Last week I wrote something about our car experiences, this week I want to write something about the two villages Coolum and Noosa. Coolum was the location of our stay and Noosa is a beautiful place and quite famous as a surfer paradise.

Coolum Beach & Noosa (for the interactive map click on the picture)

Coolum Beach

the red yellow flags at the Coolum beach.

The small village along the beach is quite touristic, but the location is also a favorite place for the locals. The main attraction is, of course, the beach! The beach has a length about 5 – 6 kilometer (or more, I didn’t measure –> if you want, look in Wikipedia). Compare with the mediterranean sea, the ocean in Australia is more rough and dangerous. Easily you underrate the high-risks like poison jellyfishes, strong drifts into the ocean or sharp rocks (sharks aren’t really a big deal). If you want to take a bath, you have to consider the special areas. At almost every beach, you can see different flags from the Australian life guards service (named: surf life savers). You’re strongly suggested only to enter the water between the red-yellow-flags.

Noosa

the outlook from a path in the natural park in Noosa

Noosa is, of course, the best-known village at the sunshine cost. If Coolum Beach has a lot of tourists, Noosa would be overcrowed. But, Noosa is still quite impressive, the very large beach, a beautiful pedestrian area with a lot of small (but expensive) shops, nice cafés and a very magnificent natural park. The park includes a lot of natural plants and animals (we discovered a large lizard and a sleeping koala  top on the tree). We paths crossing the park are quite interesting, on the one side you see the wild and open sea, on the other side you are able to notice some new creatures. Besides visiting the park, we ate lunch in a large restaurant in Noosa, owned by the surf life savers. If you like burgers, this restaurant is a strong advice (also suitable for vegetarians). We also bought two hats for the soon summer – the best action against sunstroke.

In conclusion, this weekend was very relaxing and exciting. Cheers…

The last weekend, Maggi and I drove to the sunshine coast with a hired car. The decision to do this “holiday in the vacation” came up in mind last thursday. To discover the beautiful beach and collect some experiences of “driving on the false side” were the key arguments.

We rented a car for three days at a car renter at the brisbane international airport. Afterwards, the location “airport” was not a great decision, not because of the car rental company, but the trip to the airport is very expensive. (not the whole trip, only the way between the last station before the airport and the airport.) If anybody wants to hire a car in Brisbane, we advise to hire a car at an other place (except you do want to hire a car directly after flight arrival). The woman behind the car rental company desk was very friendly and explained all the things we have to do different the next time :

• you have to carry a print of your voucher
• you have to be at the corner at the time you have ordered (and not 2 hours later as we did)
• it’s better to go to the other corner (at the domestic airport)
  notice: in the booking info wasn’t any information about the exact position of the corner

After about half an hour of explanation, we were able to get on the car. We hired a little Toyota (Maggi knows the exact type, but I don’t). The distance between the airport and our hotel was about 140 kilometer. It was important not to drive to long for the frist time. We arrived our hotel in Coolum Beach on time and without any serious damages. But, what are the key challenges to drive in Australia:

• the roundabouts are a bit different compared with the ones we have in Switzerland. Most of them are bigger (most have two lines). Also the way of indicating the direction is divergent: Before you enter the roundabout, you have to show the direction (left blinking for the left exit, no blinking go straight away, and right blinking for the right exit).
• Keeping the car in the middle of the street could be a little challenge. Because you’re having the seat on the right side, you have to be aware not to drive too much on the left side.
• The most serious problem was the mistake between the windscreen wiper and the blinking operate stick (or however this thing is called :-)).

In conclusion, the experiment of driving in Australia wasn’t that serious as we expected. Of course, driving in Australia needs more attention in compare with driving in Switzerland. We hired a automatic car (the best invention in car engineering), therefore we were able to focus in the different functions and environments here in Queensland. As a non-rountine driver, I must be attentive all the time, also in my hometown.

Beer and Australia are strong related. Although, the unbelieveable high prices and the the very strict laws around this topic, Australia is a great beer nation. Lets begin with the the costs.

Alcohol and especially beer is very expensive, you can easily combare with the prices in the northern countries in europe. Depend on the time of the consumation and the location, you have to pay between 7 and 11 australian dollar for one pint or sometimes even for only a little bottle. A lot of restaurants have happy hours. So, if you are a clever tourist or even a Australien citizien you can take advantages of this information. In lots of the suburbs or in small town, a lot of the australians are member of some community clubs, in which you can buy cheap food and drinks (including beer and other alcohol).

To drink alcohol in the public is not allowed in whole Australia. Therefore, you can only drink alcohol in the pubs or in your private home. The law is settled to prevent public drinking parties. The police practice is quite similiar with our law about canabies. If you only drink one beer beside a normal meal in a park, the police won’t give you a fine. If a group of young people are hanging around with forty bottles of beer, the police will stopp this dinking party.

The choice of tasty beers are huge. The majority of the beers we have tried were absolutely tasty. The Australiens like strong aromatic beers. Of couse, you can also drink some less flavor beers, like the xxxx-beer, but I recommend definitly the the Ale-Ones (e.g. little creatures, pacific ale). Most of the bars or restaurants offers a wide rage of different beers, usually more then four brands. The most impressing topic about the beer culture is the ale-bank, just fascinating.