Living, Working and Partying in Noosa, Australia

Noosa has been our home for a little while now and it's most definitely the town of your holiday dreams, even through the bustling Easter holidays! We've both been busy working and enjoying our time off in this fantastic part of the country. One part of Noosa we've certainly hit hard is the bar scene at the weekend with Joe and Melissa getting drunkaroony. One of our favourite spots has to be the surf club with its beautiful views of the main beach as well as the $5 bubbly or Corona deals at Mooshka. It has been an absolute laugh heading out to all the bars then dancing the night away with our Noosa family. It also felt nice just to live a slightly more normal, settled life as we had been on the road for 7 months barely staying in one spot for more than 3 nights. Noosa has been a home away from home and we're so happy we chose to settle here! 

A part of Noosa that we adore is the dog friendly nature of life and there is one spot in particular, the dog area at Sunshine Beach, that has our hearts. The beach itself is one of the most stunning we've ever seen with huge expanse of sand rolling for 17km up the coast. This is also where all the doggies come to take a splash in the sea and, as you can imagine, it truly is heaven. One day we went along and ended up playing fetch with a collie and a lab for half an hour as their owner sunbathed. We explored many of the beaches in Noosa with this being one of our favourite spots and the nudist cove set in the national park being second (nude is optional!) It is a hike through the stunning park and down a steep cliff to get to this beach but it's most definitely worth it. The cove has crystal blue water, delicate white sands and no one else is there which is how we like it. We lazed on the sand for a few hours and splashed in the ocean when suddenly a little snake appeared from the rocks. We obviously were a little cautious but after looking at the tiny thing we crept over to take a closer look from a good distance, we're not as brave as Steve Irwin yet. We later learnt that it was a baby Eastern Brown snake, the second most venomous snake in the world, which is particularly potent when it's small. Oh Australia! 

We were lucky to be in Noosa for the annual world renowned surfing festival so we headed down on the first day ready to see something spectacular. We had never seen the beach so full and when we looked towards the ocean we soon realised why. It was the most prized day of all, the Dog Surfing Competition. Yes you read that right, the dogs join in the fun and jump on the surfboards complete with doggy life jackets. The owners would paddle out on the board then when they hit a wave, jump off and let the dogs ride the surf back to the beach. We all cheered and cuddled the pups as they made their way in waggy-tailed genuinely having an absolute ball. What a glorious day! After seeing the pro-surfing doggies we thought it was time to jump on the board ourselves and take a surfing lesson. Noosa is a great place to learn as many spots are sheltered so we got to grips with the techniques on the beach then headed into the waves. Almost instantly we could both stand which was so much fun and we spent the next two hours gracefully surfing back to shore with a few less graceful falls along the way. 

On one very special rainy day we set off to visit the best Water Park in the country Wet'n'Wild for Joe's birthday! At first we were pretty devastated that the sun wasn't shining but this ended up working in our favour as it was empty! We didn't queue once, jumping on every slide multiple times. One of our favourites was the Tornado that we could all go on together which spun us vertically after a dramatic drop. Joe didn't hold on quite tight enough on one go which meant he slid out of our raft. I immediately thought he was doomed to get sucked into a whirlpool or something but after my screams he lives to slide another day. The lazy river was fun too and brought back some memories from the Inbetweeners which we couldn't stop watching at home. Weirdly enough one of our favourite rides didn't even involve water and that was a spinning surfboard that slides from side to side up in the air! Even when the rain was pouring it was so much fun running around the park with Joe and Melissa, possibly our most sober day with them yet! 

Tigger is our fluffy but ferocious cat and who was to know that he was such a veracious hunter! One night when Melissa returned from a shift at the bar Tigger came in as usual to curl up on her lap and steal some snacks. This time however he had brought in a gift, a slow worm! Melissa didn't know this at the time though assuming it was a snake, as part of it wriggled around on the floor. We learnt the next day slow worms shed their tails when in danger like lizards but the dead part will wiggle around to attract the predator, or fat Tigger. We definitely looked at him a different way after that, especially on the day the maggots infested our house when we saw him pouncing on them all but that is another story!

Queensland has many beaches and also many waterfalls which we set out to explore. We are such good friends to Joe that we bought him the gift of his dreams for his birthday, a giant inflatable unicorn float. This came with us on our many adventures to the waterfalls and although it got pummelled by the falls and thrown down some rapids, lives to this day. When we visited Serenity Falls we lazed around here each taking turns in the unicorn and pushing each other underneath the falls. Out next visit was to the more exciting Gardner's Falls where you can cliff jump or swing into the water, if you're brave enough! We started by jumping from the rocks then working up to the swings, one of them being a crawl across the cliffs and a 20m drop. Joe is a nutter and will swan dive off anything so he was already having a lot of fun doing front flips. Melissa's tactic is more gradual where she works up a bit of Dutch courage with a couple of cans of cider then she'll jump off everything all at once, without hesitation. Josh is sensibly brave so gives things a few tries then ends up having a ball. My embarrassing tactic was to stand at the big swing for a literal 15 minutes (Melissa filmed it, thanks) until everyone on the other side was bored to death but they still gave me a big cheer when I jumped. It is a big drop and we saw some hilarious fails with a few painful belly flops! 

Crikey! Could we be this close and not visit Steve Irwin's infamous Australia Zoo. We deliberated going for a while as both of us have reservations about zoos but it was definitely worth the visit. The animals are primarily all native species from crocs to cassowaries and wallabies to wombats, you can see them all. There was a huge emphasis on the importance of protecting these species, many of which Aussies never see as they're so endangered due to habitat loss or negative interactions with humans. We've never seen such passion and care for the animals who live with their happiness, enrichment and comfort in mind but most definitely not wild lives as the keepers are very hands on. We were lucky enough to get up close and personal with some cheeky wombats who absolutely adore back scratches whilst they eat up their favourite snack, sweet potato. It was a relatively small zoo in terms of animals but living in a huge area with over 200 acres for the tigers to walk in when they're not in the zoo enclosure. There is no doubt the animals are adored here and the Irwin family are doing Stevie proud. 

The sad time finally arrived when we had to say goodbye to Noosa to start some very necessary farm work. The clever Australian government have worked out a way to fill farming jobs in a flash, they force backpackers to complete 88 days of farm work to allow them a second year working holiday visa. We were heading to the Fraser Coast to start tree planting with a company recommended by Joe and Melissa. It was pretty devastating leaving our new Noosa family after the amazing few months we had together. We'll all miss each other but definitely reunite again for some more prosecco and Inbetweeners marathons.