Where are we?

We are at Byron Bay, but let me tell you about our week at Noosa Heads.

We had a great week at Noosa Heads catching up with extended family.  It was just pure luck that we happened to be here when Philip's stepsister and her family were at Noosa for their annual break.  We were also able to meet up with Philip's stepbrother and his lovely wife who made the effort to drive up to Noosa for a lengthy lunch with us.  We don't get to see this side of the family very much and we are not the best at keeping in regular touch.  However, after we apologise to each other for not keeping in contact, we always pick up where we last left off and sit and talk for hours. 

Jacki and Damiens kids are now well and truly little adults. Amelia works alongside her mum in the school holidays and Isaac is at the age where he challenges everything. They are a family that is well grounded and we love them all very much. As soon as we arrived at Noosa Van Park, we organised to meet them for lunch the next day and then Philip and I headed down to the point at Noosa to watch the wind-surfers.  And guess who we ran into.....Jacki and the family of course.  Isn't that crazy.  There are literally thousands of people holidaying in Noosa at the moment and we just happen to run into them as they were heading to their car. A few minutes later and we would have missed them. Talk about being right spot, right time.

Our lunch with the family the next day was at the very well known Bistro C.  This restaurant deserves all the accolades that it gets as the food here is superb.  I spotted the Arancini straight away on the menu and just had to order it.  The Arancini was Cauliflower, Mustard and Cheddar with a topping of pickled cucumber. I think it would probably be the best I have ever eaten.  All the others enjoyed their meals just as much as I did from the look of the clean plates.

The following day we hired a Nauticycle.  Philip is missing his cycling so this filled the addiction a little.  We started off at Noosaville and made our way to the canals at Noosa, stopping every now and then for drink stops.  The water at the mouth of the river was quite choppy so it was almost a relief to make it into the canals where it was much smoother going.  I sat on the front of the Nauticycle while Philip pedalled.  I definitely had the best seat in the house. We passed million dollar homes with million dollar boats jettied alongside, but I was not at all envious.  After living in our little apartment you wouldn't pay me to live in a massive home.  All that cleaning!

We had arranged to meet Chris and Katherine at Rococo Bistro in Noosa the following day for lunch.  This was an entirely different lunch where we ordered numerous small plates rather than one meal each.  I really enjoy this way of eating. We spread our eating out over several hours so that gave us plenty of time  to catch up with each others news. Katherine and Chris are both IT specialists and both working in the medical field.  They fortunately have jobs that could easily be transitioned into working from home in this Covid year, however in a normal year they would be travelling to many places around the world with their work and I think they are both missing it a little.  

We stayed at the Noosa Van Park at Tewantin and we were squashed in like sardines. Each and every van had to be guided into the very narrow sites and I have to give a big shout-out to the guides as they are very experienced with clear directions.   "Right Hand Down" "Left Hand Down" "A little more" "A little less" can be heard throughout the park all day.  I have to say though that the park was immaculate.  The amenities are cleaned several times a day and the gardens and pool area were very inviting.  All sites were grassed and fairly well shaded by the many palm trees. However while we were there the tree loppers came in and tied up all the palm trees so that the fronds couldn't fall onto the vans.  I imagine they might do a bit of damage to a van. We found some great walks around the Tewantin area and we walked almost every day.  Philip also did the Noosa National Park walk while I had some pampering time with a mani/pedi.

Just before I took this photo there was another two vans parked right behind us!

We are thoroughly enjoying the van and have both commented that it would be very easy to live in it for an extended period of time.  We will see what next year brings.....