Queensland – Where to, Gumshoe?

Noosa/Brisbane (Day 85): Beautiful Sunshine Coast

May 24, 2016

Finally! We didn’t have a 9-hour car ride ahead of us for the day. We packed up and went for a quick morning walk across the street along the Noosa River. I had no idea the river was across the street from us because when we got into Noosa, it was dark. The sun was shining and it was already about 27°C at 9:30am. There were a lot of people getting their morning walk and run in and there were a few yoga classes going on.

We went back to the room, checked out, loaded up the car, and made our way to Noosa Beach. We planned on having breakfast and spending the morning at the beach before we headed south to Brisbane. Noosa Beach was only about a 5 minute drive down the road from the motel. We found parking on Hastings Street, which is a nice street with lots of restaurants and stores.

We walked up and down the street to see what our choices were for breakfast/brunch. We ended up picking a restaurant called, Aromas, which had a good breakfast menu and had some pastries and sandwiches in the display cases. I ordered a salmon and avocado sandwich on rye ($9.50 AUD = $8.95 CAD) and Tim got their sausage crumble on poached egg ($16 AUD = $15 CAD). Both items were tasty and the cafe was a nice setting for people watching.

After brunch, we walked down Hastings St. all the way to Noosa Park until we got to the end of the beach. Noosa is known for having very calm waters making it ideal for paddle boarding and for beginner surfers. We saw a lot of paddleboarders out around Sandy Cove. We also overheard some talking about how there was an eleven food shark out there. We continued to walk along the Noosa Beach until we got back to where the hotels and businesses around Hastings St. were. Next time we’ll have to spend more time in Noosa and just have a full beach day. Like the sand we felt in Adelaide, the sand was like powdered sugar. It’s some of the softest sand I’ve ever felt before. The water was a lot colder compared to the water we went snorkeling in. It wasn’t freezing by any means but it was definitely not 28°C.

After hanging around the beach and walking in the water, we made our way back to Hastings St. and got a smoothie from a Jugo Juice/Jamba Juice/(Tim: and Booster Juice) type of store called Boost. It was the perfect day for a fresh fruit smoothie and it was exactly what I had been craving. We got back into the car and headed on the more scenic drive down the Sunshine Coast towards Brisbane.

Originally Tim had squeezed in 9 hours of driving each day so we would have a full day to go to the Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin’s Zoo), which is about 40 minutes from Noosa. There was some miscommunication about who really wanted to go. Tim was under the impression that I really wanted to go but I thought I had just mentioned that we would pass by it on the way to Brisbane. The only reason why I would be interested in going was because the zoo is linked to Steve Irwin. But since we went to Cleland Wildlife Park in Adelaide, I was pretty satisfied with my experience there and I did’t think anything else coul top it. Plus the admission is $59 per person and I didn’t want to go that badly. It worked out because we got to have a more leisurely morning in Noosa and spend the afternoon in Brisbane before it got dark (at 5:30pm!).

Along the Sunshine Coast, some parts were very scenic. We stayed on the coastal beach roads until we got to the Sunshine Airport, then we headed for the more direct route to Brisbane, which was a little less than an hour away.

Before we knew it we were in Brisbane. I got used to long drives that today was a breeze. I’m glad we got to spend at least one day in Brisbane while in Australia. It’s not on many people’s radars since there aren’t many tourist sites to see in the city, but I was still very interested in visiting. A good friend of mine did her Masters here so when we arrived I messaged her that I was thinking about her. It’s too bad I didn’t get my travel bug before she left. It would’ve been nice to visit her while she was living here.

We checked into the Ibis (Tim: “Style”) Hotel in Brisbane’s CBD (Central Business District). It’s our second time in an Ibis and we’re both very happy with their rooms and their very comfortable beds. Considering the hotel is in a prime location downtown, the price is really good at $117 CAD/night. The downside of being in a prime location downtown (with a car) is that we had to pay for parking. Luckily Ibis said they will validate the parking, but it will cost $35 day. When we drove down to the Myer’s shopping parkade, we saw the regular price for more than 3 hours is $55. So we’ll take the $20 off.

After we settled in for a bit, we went straight out to take advantage of the sunlight. We walked across the bridge to South Brisbane, along the river on the south bank, and across the pedestrian bridge straight into the Botanic Gardens. It was a really nice walk, and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. My first impression of Brisbane was that it’s a very active city. There were so many people going on runs and tons of people riding their bikes for leisure and to commute. It seems like the city is very accommodating to cyclists which is great. I love cities that have pedestrian only bridges going over rivers or canals. I wish Vancouver would put one over False Creek.

