Stop #3 - Tewantin (Noosa)

The drive to Tewantin took ~6 hours in total, longer than we had planned, after taking a detour to find Jai a new bicycle helmet (he'd left his behind at Bonny Hills) and dropping by Jane and Greg's house for a quick hello and goodbye. 

We arrived at the Noosa Caravan Park just before darkness set in, making setting up a little more challenging.  Whilst I set up the caravan, Jackie took the kids to explore the park and pick up a couple of pizzas from the wood fired oven, which is a feature at the park every Saturday.  For $10 a pizza, I wasn't expecting too much, and I was not surprised when we ate them; shop bought pizza bases, way too much topping and mostly canned ingredients makes for a sloppy and tasteless pizza. 

As per the reviews on TripAdvisor, the park is cramped with many sites just big enough for the caravans and tow vehicle parking.  Manoeuvring the caravan into the location took many turns and other cars had to be moved, luckily the employees of the park were on hand to co-ordinate the parking and movement of other cars.

The toilets were new, with Grohe fittings no-less, however the communal kitchen was basic at best.  The BBQ is worse than what you'd expect from a council park, with no oven and a single toaster atop a microwave.  The swimming pool is outdated, but a nice wide and deep one; akin to the size of small pools used for swimming lessons.  The location of the caravan park is about 3klms outside Noosaville, and a couple more to the upmarket Hastings Street shops.  We'd tried to book into the Noosa River Caravan Park, which is a lot closer to the action and would have been perfect for fishing with the family, however that was booked out for the nights we wanted.

With two full days to spend in Noosa, I was keen to chance my luck on the Noosa river.  Taking off early on day 1, flicking soft plastics proved fruitless once again.  There was a lot of fish activity on the surface, with some rather large bust ups at the junction of Noosa River and Weyba Creek.  A local fisherman next to me was using livebait, and upon speaking to him he revealed he had caught his live bait with a cast net, and was targeting Trevally and Mackeral.  He'd had a few bites and caught a bream, which was more action than I had seen during the time I was there.  I've made up my mind that unless the conditions and surrounds are ripe for soft plastics, I'll use bait - be it live or dead.  Also, given I will be in states where a cast net is legal for the best part of 5 months, I thought I'd invest in a net.

Back at the caravan, the mention of a fishing outing and catching the bait excited  the kids, with Emma insisting she be allowed to partake in all activities, and not just "watch" everyone fishing.  After visiting the local fishing shop and checking out how to throw a cast net on Youtube, we head down to the nearby ferry ramp to try our luck at catching some bait.  

First cast we came up short, but subsequent casts saw us net sufficient herring and garfish for bait.  The kids were really into the casting and retrieving of bait, as we'd reviewed the instructions on Youtube together and they love handling bait/fish.  We'd thrown back some of the dead herring, as they are fragile fish with care needed when taken from the net.  The kids then noted that an eagle was hovering by, and right before our eyes, it had swooped down and picked up the discarded fish.  We spent a few minutes longer feeding our feathered friend, before we headed off to use our live bait.

Unfortunately the location I chose to fish had a raging current, and the kid's lines ended up either tangled with one another or were only metres from shore after being pushed downstream.  This shore fishing is much different to boat fishing, something I'm going to have to come to grips with quickly.  Jai did eventually catch an undersized Flathead, which officially counts as the first fish on the trip, and try as she may, Grace could not hook a fish.  The live/fresh bait certainly received a lot of attention from the local school of fish, however I think they are too well educated from the mass of tourists throwing bait at them or they were just too small.  Although the outing did not produce any keepers, the kids had a ball catching the bait and trying to land that big one.  We'll have to be patient, our time will come.

Our last full day at Noosa was spent in the pool in the morning, followed by a suggestion by dad to walk the Noosa National Park to see if we can spot a Koala in the wild, of which none of us had previously done.  It was not clear which walking tracks to trek, so we drove up to the Laguna lookout and tried to find a few tracks.  

Unfortunately for the kids, daddy found a track that would take them back down to Hastings Street, along the beautiful Noosa beaches and round the back way to where we began.  We navigated the first part and beaches with much complaining feet dragging from Grace and Jai, with Emma leading the charge up front.  After a few "motivational" words, Jai perked up and started running up the steep climbs. 

We'd been walking an hour or so after we re-entered the national park, when Jai and I thought we'd reached our destination.  Alas, we'd climbed to the wrong peak.  Back tracking, we passed a forlorn Grace, and hiked for another hour before realising we were headed for another peak that was not next to our car.  At this stage we'd been hiking for many hours, and no-one had had lunch; we'd only packed some snacks.  

Urgency set in, and upon looking at Google Maps, I was able to locate the lookout where we believed the car was located.  We managed to hail down a local jogger, who'd informed us that there was no direct track to where we wanted to go, from our current location.  We'd need to back track a further 3klms and go the long way around.  By this time the complaining had stopped and the fear of being left in the national park at night time drove the kids to walk back to the car.  By the time we eventually got back to the car, the Fitbit had indicated that we'd walked ~9.5klms.  I'm hoping the kids are not put off by this experience, and they embrace the many hikes we will need to take in the coming months.  

BTW - we did manage to spot 1 wild Koala, our Koala spotting game ceased after the second hour of walking and the fatigue and complaining took over.

The weather has been great since we have been here, with a couple of drizzles here and there, but it has certainly been shorts and t-shirt weather throughout our time here.  I have a soft spot for Noosa, with the river, beaches and the surrounding towns all set up so well to accommodate the fitness enthusiasts with exercise equipment, running/walking tracks and dedicated cycling lanes throughout the towns.  We didn't really spend much time in Noosa or Noosaville in the shops and cafes, hence we did not get stung by the highly inflated prices.  

We all like Noosa, and this won't be the last time we visit.