After Straddie, we had a bit of a lay in and John & Sasha made a few calls for their new house. In the arvo, they took us on a walking tour of the CBD, taking in the major sites - casino, shops, old drinking establishments, botanical gardens, and the university, before ending up in one of the classier drinking establishments - The Regatta. We had a couple of drinks here and were introduced to Keno. Its basically like the lottery in the UK, but with a few twists and draws take place every 3 minutes. There are 80 numbers, and you chose how many to match. We chose 4 numbers - 7, 13, 23, 74 - and you get different prizes depending on how many you match - 2/4 gives $1, 3/4 = $5, 4/4 = $120 (and so on if you have more than 4 numbers). We know the prize for 4 numbers, as we got all 4!!! Cha-ching!!! We were all pretty stoked, and it set up a nice little kitty for the Sunshine Coast...
Next day, we headed out to the Sunshine Coast, staying at Alexandra Heads, which is a stretch of beach in between Maloolahbah and Maroochydoor, though about 7ks covered all three towns and were all effectively joined. This is about 30ks south of Noosa. On our drive to Alexandra, we stopped off to have a look at the Glass House Mountains (which weren't as big as we were expecting) and then stopped in Beerwah for lunch. This is where Steve Irwin was from, so we only said nice things about him ;) We also stopped at the Ettamogah pub which is a reconstruction of a cartoon pub, and is a bit wobbly and has lots of gravity defying angles, with a truck on the roof...
Next day, we headed out to the Sunshine Coast, staying at Alexandra Heads, which is a stretch of beach in between Maloolahbah and Maroochydoor, though about 7ks covered all three towns and were all effectively joined. This is about 30ks south of Noosa. On our drive to Alexandra, we stopped off to have a look at the Glass House Mountains (which weren't as big as we were expecting) and then stopped in Beerwah for lunch. This is where Steve Irwin was from, so we only said nice things about him ;) We also stopped at the Ettamogah pub which is a reconstruction of a cartoon pub, and is a bit wobbly and has lots of gravity defying angles, with a truck on the roof...
The hotel in Alexandra, Seaforth Hotel, exceeded all our expectations considering how cheap it was and is a 4* complex with a couple of pools, gym, and a bottle shop next door. The room was really lovely and spacious, on the 3rd floor (not quite penthouse), and we had a nice balcony with partial beach views. There was only 1 double, so we tossed a coin for it, which Sasha called. We were happy to let them have as they had arranged everything for us - that was until we heard that they had air con, en suite and a spa bath ;) It was then down to the pool for some R&R...
For our first night, we went to Surf Club which is the Auzzie equivalent of a Weatherspoons - cheap food & drink, though a bit lacking in atmosphere. Still, they had Keno, so we had another go at that, and had a go on the Pokies, but the luck of yesterday has deserted us ;(
Wednesday is market day, so we headed out to Eumundi to see what bargains we could find. There were lots of good arts and crafts here, with some funky vases, wine holders, some cool pictures (John got a B&W photo of a spitfire) and we got a nice water jug & glasses set. We could have brought more, but decided that we'll come back for the larger Saturday market later in our travels. There was some entertainment, with a couple of old guys playing guitars and singing, then a random joined in for a jam!! Marc then lost his cash card in the ATM - it just shut itself down after entering the PIN!! Luckily there was a teller still working inside, though we didn't have much hope of getting the card back as they say the teller cant access the ATM. This would have been a mini disaster for the rest of our travels, but luckily the teller was really helpful, made a few phone calls, and managed to get it back for us. PHEW!! Meanwhile, the ATM had switched itself back on and was fully operational again?!?
We then headed over to Noosa for lunch and a swim at the beach, though the beach didn't seem as nice as Alexandra which seemed less crowded and less sea-weedy (though we didn't actually get to this beach) - it had better waves though. Noosa is a bit more up market, and the restaurants and shops look a bit pricier. Glad we're staying where we are ;)
On Weds night we had some drinks to start the night off and watched the thunderstorms building up. This was pretty cool to watch as it was quite a loud & bright storm and we had front row seats on our balcony. The night then turned out to be a large one, as headed out for a great Thai meal first, which has a nice authentic feel to it, and you can eat cross legged on the floor if you wish. As it was a BYO we picked up a few bottles of wine on the way- which we polished off before leaving the restaurant.