When we got back into Brisbane’s CBD, we walked through the Botanic Gardens and back on to another river walk way. By this time, it was getting darker and we were looking for something to eat for dinner. There were a bunch of restaurants around Edward’s Pier which didn’t open until around 5:30pm, so we continued to walk towards the pedestrian only shopping streets.

Like Rundle Mall in Adelaide, Brisbane has a pedestrian only shopping street called Queen Street Mall. It was larger and had higher end stores than Rundle Mall. We walked through trying to see what restaurants were around but nothing really caught our eye. When we got to the end of the street, Tim wanted to check out the City Hall building on the corner and low and behold there was a food market set up. There were all these food tents set up in the middle of King George Square (later we learned it was called “The Paper Plate Supper Club”). We walked around and found there were a lot of delicious options so we decided to have dinner there. I had Malaysian food (chicken satay with nasi lemak) and Tim had Vietnamese food (a vermicelli bowl with chicken and spring rolls). Both were really good and satisfying. It was our first proper dinner in a while.

After dinner, it was still early (around 6:30pm) but it felt more like 9pm. We’re so used to the sun setting at like 9pm when it’s warm out, so I think that’s why it being dark at 6pm is weird for us. We headed to ANZAC Square which has a memorial dedicated to Australian and New Zealanders who fought during WWI. This memorial was one of the nicer one I’ve seen in a city.

We walked back up Queen Street Mall to get back to our hotel and we called it an early night. We did a quick overview of Brisbane and we liked it. It’s a very relaxed big city which are usually my favourite places.

Tomorrow we’re flying to Sydney! Looking forward to finally seeing the city for myself. We’ll be meeting up with a couple of friends there so it’ll be great to see some more familiar faces.

Steps today: 22,000

Noosa (Day 84): Queensland Road Trip Day 2

May 23, 2016

Today we had another long drive ahead of us. We didn’t end up waking up at 5am to drive back to Cape Hillsborough to watch the sunrise and see kangaroos on the beach. As we were snoozing our alarms, we said we’d come back and do this drive over a week or more in the future. We could camp there and walk to the beach instead of driving 45 minutes from Mackay to Cape Hillsborough. The bed at Ibis was extremely comfortable (probably one of the best beds we’ve slept on so far) so it made it even harder to get up.

We went to McDonald’s (again) for breakfast. I ordered a spinach, egg and feta wrap trying to be healthy. Tim, however, found the most unhealthy choice. He ordered the “Aussie BBQ Brekkie Roll”, which had double sausage patties, eggs, bacon, and BBQ sauces on a sesame bun, two hash browns, and a flat white coffee! Our breakfast was basically our only meal for the day so it was good Tim had a huge breakfast.

Our drive today was from Mackay to Noosa, which is about 850km away. Tim had another ~9 hour drive to do today. I don’t know how he drives so long and is still okay. Tim’s done a lot of road trips on his own while working in Columbus, so long drives like this are nothing to him. I’m just used to driving max 6 hours a day (to get to Portland). The weather was better than our first day on the road but the scenery was pretty boring and repetitive. In my mind, I had pictured the drive from Cairns down to Brisbane to be scenic and beautiful. Since we were driving a more direct route we weren’t seeing anything interesting.

Halfway through our drive we got pulled over for a speeding ticket, which is really unlucky. I was thinking we hadn’t seen a police car at all on both our road trips in Queensland and while we were in Victoria. Tim thought we were still in a 110 zone but it became a 100 zone and he was going 119. We got pulled over and they gave us a ticket for $235 AUD. From that point on we were pretty paranoid with the speed limit changes. On the bright side, the police officers were really nice and friendly.

That put a bit of a damper on our day since $235 AUD is more than our car rental for 3 days. We were still really full from lunch and there wasn’t much food selection in the small towns we passed by. After two meals in a row at McDonald’s, nothing I saw at gas stations or any fast food was appetizing.

The sun set really early in Queensland. Around 5:30pm it was already pitch black out. This made me feel a bit uneasy while we were driving because the highway was only one lane each way with no median, the roads were winding, there were no street lights, and there were so many semi trucks going the opposite direction. As much as I trust Tim’s driving skills, I don’t really trust others. Considering there were so many warning signs about driver fatigue and a lot of road side memorials, it made me a bit paranoid.

