Hey guys :) Hope you are all well! A couple of girlfriends and I actually went on a short trip to coolum beach up near the sunshine coast right after completing all our university assessments. It was actually a pretty spontaneous trip, but we managed to book a penthouse about 100m away from the beach for like just a little over $30 per night.
The place was actually so convenient - all the restaurants and shops featured on tripadvisor and stuff were within walking distance, and by walking distance I mean like 5-10min walk max so I think it was really worth the money we paid! There were three bedrooms in total, so could hold up to six people but since there were only three of us, we took a bedroom each :P
Master bedroom + walk in wardrobe + ensuite!
My bedroom :D next to the second bathroom which contained a jacuzzi which we never put to use unfortunately but I mean, we're right next to the beach so.... yeah, as you can see! The picture below was the view from our balcony. Actually we had two balconies since the penthouse consisted of two levels.
The first day was mainly us shopping before Tam drove us to coolum so we were all pretty tired by the time we unpacked, nevertheless we all thought it'd be fun to get all made up before heading to our dinner reservation - we went fancy seeing as it was our first night there after all!
In love with my dress-resembling-playsuit :3 which I at Melrose Ave. at Chermside on my way to Coolum! Our dinner reservation was at Canteen Kitchen + Bar which had a dining terrace and was about 2minutes walk from our place!
Crisp skin pork belly honey ginger soy rice noodles with asian slaw nam jim.
Coincidently, that night was also the night of the "super moon" so after dinner we crossed the road to the beach - not that I managed to get a decent photo of the moon seeing as my dad took my camera for his overseas trip. There is only so much you can do with an iphone but hey, I tried.
SUCH INSTA-WORTHY. SUCH CANDID.
You know what was funny? We never actually swam at coolum beach or visited it during the day because we were so busy visiting all the surrounding areas and beaches but there is always next time :3 We discovered Tam is like 10/10 dedicated to snapchat, since PK and I witnessed her go onto a balcony whilst howling at the moon just to send a snap to someone HAHAHAHA.
For breakfast the next day we went to a cute little french patisserie - Ma Boulange, it was actually a lot better than I expected and pretty authentic, not that I would know for sure but the lady there was french so...
Had the best ever chai latte there at the cafe, Tam ordered the duck confit salad with walnuts, buttered apples & cherry tomatoes. I got the french blanquette (slow cooked beef with carrots, leek, celery, & mushrooms in creamy sauce served with risotto and toasts) and Pk ordered a savoury crepe!
We found a cute little corner on the way home to take a few photos. Many thanks to Tam the master poser HAHAHAHA. I have anxiety issues with people seeing me get a photo taken so my philosphy was kind of like, snap and run.
In the afternoon we went to climb Mt Coolum since it was a little cooler and we reasoned the sun wouldn't burn us as badly. Supposedly it was a track for fit people, but it didn't seem too bad!
It was here that I rediscovered my vertigo.
Originally the plan was to make it to the top just in time for the "sunset" but then we realised that we were actually facing east and the west was blocked so.... plan failed.
Everything was actually a lot more high up than it looks.
For dinner we opted to make a home-made dinner. Tam was the true housewife, she brought mince and betel leaf from home to make vietnamese BBQ betel leaf skewers. We whipped up this stir fry veggie dish too with what little groceries we had & had it with some cold noodles.
We also whipped up a pretty nice brunch the next morning - pretty proud of how it turned out. Bacon, asparagus, pan fried egg, chorizo & flat mushrooms with chilli cheddar cheese ♥
The next day we decided to go stand up paddle boarding and tube riding (consisting of a boat dragging us across the water whilst we lay on a floating donut) at Oskiresort, definitely would recommend!!!! The tube ride and paddle boarding together costed us $30 per person, with the paddle board rental about one hour. It was so worth it and the tube ride was so exhilarating.
This looks peaceful but I was actually struggling really really hard to get back to shore because of the wind ><
We drove to Noosa heads to try find something to eat afterwards but came across this adorable dessert place called Fiona's Fancies.
Despite not having had lunch, we decided to get a cupake instead. Pk and I decided to get the strawberries & cream flavour! Sooooo good. I think it was a really nice place to visit because it was so personalised and the staff there seemed so passionate about their jobs.
We went to do some shopping afterwards on Hastings street, where I found my most favourite pair of shorts thus far. There were actually a few boutiques that we came across which had some really nice articles of clothing - its kind of nice to actually be able to see some new stock as opposed to the usual stores in brisbane. We were pretty close to the noosa main beach so we went to have a look around there as well!
Yes we did manage to catch the sunset this time.
No pictures of dinner because it was actually just shin ramen cooked with spam, choy sum, egg & cheddar cheese on top. It was our lazy night in but omg all this time I've just cooked Shin ramen by itself, my life was a lie.
We didn't get to swim at Noosa but we went to another beach the next day. I was so unlucky though, because I twisted my ankle that day (the same one I twisted last year when I fell on my way to uni). You what the sad thing is? I twisted it this time because I threw some sand at Tam and whilst she was chasing me, I got away and in my elation I lost my footing and face planted into the sand...
We were going to visit the fairy rock pools but the weather started getting a bit gloomy so we decided to watch a movie Fantastic beasts and where to find them. The movie was so so so much better than I anticipated, seeing as I thought the whole plot was about introducing magical creatures but turns out it was a lot more. Definitely recommend watching it to anyone who hasn't yet done so!
We had no internet at home but opted to use our 3G to watch youtube dance videos and attempted to copy... the results were disastrous. Pk attempted to teach tam how to do a body wave ...
We spent the last night having dinner at the Pitchfork restaurant near Peregian beach. I had the Roasted Pork belly on the bone, smoked pork jus, spring onion mash, green sauce.
We checked out the next morning and went to have breakfast at My place, a restaurant with Mediterranean & italian cuisine. I think it was a bit of a hipster cafe, the restaurant owner even said "PEACE!" to departing customers much to our amusement.
On our way home we went to the RedJacket aqua fun park which was essentially a floating water playground :3 It was only $15 for entry too. Somehow we managed to arrange it so that straight afterwards we went to Bli Bli watersports complex for wakeboarding!!!!
We were newbies so we opted for the easiest option of kneeling on the boards and getting pulled across the water. It LOOKS easy, that was the trick. We actually fell off some many times & got yanked off the board, dragged across the water before we ever made a full circle - but hey all part of the fun. I gave up before our time limit was up though, because I felt so miserable from the cold & my arms were sore from holding onto the handles whilst being yanked across the water.
$27.50 for 2 hours! There was barely a line so you could go on as many times as you wanted.
Tam represented us all and attempted a few more times. Everyone there seemed to be professionals , we were the only asian females to even try. Much to our embarrassment even little boys under 10 were better than us HAHA.
Overall, the trip let me have a much needed break :3 Kind of reminds me why I like Australia so much, because whilst shops don't open till past five, we have so many fun outdoor activities to do and our beaches are so pretty. I love the feeling of just finishing swimming at the beach and drying off in the warm sun. Thanks guys for coming with me on this holiday and making it great ^^