We then headed to the bar closest to the hotel, which had karaoke on. John was keen for a go, but it was booked out for the next hour and a half until closing! So fortunately we were spared Johns rendition of "I think we're alone now". We fancied a game of pool, and ended up playing some of the locals. We were a bit nervous about doing this as you never know how they will react if they lose, but luckily they didn't throw chairs or bottles at us ;)
The girls then headed home to bed as the shooters and wine was getting to them - Ev once again fell asleep in the bathroom... In the mean time, the boys headed off to Maloolahbah up the road and landed up in the first pub they got, which happened to be an Irish bar with a band playing. This kept us out of mischief for a while, supping Cafferies to begin with (though Marc later changed this for proper beer;) and chatting with some locals. At closing we headed to the next nearest nightclub. This had just opened so was a bit empty when we arrived. There was just a women dancing on stage, miming to a song. We wondered why she was miming, and it suddenly became clear when she spoke with the voice of a biker!! We took a closer look around the room and it became very obvious that we weren't the only all male couple in the room!! But not phased by this we stayed for a few more drinks, and John upset someone by suggesting they were gay, so it was shortly after that we left and headed home...
Understandably, the next day we weren't full of energy, although Marc went to the gym!!! Crazy boy! We decided it best to go down to the local shops & cinema to while away the afternoon. We tried to get into another Surf Club for dinner, but got turned away as Sasha was wearing thongs (flip flops), so we ended up at an Italian for dinner and with our appetite back had a great meal - although only water was ordered ;) On the way home John & Sasha introduced us to Cold Rock - now this is good ice-cream. You get to choose your ice-cream and a topping (such as m&m's or oreos) and they blend it together on a frozen table - pretty cool to watch & even better to taste :)
Next day, feeling a little better we headed off back to Bris. Along the way we stopped off at the Australian Zoo (Steve Irwin's famous one) and found out that it was little Bob Irwin's 4th birthday - so all the kids had come in their droves as they could get in for free. First stop was the Elephant feeding - this was very sloppy and you came away with drool all over your hands.
The girls then headed home to bed as the shooters and wine was getting to them - Ev once again fell asleep in the bathroom... In the mean time, the boys headed off to Maloolahbah up the road and landed up in the first pub they got, which happened to be an Irish bar with a band playing. This kept us out of mischief for a while, supping Cafferies to begin with (though Marc later changed this for proper beer;) and chatting with some locals. At closing we headed to the next nearest nightclub. This had just opened so was a bit empty when we arrived. There was just a women dancing on stage, miming to a song. We wondered why she was miming, and it suddenly became clear when she spoke with the voice of a biker!! We took a closer look around the room and it became very obvious that we weren't the only all male couple in the room!! But not phased by this we stayed for a few more drinks, and John upset someone by suggesting they were gay, so it was shortly after that we left and headed home...
Understandably, the next day we weren't full of energy, although Marc went to the gym!!! Crazy boy! We decided it best to go down to the local shops & cinema to while away the afternoon. We tried to get into another Surf Club for dinner, but got turned away as Sasha was wearing thongs (flip flops), so we ended up at an Italian for dinner and with our appetite back had a great meal - although only water was ordered ;) On the way home John & Sasha introduced us to Cold Rock - now this is good ice-cream. You get to choose your ice-cream and a topping (such as m&m's or oreos) and they blend it together on a frozen table - pretty cool to watch & even better to taste :)
Next day, feeling a little better we headed off back to Bris. Along the way we stopped off at the Australian Zoo (Steve Irwin's famous one) and found out that it was little Bob Irwin's 4th birthday - so all the kids had come in their droves as they could get in for free. First stop was the Elephant feeding - this was very sloppy and you came away with drool all over your hands.
Sasha feeding Nelly
We also sat through most of the Crocoseum show, this was the main event for the b-day boy and although John had said that the normal show was really cool with guys tackling crocs - a typical Steve thing, we got treated to Noddy and friends doing tap dancing and Santa tempting a large angry croc with some meat.
When we finally made it out of there we made our way up to the tiger enclosure, now this is more like it. The trainers were making the tigers leap over logs and stand up against the glass wall so you could see how big and lean they were. We were also treated to one of the tigers going for a swim (this glass panel covered the pool too) and leaving a little present behind in the pool for everyone to see - yuck!
Once done here we headed through the Koala and Kangaroo gardens where we got to pet some of these amazing creatures. John was telling us some interesting things about Koalas - they eat loads of eucalyptus leaves and has the same effect as other such herbal leaves, and that this is the reason that they sleep for 20 hrs a day ;D
When we finally got back to Bris we landed up at the RE for some drinks and raffles (consisting of platters of Ham, steaks and money), this then ended up being a bit of a large night and in the cab home Evelyn was designated to put the order through to Hungry Jacks (Burger King). The only thing was that Evelyn didn't realise that you had to put your order through a speaker box and confused her slightly...
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