Noosa, Gold Coast and Byron Bay

After Mardi Gras I needed a bit of a break from Sydney. When Nicholas, a lawyer from New York who has been living in Sydney for several months, asked me to join him in Noosa for couple days after Mardi Gras, I gladly agreed. On Tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m., I flew up to Brisbane which is about a 10 hours drive from Sydney up the eastern coast of Australia. When I got there, I rented a car to drive to Noosa, about another 2 hours drive north. Nicholas had already arrived on Monday.

Noosa is a resort type beach town nestled up to a national park/forest on the Sunshine Coast. The town reminded me of Laguna Beach in California. We stayed at nice hotel just across from the beach.

While at Noosa, we joined some other friends from Sydney also taking a break from Mardi Gras. Typically, many people from Sydney retire after the festivities to one of the resort type towns along the coast.


Me, Nicholas, Jeff and Justin in Noosa

While at Noosa, we explored the national park which had some great views of the coast. We hiked to a lonely beach on the other side of the park where very few people were and chilled there for a day. We swam in the water a little, but the rips were very strong so mostly it meant just tumbling in the waves which were about chest high.

View from path in the park


Secluded beach in park

I also spent one afternoon on a boogie board surfing the waves. While we were there, a surfing competition was going on. The scene reminded me of Blue Crush for those of you who have seen the movie.
Some of the surfers at the competition

During the nights, we went to a couple of nice restaurants and I went to a couple of the local bars and met some really interesting other travelers from Canada, the UK, the Netherlands and other places in Australia. A guy and girl from the UK were traveling around the world. He had just finished teaching english in Vietnam (something which I am considering) and had some great information to share.

Nicholas and I left Noosa on Friday drove down to Brisbane, Gold Coast and and Byron Bay. I write about Brisbane on the Brisbane page. The Gold Coast reminds me of Florida. Surfers Paradise is the main beach town that extends into other small towns along the coast. The entire area covers about 15 miles of large high rise hotels and holiday apartments rising above strip malls and casinos. I thought the whole area was quite disappointing. I have to say that the beach along the coast is quite amazing though. The white fine sand seems to go on forever. When originally planned to stay the night there, but we decided we did not want to waste our time. The one highlight of the trip was having a cocktail at the very chi-chi hotel, Palacio Versace. Owned by Donitello (excuse my spelling).


View of the Gold Coast from the beach just in front of the Sheraton Hotel (another beautiful hotel across the street from Versace's)

Feeling disappointed by the Gold Coast, we kept on driving down to Byron Bay which is just an hour further south. Byron Bay is kind of a hippy-type town on the beach. The town sits at the middle of a huge bay surrounded by small forested mountains. In the town, several shops, cafes and rental places line the wide streets as many backpackers wander around. The town possess a very calming pace to it, much like I would imagine a Phish concert to feel like. Despite pot being illegal here, the residents (including the police) apparently do not acknowledge such laws.


View of the beach along Byron Bay

After exploring the town and having a coffee, we headed back up towards Brisbane for the night.

Home