Visiting family in Noosa - 6th January

This morning we headed into the city to pick up a hire car. We'd decided to use Budget instead of the usual Avis and were really pleased when we were upgraded to a e-class Sedan which included leather seats and an usb socket for the ipod - wooo hooo. To us this was pure luxury as in the other cars we'd been playing the ipod through a transmitter which had kept cutting out. Andy had downloaded loads of podcasts including numerous Richard Bacon interviews and we were really looking forward to being able to listen to them properly.

Outside the YHA - note the tap on the roof

E-class Upgrade

Today we were travelling to Noosa in the Sunshine Coast to spend a couple of days with my Aunt and Uncle. 'Sunshine Coast' felt a rather ironic term as leaving Brisbane it absolutely poured down to the point we could barely see the road ahead. It took about 2 hours to get to Noosa and was a really appealing road past some creeks and through some pine forests.

You don't get these distances in the UK

We got to Mike and Lyn's for 12pm and had lunch outside in their garden. It was lovely to taste some homemade food again and to catch up on all the family news. Just as we finished it started to rain so we came inside and watched a bit of the cricket. Lyn asked to look at our holiday photos of South America.....not sure whether she still regrets this to this day as I then inflicted both her and Mike to the full 100% unedited back-catalogue of not just South America but New Zealand as well and with 'trigger Chalmers' on the camera there were A LOT of photos. Even I felt rather hoarse by the end of it so we headed out for a drink.

Mike and Lyn took us to Noosa Heads. This looked like a fantastic place with lots of classy bars and restaurants and a nice sandy beach. We went to a bar right on the beach and had a drink. We then did a quick circuit around the town whilst the rain held off before going into another bar. This one had an amazing musician who could play the piano and guitar brilliantly.

The beach at Noosa Heads

We headed back to Mike and Lyn's and had a lovely curry for dinner (I've got the recipe to make back home) and then headed to bed.