East Coast Travels - Noosa

12th - 14th May

We left Brisbane at around 2 and arrived in Noosa at 17.00. The drive was really nice, but definitely didn’t need to take 3 hours. We went a bit back and forth, but it means we got to see a whole bunch more. The first stop was Sunshine Coast, which looked really nice, but we decided not to stop there and the other major stop was the Australia Zoo!! We had a special greyhound bus that had Australia Zoo written all over it, was yellow instead of red and had animal characters on the chairs inside. It was pretty exciting.

When we arrived in Noosa we just saw the end of a beautiful sunset (no where near as beautiful as in Byron Bay, but I can’t compare every sunset to that!) and checked into our hotel. We’re staying at the Noosa Heads Motel on Noosa Drive. It’s was a really easy 5 minute walk from the bus station, through Noosaheads town to get to the motel. We managed to get a room upgrade for only $14 to a King room, and we literally had the biggest bed I’ve ever seen! We also have a large balcony with a great view of the sunset. There wasn’t too much to do after 5 since everything was shut, so we had a delicious meal at a little restaurant down the street from the hotel, where you could create your own noodles just the way you want it. We also had a quick stroll through the town and bought some breakfast from Coles.

The following morning we decided to do the 3 hour walk from our motel to sunshine beach. The weather started off a bit up and down, it looked sunny one minute, and the next it was pouring it down with rain. For about 3 seconds. And then it was completely dry and sunny again. We decided to go do the walk anyway, we don’t mind it raining every now and then as along as it’ll be sunny most of the way. We first walked to Main Beach, about 10 minutes away from our motel. It was a really nice beach, but unfortunately the sand was wet from the rain and wasn’t as white as it would be. The water was amazing. It was that crispy clean cold feeling but starts to feel warmer the longer you’re in the water. It soon started to rain, but by the time we got off the beach is was dry again. 

We walked along Main beach and then up beside a road for a little bit before reaching Little Cove. From here it was a great walk with the beach on your left and the forest on your right. This was Noosa National Park. 

As we walked through the trees we saw a wild Koala! It was way up high in a tree so I couldn’t get a great photo, but it was so amazing to see! We’d seen tons of wild Koalas along the Great Ocean Road, but it was just as cool!

The walk was MUCH steeper than I thought it would be... it was exhausting! And after all the hills in Brisbane we were really hoping we could chill out in Noosa. That wasn’t the case at all. We continued the walk all the way up to Dolphin point where it started to get a bit grey. It was a really nice look-out but unfortunately no dolphins. As we continued our walk it just got darker and darker.... 

When we reached Alexandria Bay it started to drizzle a little. No big deal! Alexandria Bay was really beautiful, but with the weather conditions I couldn’t do it justice in photos. We walked all the way along the beach - which is much longer than I thought it would be - back up in the hills along Lion Rock and Devils Kitchen. This is where it started to rain. It was pouring down, not just a little rain that would go away in a few seconds, it just kept going and going and kept getting harder and harder. There wasn’t really any shelter so we decided to continue walking towards Sunshine Beach. We saw some amazing views of the beach, which would have been incredible if we could actually see.... Everything was just grey and foggy and wet. We made our way down to the beach where we found a tiny bit of shelter we shared with an Irish couple. They were just about to start their 3 hour walk. They showed us the way back to Noosaheads, through the pouring rain, and we walked back to the motel. We must have looked absolutely ridiculous because by the time we made it into the town, the sun was coming back out. We were literally soaking wet, I could squeeze my hoodie (we didn’t have any waterproof jackets with us..) and water would come out. It was insane!

Of course, as I’m typing this, I just watched a beautiful colourful sunset from our hotel room. Typical.

In spite of all that, Noosa is still a beautiful place. The day started off really lovely with blue skies and I took some great photos, the walk was really nice and we saw some really great hidden beaches and a koala! It would have been nice if we had another day to spend in Noosa, but we’ve seen what we wanted to see and it’s time to move on to Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island!

East Coast Travels - Byron Bay

4th - 6th May 

We left Port Macquarie on Sunday the 4th of May at 14.20 and had another long journey on the Greyhound to Byron Bay. It was a really nice journey. We drove through Coffs Harbour, saw the sunset, a few wallabies and the big banana. We arrived in Byron at 21.00, and immediately checked into our hotel, the Byron Bay Side Central Motel. The hotel is great, the room layout is a little strange, as the room is pretty large but the bed right infront of the door... the door just about opens! But other than that, the room is really big and it has a huge balcony! We didn’t do anything that evening since it was 21.30 when we finally got to the room.

The 5th of May was a beautiful day!! It was clear blue skies and 21 degrees. Our hotel was about a 2 minute walk from the beach and less than 5 minutes from the Greyhound bus stop, perfect location! We took a stroll to the beach and were amazed with how beautiful it was. Byron Bay really looks and feels like a holiday place. Main Beach was the most amazing beach we’ve seen in Australia so far. The sand was really light and incredibly soft. We walked along the beach through the water towards the most eastern point of Australia. The water was pretty warm, I read that the average water temperature in summer is 26 degrees and 21 degrees in winter. From the beach we decided to walk to the lighthouse. The lighthouse is probably the most iconic point of Byron Bay. It’s an incredibly steep walk up, but definitely worth it! 

Along the way we walked past Wategos Beach, another stunning beach which was a little quieter than Main Beach. We actually saw some dolphins there! Unfortunately they were too far away to photograph, but they were in this direction.

Up at the lighthouse we were at the most easter point of Australia. We had some drinks at the cafe (which is cash only!) and then walked down the other way. The lady in the hotel told us that this would a rainforest walk, but it was a little disappointing because we walked next to the road the whole time. About half way we managed to get back onto the beach and stroll back along the water to our hotel. We bought some food from Aldi and had lunch in our room. After doing our washing we went back to Main Beach to watch the sunset! 

It was literally the most amazing sunset I’ve ever seen, and it made my love Byron Bay even more.

We finished the day with the most delicious pizza.

Byron Bay is super relaxed and a little alternative. We would have loved to stay longer, but definitely feel like we’ve seen all we wanted to see. If you’re looking for a relaxing place along the beach I’d definitely recommend Byron Bay!

The following day we took the Greyhound to Surfers Paradise. We left at 10.15 and arrived at 13.10.