When we arrived in Noosa at 9:30pm, I went from being thankful we made it there safely to feeling physically exhausted (and I wasn’t even the one who was driving). The long hauls of our road trip are finally over. I’m looking forward to seeing Noosa during the day and finally seeing the Sunshine Coast.

The motel we booked for the night was called Noosa Sun Motel. It was the nicest motel we’d stayed in so far. The room was huge and was more like an apartment than a motel room. It had a kitchen, dining table, sofa, an extra bed, and our bed was in a separate room. The room was $125 AUD/night.

Steps today: 1,000

Kilometres today: 850km

Mackay (Day 83): Queensland Road Trip

May 22, 2016

This morning we woke up and packed up. Our relaxing days in Cairns have come to an end. Like yesterday, the rain was coming down and it was another gloomy looking day. We’re lucky we got two nice days before the rain started to come in. We went downstairs for a leisurely breakfast before checking out. We walked to Hertz to pick up the rental car, picked up our luggage from the hotel, and were on our way heading south towards Brisbane.

Cairns to Brisbane is approximately 1,680km and we’re going to drive there in three days. Ideally, we should have allotted more time for this drive since there’s a lot of very nice beaches (Whitsunday Islands) along the east coast but unfortunately we don’t have enough time. Lonely Planet recommends two weeks for this “road trip” and we’re doing it in three. For the first two days, Tim will be driving about 8-9 hours each day (which he says he doesn’t mind at all) and then the last day we’ll only drive a couple of hours so we could spend more time in Brisbane before flying to Sydney. We’ve been winging most of our planning but in hindsight I probably should have tried to plan out Australia a bit better so we didn’t feel so rushed during this portion. If we come again in the future, I’d like to go to Whitsunday Islands and spend a good chunk of time there. The pictures look so beautiful!

The rain was coming down quite hard as we drove for the first couple of hours. The area south of Cairns reminded us of Hawaii’s landscape – lush greenery with tropical crops on either side of the highway. Instead of pineapples, there were a lot of sugar cane and bananas. Our first pit stop was in Ayr, which was about a 5 hour drive (436km). We had a late lunch at McDonald’s – there aren’t many options for food on Sundays in small towns (most things are closed).

Ayr to Mackay (which is where we’re staying for the night) was another 3.5 hour drive. There wasn’t much (at all) in between these two places unless you are going to Airlie Beach or The Whitsundays. The sun began to set and we had to be more careful while driving because kangaroo like to hop around at dusk. We didn’t see any hopping around but we did notice a lot more (and larger) kangaroo road kill during this road trip than on the Great Ocean Road.

At around 8:30pm, we finally got to Mackay, which is a small city that has its own airport. We’re staying at the Ibis Hotel at the airport for the night. At first when we got to the parking lot, we saw that parking was $35 a night. But luckily when we checked in they said that it’s validated for hotel guests. It’s our first time staying in an Ibis hotel and it’s quite nice and comfortable. I’ve seen the chain around but never stayed in one before. If they’re all like this one, I’d stay in one again (Tim: we’ll find out soon enough as we’re staying at another Ibis hotel in Brisbane).

Steps today: 2,000

Kilometers driven: 734 kms

Cairns (Day 81): Great Barrier Reef

May 20, 2016

Today was the reason why we came to Cairns. It was our Great Barrier Reef day! We booked a tour with Seastar Cruises which was recommended by Chloe and it’s also rated #1 on Trip Advisor (we use Trip Advisor a lot). Our full day tour was $200 AUD = $189 CAD per person (which is the average price of full day tours).

We arrived at the marina at 7:30am and they began to board. The majority of the other passengers were from Australia and the US, we were the only ones from Canada. There were two couples (they looked like they were in their 20s) from China in front of us in the line up to board. One of the couples asked twice if they were allowed to smoke on the boat or on one of the cays we were going to (the answer was obviously no). Then they said they didn’t want to go in the water either. From that moment on, that girl looked like she would not have a very fun day. Tim said on the boat she kept saying that she wanted to go home (Tim: she only said it once). It’s a pretty expensive day out to be miserable!

The boat ride there was pretty rocky because it was quite windy out. I’m actually quite proud of myself for not getting sick on the boat ride (usually, I’m prone to getting sea sick). The crew was really good at taking care of people who were feeling sick. Tim and I sat on the upper deck so I think it helped that we were getting fresh air even though it was probably rockier being on the top deck.

