We had a relaxing time in tropical Noosa Heads. We walked the trails of the hill, visited the beaches and shopped Hastings Street. We dipped into the pool several times a day and finished up on the lanai having Happy Hour.
Dan and I took a long walk through the National Park and actually saw a koala bear in a Eucalyptus tree. Very high up so that all we could get was a butt shot as Dan says. The farther you get from town the emptier were the beaches. It was beautiful but very HOT!
We drove out into the "hinterland" and visited the ginger factory and a macadamia nut factory. The plantations Lynne remembered are no longer there. Just a real tourist destinations. The gardens had many types of ginger on display and the shops sold ginger ice cream and bags of Macadamia.
We carried on into the mountains. We found a nice pub for lunch and toured a small town high in the hills that now caters to tourists. Our goal for the day was Mary Cairncross National Park, a small slice of old growth rainforest. It was worth the trip. We saw concave and convex buttress trees. As we crept quietly down the trails, we saw a padermelon crossing in front of us. Padermelon are really tiny kangaroos with lovely faces. We were lucky enough to see three altogether.
As we walked through the wetland area it looked very much like Florida. I was enjoying the differences in the plants but I could feel something biting my foot. Little sharp bites. I leaned over to check but could not see anything. I did knock a leaf off to get a better look - the leaf was wiggling... It was a leach! the bottom of my foot was bloody! Once it was all washed off it was only a tiny mark. Another interesting experience.
The following day we went to Mooloolaba to see the aquarium. A nice thing to do in the tropical rain. Again nothing was the way Lynne remembered. The quay was almost the same as Key West - it even had a Hogs Breath Pub! But the aquarium still held the moving walkway running through a seawater tank so that the fish were swimming above and beside you. At one point a ray swam lazily over my head and alongside me. So many of the fish we saw while snorkelling at Lady Elliott were here and labeled for our identification.
We drove on to Brisbane with no difficulties this time. Turned in our car and flew to Melbourne for a week in the big city. The computer is truly dead so we are borrowing when we can or using the internet cafe method of keeping in touch.
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