Noosa Heads

We got another good tip from Marybeth about stopping off in Noosa Heads, a trendy town and National Park. It was gorgeous and tropical and the surf looked really fun when we arrived at the National Park. It's a right point break, but really nice since it is so spread out, you can have your own little spot to yourself. It would have been better if we had bigger boards, but was fun anyway. The water is about 75, and clear and aqua, reminding us a lot of Hawaii.

There was a big rush in the morning (and seemingly all day) to get a parking spot, as there isn't much room, so we left the van there after surfing to go for a hike in the park. The coastal track had great views looking out towards the ocean at the various bays and points we came across. At one point, we looked up to see a koala bear just hanging out up in a tree over the trail sleeping the afternoon away.

ERICH SAYS:

The trail continued around the headland of the park and out to the windier Eastern beaches. As the next section of trail crossed the soft sand beach and the sun was searing at the Australian high noon of 10AM (remember sunrise is before 5AM) we decided to take the shortcut back to the slightly cooler coastal track we had come in on.

Arriving back at the van we did some organization the best we could in the lessened camper space than we had in New Zealand and hung out for a bit by the beach until the urge for ice cream was felt and a change of scenery.

The lazy beach day continued into the early evening with only a break to find the night's campsite. We decided there would be no other choice but to stay in one of the local Holiday Parks and the Noosa information center pointed us in the direction of the closest. Although the park is full to the brim with campers (estimated over 100) and is booked solid everyday of the year according to the park attendant (this is still off-season despite the crowds apparently) the campsite was relatively quiet, aside from some punk kids yelling out their car window, until of course the sun broke over the Eastern horizon at 430am and the birds started losing it. This time Sara was prepared with her ear plugs to pop in once the commotion began.

Overall the night was less restless than the night before as we added some padding to the bed set up with the comforter laying underneath us. The bed is like a bad convertible couch with metal bars running across it in three different spots. We believe there may have been a Koala fight in the trees over the car, but since there aren't supposed to be in Koala's in town, it probably was a mango hitting the car roof and one of the wild turkeys or local cats screeching about. Even our neighboring Euro campers managed to keep quiet last night despite their constant need to play techno.