Our seats on the upper deck. Waiting at Michaelmas Cay

Our first stop was about an hour and half away from Cairns. Michaelmas Cay is the largest uninhabited coral cay in the Cairns area, but it is full of birds (apparently 35 different species). We pulled up to the cay and some crew members went off on the rescue boat to get the glass bottom boat to bring us to the sandy beach. They gave us stinger suits to wear to protect us from jelly fish stings (although they said right now it’s not jelly fish season) and the sun. The water’s temperature was 28 degrees celsius, warmer than the current air temperature! There were two snorkel guides who took us around the reefs for about 30 minutes and then we had about an hour to go around on our own. When we went on our own we saw a turtle! We followed it for a while and probably swam quite a ways out because one of the crew members came out with the rescue boat and told us to swim back towards the boat since we were pretty far away.

We took some pictures with the GoPro but most of our better footage are videos (including the turtle and reef shark spotting). Here’s some of the better photos we have from each of the snorkeling spots. Michaelmas Cay didn’t have great photos since it was overcast and more murky as it was more shallow than Hastings Reef.

Waiting to get into the water at Michaelmas Cay

Snorkel selfies are always not very attractive

DCIM102GOPRO — Some of the reefs we saw. Pictures came out pretty murky on the GoPro

When we got back on the boat they had lunch ready for us. They had a selection of salads, deli meat, fruits and gave us a scoop of vegetable bake and two chicken wings. As we were eating, the boat was rocking back and forth. This was the only time on the boat that I felt a bit uneasy (Tim: me too). I’d rather the boat be moving quickly and be rocking than just sitting on the water that’s rocky. After we were done lunch, we made our way to the next and last stop, Hastings Reef.

At Hastings Reef, the boat stopped in the middle of the ocean and we jumped out to snorkel. There was another 30 minute snorkel tour with a guide and then we got about an hour and a half to snorkel around on our own. We both liked Hastings Reef a lot better than Michaelmas Cay. There was a lot more to see and the reefs were more beautiful and we saw a larger variety of fish. We even spotted a reef shark and we followed it for a while (actually Tim followed it longer). We saw a reef shark last year in the Maldives while snorkeling as well but this one was a darker grey and a bit larger. After we got back up to the boat we went on the glass bottom boat and went around the reefs with a crew member.

Blue large clams. I've never seen so many large clams before. — Blue large clams. I’ve never seen so many large clams before.

This really large fish was swimming around the boat

The boat ride back was an hour and 45 minutes and was even more rough because we were going against the waves. I was so happy when we got back to the marina and was actually very surprised I didn’t get sick on the boat. It was awesome to see the Great Barrier Reef with my own eyes and to experience with Tim. We took pictures with the Go Pro but looking through them the pictures don’t do the reef justice with all the different colours and things we saw down there.

We walked back to the hotel, washed up and headed down to the restaurant in the lobby. Tim got some vouchers for free drinks and an appetizer from the restaurant so we went down to redeem them. We shared two pieces of fried barramundi, coke, and a beer. The fried barramundi was very good with light crisp batter and the fish was nice and moist. It sort of satisfied Tim’s fish and chip craving.

We walked down to the Cairns night market to see what they had to offer. It was basically a Chinese food court with stalls of cheap souvenirs and massages. I often crave westernized Chinese food so this was actually perfect for me. All the Chinese food stalls were the same. You pay for what size plate you wanted and you can put as much food on it as you can. Since we had a small appetizer, we just shared a medium plate ($13.50 AUD = $12.75 CAD) and I went through and piled as much as I could too (so Chinese of me. Tim didn’t want any part of it).

After we finished eating we walked around a bit and headed for Gelocchio (of course) for dessert. This time we got two scoops, strawberry and passionfruit, in a cup. Two scoops are supposed to be $5.80 AUD but the guy only charged us for one $4.80 AUD = $4.50 CAD. I’m really enjoying all the fresh and delicious gelato.

It started to rain so we went back to the hotel and watched the much anticipated 2 hour finale of Survivor. This already aired back at home but we haven’t been able to download and watch it until we got to Cairns. It was a nice chill night and we planned to just take it easy tomorrow. We originally thought of going to the Daintree Rainforest but we’re both feeling pretty tired and it’s going to rain all tomorrow. So we’ll be taking tomorrow to catch up on blog entries and future trip bookings.

Steps today: 7,000