ON Easter Sunday, soon after arriving in Australia to visit our family, we found ourselves heading north out of Brisbane towards the country’s much acclaimed Sunshine Coast.
We’d heard rave reviews about it. Would it live up to its sunny reputation?
Brisbane where our son and his family live, is sandwiched between the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, two hugely popular coastal holiday regions comprising clusters of attractive, busy and excellently resourced holiday resorts.
Three years ago on our first visit to Australia, when we’d been based in Sydney, we had explored quite a bit of the coastline between this fair city and Brisbane, in the process seeing a bit of the famous Gold Coast. The Sunshine Coast, though, was terra incognito to us as Brisbane had been our northern-most turning point. On this our second visit to Australia we were looking forward to seeing more of its really exquisite coastline.
This, our first sortie north of Brisbane, would only be a short one – we’d been invited to spend two days at a family beach house at Sunshine Beach with Anna and Dan, close friends of our son and daughter-in-law, along with their three children and other house guests. We’d met this lovely couple at our son’s wedding three years ago and we were looking forward to renewing our acquaintance.
The old house, overlooking the beach and set in a beautiful garden, was absolutely gorgeous. Artfully revamped and updated, its stylishly esoteric and comfortable furnishings contributed to the old fashioned family beach house character that this much-loved holiday home retained. It was lovingly cared for and well maintained but it was the relaxed sort of place where hoards of children with wet towels and surfboards would feel at ease and where sea-salted dogs could curl up on a couch and sleep undisturbed. The house seemed to echo with happy beach holidays long past.
Much of the socialising took place and all of the delicious meals were enjoyed on the spacious weathered deck that was such an attractive feature of the home.
What a view it commanded! Spread out below our feet was the picture perfect Sunshine Beach, its creamy sand lined with sub-tropical vegetation and edging an ever so slightly ruffled aquamarine sea.
This long, straight shoreline began with a rocky outcrop at the foot of the pathway leading into a little natural jewel, the Headland Section of the Noosa National Park. From there it seemed to stretch to infinity, with hardly a curve interfering with the pastel views. It was just designed for long beach walks but it had another function.
A section of Sunshine Beach was the official dog-walking beach for the area and the canine capers all added to the fun. Dogs of all shapes and sizes, colours, coats and breeds were allowed unfettered use of this glorious sand and sea and, at any one time, there were hordes of dogs on the beach with their owners, all chasing balls, diving into the waves, paddling, splashing, strolling or running in crazy circles on the sand. Most the dogs were pretty friendly and would stop what they were doing to say hello when you passed. So were the owners. Doggie people are nice wherever you go.
Our two days at Sunshine Beach went far too quickly and soon we were heading back to the city of Brisbane with many happy memories. We’d thoroughly enjoyed our introduction to the Sunshine Coast and were looking forward to seeing more of it. What had made it particularly special to us was our hosts’ wonderful, warm hospitality. Our two days with Dan and Anna and their family and friends had been very special ones.
We didn’t have long to wait to see more of the Sunshine Coast. Our son and daughter-in-law had decided to spoil us and had arranged a special treat. The following weekend we spent three wonderful days with them and our little grandson in a lovely holiday apartment in Noosa, one of their very favourite places. We could see why it was such a special spot to them. The upmarket seaside village and its surrounds were absolutely beautiful. Like many seaside towns in Australia, it boasted a magnificent shore frontage, extensive waterways and some lovely pristine natural areas.
Because it was Queensland school holidays the area was very busy but this resulted in a happy holiday buzz rather than it all feeling just too crowded.
Swimming at Noosa’s beautiful main beach was wonderful and the perfect spot for visiting families. A long stretch of lovely beach, it was patrolled by lifeguards and was one of the few north facing beaches in Australia. This meant it was well protected and that it produced just the gentlest of waves. While we were there the water was almost luke-warm. We spent hours in the sea or playing on the beach with our happy toddler grandson. Noosa also caters for the serious surfer, offering a number of popular surf spots in the vicinity, we were told.
The little seaside town was lovely, with a small, tree-lined central business area jam-packed with upmarket shops, boutiques, trendy eateries and watering holes. Hasting Street, where many of the more stylish emporiums were situated, eventually petered out into a small gravel road and walkway that lead to the Noosa National Park’s Headland Section. The park has an interesting story. More than 60 years ago a visionary park ranger carried out an inspection of what was then a small town reserve where logging for cypress pine was taking place. He recommended that the logging be stopped and that the piece of environmentally significant land be protected. Then, in 1962 a community-based conservation group, the Noosa Parks Association was formed. The members took on the pro-development town and state authorities and, after an epic battle, eventually managed to earn conservation status for this, the Headland Section of the path.
Later we were pleased to discovered that this environmental organisation was still active and doing good work in its community. As well as the lovely walking and hiking routes through the national park, there were more than enough attractive and well-maintained walkways through extensive natural areas around the town. Bill and I did some really lovely nature walks while we were there and were pleased to see notices informing visitors that the Noosa Parks Association was reestablishing natural vegetation in damaged areas and removing invasive alien weeds.
We also did the parkrun at Noosaville, through a pretty wooded area, on the Saturday morning. This gave us a chance to meet some of the friendly locals.
A highlight of our Noosa visit was a drive out to nearby Eumundi Artisan Market after the parkrun. It was one of the best markets of its kind I have ever experienced, an extensive market place with wonderful stalls selling all sorts of home produce and handmade treasures, art, superb and widely assorted crafts, fashion and jewellery, artisanal soaps and toiletries and a range of wonderful food stalls that would delight any visiting foodies. The town itself is charming, friendly and well worth a visit.
Our three busy days at Noosa went far too quickly and soon we were enjoying a delicious farewell supper with our family at the surf lifesaving club, which ran an excellent beachfront bar and restaurant. The next morning we said goodbye to our son and his family, who were returning to Brisbane, then we set off alone on the first of two short but exciting camping trips. We’d enjoyed staying in the rather luxurious seaside resort with our family but we were looking forward to some happy explorations and four nights under canvas, Aussie style.
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