Peter and Vicki's Travel Blog: Mountains and sea, footy and golf!

Monday 13th June - Thursday 23rd June, 2011

We have had a wonderful time over this last week and a half travelling around and exploring more of this lovely part of Australia. We have definitely taken advantage of the beautiful sunny days! Mind you it is winter and the mornings and evenings have been very chilly! but we can tolerate that as we know the days are going to be incredible! 5 - 23 degree days are the norm at the moment!

The ski season opened the weekend before last with record snow falls, and the snow has continued to fall, even as far up as Katoomba just west of Sydney. Orange, Bathurst, Goulburn have also been turned into winter wonderlands! Snow has not been seen in some areas for some years!, so the novelty had families out building snowmen and having snowball fights! Happy TV news and pics for a change!

But back to the beautiful days of exploring in the sunshine!

Early last week we had another quick trip down to the Gold Coast for some appointments and had a great couple of days with Di and Graham. The State of Origin Rugby League Round 2 was contested on the Wednesday night and we accompanied Di and Graham for a great night at their Golf Club to cheer on NSW or Queensland on the big screen! NSW won this round, so with each Sate having won a round each, next Wednesday's final round will be exciting! Who will win this hotly contested honour for 2011!
Will keep you posted! Was a fun night with streamers, flags, prizes and of coarse - FOOTY FOOD! Alas I did not have my camera with me so no pics unfortunately!

Love this impressive view of the Glass House Mountains' Tibrogargan (a volcanic plug 364m)
as you round the corner on the Bruce Highway heading for Brisbane and the Gold Coast

Di and Sasha, with Sasha showing off her winter PJ's -
they keep her warm in this cold night winter weather!

The beautiful and colourful Australian Rainbow Lorikeets love the Grevillia

in Di and Graham's Palma Sereno gardens.

We had a great day doing the round trip from Noosa up into the Blackall Ranges, along the beautiful hinterland ridge ,with its fabulous views back across to the coast, and then back down to Caloundra and up the coast through Mooloolabar, Maroochydore to Noosa.

The Edge Cafe at Montville in the Blackall Ranges behind the Sunshine coast

Peter enjoying the view from The Edge - a great spot for a coffee and a relax!

This is the life!

The beautiful lush countryside

The view down to Mooloolabah and Maroochydore on the coast

Looking across to Mt Coolum

Stunning views all along the ridge

The Glasshouse Mountains (a line of volcanic plugs named by Captain Cook)
from Mary Cairncross Park

Majestic Beerwah (556m)

Fascinating Coonowrin (377m)

Towering Tibrogargan (364m) and lumpy Berrburrum (278m)

From Mooloolabah foreshore looking across the rock platform
and beach to Maroochydore

Maroochydore across the silver sea!

Mooloolabah Beach

Main street Mooloolabah - always a hive of activity in the
popular cafe and restaurant strip overlooking the beach and ocean.
Mooloolabah is home of the popular Moololabah Triathlon at the end of March

View of the beach from the cafes

The cafes are always popular and busy

Coolum Beach

The back beach at Coolum

Looking up the beach and coast at Coolum towards Sunshine Beach

We've been doing lots of walking, and besides the Noosa National Park, our other favourite walk is walking on Sunshine! - lovely Sunshine Beach, which is just a stroll down the road. The coffee shops across the road from the beach in the quaint strip of Sunshine Beach shops and restaurants are always enticing us for a visit on our returns from our walks! We are easily persuaded!

The Lifesaver getting ready to take the jet ski out for a spin

Very scenic and relaxing walking to the Sunshine Beach headland
enjoying the sunshine and listening to the song of the sea!

From the headland looking back along Sunshine Beach

The suns great effect on the ocean!

What a great job!

Fun!

The park leading down to Sunshine Beach.
The Surf Club has an ideal location - nice restaurant there!

The quaint and quirky shops at Sunshine Beach -
fantastic atmosphere!

Fratellini's Cafe

Luke and Amanda's favourite - Costa Noosa Cafe
They freshly roast their coffee beans everyday!

Hot chocolate, coffee and a read of the Sunday paper at Fratellini's Cafe -
a great habit!

And the highlight this week is that after all these years of saying I'm going to learn to play golf (so I don't just have to caddie all the time! lol) I took the plunge and had my first lesson with Coach Pete at the beautiful, manicured Noosa Springs Golf Course. It has a great driving range and practise putting greens which I will be frequenting until the coach says I can be let free on a golf course! Loved the two hour lesson and I'm happy to say I think I made some progress!, though the concentration of thinking about everything I had to do before I hit that little white ball (if I hit it! lol) was quite mentally exhausting!