Noosa - Where the Rich Play

Alexandra Bay (where the nuddies go!)
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Well hello criters, as you can see this is an eternity ago and Em and I have been excruciatingly lax with our updating of the blog so sorry for our lack of correspondance but we are now close to leaving Oz and I feel it is time to inform everyone about this amazing country before we head off overseas and get ourselves all confused so here goes...

We arrived in Noosa Heads following our Fraser Island experience and I can safely say Noosa is an entirely different kettle of fish.  Scenic it is but after the back-to-basic beautiful landscape we encountered on the sand isle of Fraser, Noosa came as quite a surprise because this is where the rich go to play.  As we drove in on our raggedy old greyhound bus wearing our favourite pair of shorts and stained t'shirts we were greeted with luxury apartments, expensive shops and decoratively snobby bars.  The main strip here, Hastings Street has everything your lady-wot-lunches desires, she can meet her fellow yummy mummy at 11am for a cafe laite and danish pastry in a lovely little coffee shop which looks out at the palm fringed street, then take a wander in and out of the exclusive boutiques using hubbies credit card to purcahse something glamourous and exciting before heading to the spa for the latest mud-wrap and hitting the beach for a spot of tan-topping, over-sized sunglass wearing swooning at all the young virle sex-pot surfie types.  After she has ogled male flesh for most of the afternoon she will meet her entrepenerial husband in a bar and have oysters, cavier and champagne then head off to her penthouse apartment with a view of the sea and the sunset whilst supping more champagne and going to sleep in silk sheets.  Em and I were jealous!!  And anxious.  As we looked around we remembered that as of yet we had no where to sleep and by the looks of it our backpacker budget in this neighbourhood would stretch to a park bench, either that or Em's gold card would have made it's first appearance of the trip and we would have had luxury too.  But damn it, we found a hostel.

Scenic it is but after the back-to-basic beautiful landscape we encountered on the sand isle of Fraser, Noosa came as quite a surprise because this is where the rich go to play.

Noosa National park walk
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And what a hostel it was, we had unwittingly stumbled on the only hippy element of Noosa at Dolphins which, we discovered on arrival, proclaimed it had a total belief in Karma.  And if you took it on appearances karma did reside here, we had fountains and hammocks in the courtyard, calming hues of blue and lilic adorned the walls and there were signs all over reminding you to love thy neighbour and wash up your mugs.  But where I ask you is the karma of a divebombing crow, an infestation of ants, cleaners which insisted on hoovering outside your room at 7.00am, and someone watching Harry bloody Potter at 25 decicibels at 3 o'clock in the morning.  Karma my blooming arse!  Strangely enough though we ended up sharing a room here with Mark and Kelly the couple we met in Hervey Bay and much like us I think their stress levels peaked to an all time high when the inane voice of Daniel Radcliffe was piped into our dreams and the cackle of an irritating canadian girl startled us from slumber, oh even thinking about her makes my blood boil.  Think of your happy place Maxine, your happy place - oh yes the day her fringe was burnt to a cinder in a freak accident involving a can of insect repellant and a lighter and no before you ask it wasn't Em or I that lit the spark!  We simply giggled as she raved about being disfigured and that she might as well die if her face was burnt - honestly her hair was slightly frazzled, nothing like being dramatic aye?

Max enjoying the views
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Hostel aside Noosa is rather lovely, in an attempt to save some cash and not be sucked into spending a heck load of dollars in the boutiques - no Em a backpacker does not need a pair of sparling gold ballet pumps - we did the 4km coastal walk which is beautiful.  You wander along the shoreline taking in the most breathtaking views - especially at Hells Gate a jagged area of rock which rises out of the crashing waves below.  About half-way round Em and I decided to set up camp and have a picnic whilst topping up Em's tan at Alexandria Bay a lovely little sandy cove.  There we are resting our weary legs with a sandwich in our hands talking about what a perfect spot this was and lo and behold a naked man strolls past with his crown jewels wobbling about in the breeze.  Yep we had found the one and only Nudist beach in the area.  Upon reflection this is hardly surprising when you think of the trek to get there and really when we looked around we realised we had laid our sarongs down in the middle of a sea of nakedness we just hadn't noticed!  But being stoic brits we bravely stuck it out, Em even went for a swim (with her bikini on) and we finished our lunch with grins on our faces and continued our walk making up as many sea cucumbers puns as I think are humanely possible.

Australian Brush Turkey
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The giggly girlishness which the sight of a naked man provoked obviously worked wonders on our karma as we returned to the hostel in a jolly mood and met a young chap called Andy who invited us to the local surf club, as we had made it so far down the coast without visiting one of these famed ozzie establishments we readily took him up on the offer.  And it was super, we didn't see Alf Stewart but the surf club really is the hub of the community - Home and Away weren't lying.  All the family are there looking as healthy as only the rich can look eating, drinking and basically being merry whilst listening to some live music and chatting to all and sundry.  We had such a good time in fact and inspired by the exclusive nature of Nossa we drank copious amounts of fizzy wine and were the last ones to leave.   Honestly you can take the girl out of London but you can't take London outta the girl.