Slept very well. The AC is not much use but there is a ceiling fan in the bedroom and living room and they work really well, much better than AC I think.
We went down for breakfast to Hot Pipis where we had lunch yesterday.I chose fruit salad and Jon had muesli and fruit salad, both really big portions but the fruit is delicious.
We went to the Tourist Information office and the man there gave us maps and books and suggestions of places to visit. He suggested Maleny which is one of the places up in the mountains that I had been looking at on the Internet.
We set off up some very windy roads and we saw our first koala sign which said 'Drive carefully, we live her, too'. It felt quite unreal to be driving around where there were real koalas. We drove up very high into the mountains and the views were spectacular right across to the coast but we hadn't been driving very long. We came across a lovely little cafe where we stopped for coffee. It was also an antique shop and was crammed full of all sorts of stuff and a huge collection of silver. It was so out of the way I don't know how they made a living as he must have had a small fortune tied up with all the stock. We had coffee and raspberry scones with cream sitting out on the porch overlooking the valley and it was lovely. The mugs and plates were old willow pattern china.
We then drove on to Maleny which is famous for its arts and crafts shops and lots of hippy looking people. The lady in the tourist office was from Bury St Edmunds and moved to Oz 20 years ago. She suggested we visit the Mary Cairncross Reserve about ten minutes away so after a look around the town we made our way up there. It was lovely as there was a little cafe with the most beautiful views across to the Glass House Mountains. We sat and had lunch and then took a walk through the rain forest which was lovely with some very big, old trees. Down near the creek they have huge worms, two foot long and you can see the holes they make in the bank, fortunately we didn't see any of them or the many snakes. You could hear lots of birds and we saw a little wallaby between the trees.
We drove back to Mooloolaba and had to get back before 5.30 when the reception closes as Jon had lost our door key (a credit card type thing) and you had to pay $50 to get another one if it was out of hours. It must have fallen out of the car somehow, well he was not trusted with the key after that!
We went across to the beach for an hour. The sand is lovely and so clean. Then it was cup of tea time before going back to the apartment for a bit of a rest before dinner.
We stopped at a cocktail bar 'Deco' and I had a pina colada and Jon had a beer. They have some really good beer in Australia and it is always served really cold and in chilled glasses. We then went back to Hop Pips for dinner and I had a very good Thai fish curry which was huge. I could have had a Moreton Bay Bug with it and you pay extra but I am glad I didn't, it had mussels, prawns, calamari and scallops in with a lovely coconut, curry sauce and served with rice and poppadoms on the side. Jon had snapper with lemongrass which was also very good. We shared a pudding of sugar basket with mango ice cream and strawberries. I didn't like it much but then I think I was already too full from the curry. The strawberries in Australia are very good and more like the English ones, in NZ they are more like the Spanish ones, a bit too crunchy.
The apartment is very cool and we can leave the doors open and are not pestered by insects but the sea is noisy with the waves crashing non stop and I don't think we have ever stayed in a place like this. Well yes we did, part of our holiday in Cuba was on the beach but it was gentle waves not the big surf like they have here.
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