Tewantin Qld September 5 - 8 2016

Tewantin Qld September 5 - 8 2016

What to do in our second week here in Tewantin? Well, the trouble really is that the weather is playing up, in as much as the sun keeps popping out then back in and the rain swirls in and out of our lives.

On Sunday it was a bit miserable so we decided to drive down the beaches, starting at Sunshine and heading for Coolum for lunch. By the time we got to Perigean Beach the sun was out and shining brightly on what looked like yet-another-market. We lucked into a car park and wandered down to have a look around, and then circled the shopping block, picked up yet-another-pair of shoes and settled for lunch at what looked like a delightful place right in front of the car. I had a fish and scallop pie with chips and salad and I have to say that it was truly fabulous. Judy had a fish burgher, complaining the entire time that it had two huge full fishes on it, but I noticed the plate went back as clean as mine!

Coolum is only a short hop further down, and we had saved enough room from lunch for our usual coffee and macarons from the very french Ma Boulange Cafe Patisserie. Surprise, surprise - it was shut, at 2pm on a busy Sunday.

Settling for a less than ordinary coffee and inedible muffin from MacDonalds was a poor choice before wandering down to Mooloolaba to see what the big fuss about some ironman event was. The event turned out to the newest thing on the international Ironman 70.3 calendar. 70.3???? I thought it must have been the local radio station as there was 'noise' blaring out all over the esplanade, but i was wrong. 70.3 is the number of miles (what we had before kilometres and about 113.1379 of them at that) that represented the total length of the course comprising the usual swim, bike ride then run format. The whole thing was scheduled to finish at 4.15, which is exactly 8 hours after the last contestant started in the morning. As it was nearly 4, we stopped next to the finish line and cheered the last few runners through the gate. The last fellow was a kiwi who was 80 plus. And there I was thinking that my 3.10686 miles in 40 minutes on a Saturday was something special.

Mr G Barfoot making a dash for the line. Mooloolaba Qld

Ironman 70.3 finish line. Mooloolaba Qld

A small portion f the 3000 bikes penned in the transition zone. Mooloolaba Qld

Monday wasn't a lot brighter and we found ourselves heading to Cooroy to the butter factory (closed) then Pomona for the Rock & Roll cafe (closed - kaput) and the museum (closed).

We decided instead to head down the mighty Bruce to Montville (not closed) where we were keen to  look into Tina Coopers glass gallery. We have a piece of her work that we bought from the shop in Eumundi last year, but which when we went to find it this year, we discovered it had closed.

After a nice enough lunch in one of the many cafes in this quirky tourist trap, we avoided buying a 'genuine' trilogy emerald ring for $3500, succumbed to another soft shoe sale, and then found the glass gallery. To say it was disappointing would be to wax lyrical. When you walked into the shop at Eumundi, you had fabulous sculptured and coloured glass leaping off the floor and walls at you. This place was just plain flat and dull. Not one article jumped out and said 'buy me!' There may have been some of Tina Coopers work in there, but it was simply lost in the blandness of the place.

View from Montville toward the coast. Montville Qld

Moving on...

Our drive back took us past the Big Pineapple at Nambour, which we went to a few times with the girls. The last time I went there was with Lauren when she was about 17 and we spent a while in the hydroponics pavilion riding the boat around the circular track watching the plants being drip fed. Sadly the only thing left is the structure, now used for motorbike riding lessons. Actually the whole attraction went into a death spiral years ago and I really can't see how it stays open at all as now it is just a huge mostly empty cafe and souvenir store.

The Big Pineapple. Nambour Qld

Hydroponic pavilion. The Big Pineapple. Nambour Qld

Today I was up early and drove down to Noosa heads. I had been wanting to do the headland walk around to Hells Gates again, as I hadn't been there for about 15 years.

From the main carpark to Hells gates must be about 3km. It starts off as a solid bitumen track with plenty of fences to stop you tumbling into the ocean, but about half way the pavement gives out to a sandy track and a sheer drop. Heaps and heaps of people, even at 7am, mostly locals I reckon doing their morning walk/jog/run, or surfers by the score, barefoot and carting their boards 1 or 2 km along this track and then scrambling down to the tiny beaches to catch their dream wave before work or school or whatever.

Hells Gate overlooks a big gouge out of the rocks, full or swirling seas, and a rather nice but obviously remote beach in Alexandra Bay.

Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Head of the Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld 

Boiling Pot lookout, Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Surfies at Tea Tree Bay. Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Paperbark forrest. Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Granite Bay, Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Picnic Beach, Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld 

Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Coastal Track. Noosa Heads. Qld

Noosa Heads, Qld

Alexandra Bay Beach. Noosa Heads, Qld

Hells Gates. Noosa Heads, Qld

Hells Gates. Noosa Heads, Qld

Later in the day I went back with Judy and did the boardwalk section from the end of Noosa Beach, over the hill and to the car park. We went a little way up this morning's track as well and were lucky enough to find a fellow who had found a koala high up in the trees.

Noosa beach. Noosa Qld

That's what I call absolute waterfront! Noosa Qld

Noosa and its beach.

Here's the waterfront flats.  Noosa Qld

Koala doing what koalas do mostly - sleeping. Noosa Heads, Qld

Judy making sure that the next group of rubber-neckers could see the koala before we moved on. Noosa Heads, Qld

Ah, so much fun - time for lunch! We had tried twice to get a coffee at a cafe on one of the jettys at Noosaville, called Catalina. There is a small cafe type shop front and a walkway down onto a nice looking catamaran, called Catalina, which is where the cafe proper is. We initially wanted to do a Sunday afternoon coffee cruise, so we asked at the shopfront:

'Nah, can't help you, youse have to call this number' the barista called as he hunted around for the information, a scrap of paper and a pen before scrawling the number down and handing it to us. 'Sorry, you have to call them, its the only way you can book'.

Sounded odd but what the heck, it's their boat.

We called the number only to be redirected to their web site, which directed us to another number. The new number was a machine that told us that the only way to book was by leaving an SMS with full details and that then they might get back to us.

Or not.

Our next try was one afternoon. Having completed our promenade up and down the Esplanade we thought a coffee on a boat would be nice:

'Nah, closed early today at 2 because we have a charter'. the shipboard waiter told us.

Today we thought we'd hit them for lunch and turned up at ten minutes to one, just to be sure:

'Nah, we close at a quarter to one, yer way too late,' the new dreadlocked wonder behind the bar stated. Despite our protests, we were sent packing. Fancy that, all these people walking up and down and looking for coffee / cake / food and now they have decided that it's all over at a quarter to one. Well really!

We stumbled over the road to the welcoming array of very open shops and bars and cafes and chose the 'Moondoggie cafe', which must be the least enticing cafe name you can imagine. But wait, we are greeted by a waiter in board-shorts (okanuis actually) and shown to our table. He brings us water and glasses and takes our order, reappearing moments later with our coffee, and slightly later again with our meals. I had a Salmon on Turkish sandwich which was great, and Judy had the Chicken Club sandwich which looked just as appetising. We sat and enjoyed our meals and then toddled off back to the caravan park where the sun had made a momentary appearance, long enough for us to go for a swim in the pool, but not long enough to want to linger.

Anyhow, that's our lot for Tewantin, we're off to Tweed Heads in the morning.