Site - a Top Rated Site...I personally wouldn't give it this grand title. It had nice view, yes. But it was also right by the main road, had poor lighting, staff that really weren't bothered that we even turned up and the camp area (not that you can really call it that) was surrounded by dog poo.

And it rained. All night.

But we did have a nice time, it was an intriguing place, really in the middle of nowhere really - in between Landsborough and Maleny - of which neither town had much to offer and everything shut at 4pm anyway. Except the bottle shop (off license), luckily.

There were quite a few old folk that appeared to have been living in the park for quite some time, a thought that I couldn't comprehend - living in a rundown caravan park, with shared facilities and constant mosquitos...I guess not everyone in Australia is rich.

But it was good for one night, and the Sunday we spent looking around Monteville - the local tourist destination. Famous for quaint boutiques, buildings and gift shops and boy are there loads!

We found some really obscure ones like the Irish and Scottish shop, which sold tourist tack from Ireland and Scotland, despite being so very far away. But they also sold Polos and Love hearts which I thought was nice.

Mainly it was a place to indulge in snacks, shopping and scenery, which we did. We did try to go to a few view points early in the morning, to discover that we had gone straight into a cloud! Apparently the views are otherwise stunning... Dave and I have already begun our dream retirement house planning here!

And on the way back home, we went via Marochydore - Dave always laughs when I try to pronounce places in Australia. Half of them are stolen from England like Newcastle, Ipswich and Stafford.  The other half are complicated, 'Australian' names like Woolloongabba, Mudgeeraba and Wagga Wagga (really not said how you think it would be!).

So he gets a kick out of my learning Australian ways...its really not the same language at all.

Anyways, so the beach here was really pretty, out of the way and with actual shells! A few anyways - this appears to be a rare thing, unlike Kent, as all the beaches are just sand...so not much chance for shell collecting...so I took this opportunity and filled Daves hat with cool looking shells, which will most likely be used to decorate a small bowl in the guest toilet. Good use.

Anyways, I shall leave you all with this beautiful picture of the Sunshine Hinterland at Monteville - Australia is greener than you think eh?

Love to all and thanks to Laura, Sass, Max and Jack for our fabulous postcards, of which are on our fridge! We shall look forward to more in the future!

Much love, Hev xxxx