Sunshine Coast

Last week I was on holidays :-) I spend the week from the 9th May - 16th May on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing time, and was good to be away from work for a while.

I was staying at The Point, Coolum Beach. Coolum Beach is a fairly small suburb on the Sunshine Coast about 25km south of Noosa. Here is the view from the balcony of the villa I was staying in:


This was stitched together from a number of photos taken from the balcony.... it hasn't been edited or even cropped (lazy me!) and was stitched using AutoStitch.

While there, I did some of the touristy things. I had a car, so I could take myself to wherever I wanted. Some of the highlights were going to Tin Can Bay one morning to see and feed the dolphins, and taking a drive through the Sunshine Coast hinterland to Mapleton, Montville and Maleny areas.

Tin Can Bay is further north than the Sunshine Coast. It is about 1.5 hours drive. There is a pod of dolphins that come into the bay and you can feed them fish. There are a group of volunteers that oversee the Dolphin Centre and the feedings but they come in at about 8am each morning to feed. Unfortunately I arrived a little late, about 8:30 and they had already been fed. However, that morning a couple of dolphins came back to the feeding place, so I was able to see some wild dolphins up close and get some photos. I have some photos below. You may be able to see the scratch marks all over the dolphin in the photos. According to the lady at the dolphin centre this is normal for wild dolphins. We are used to seeing dolphins up close in captivity (like at Sea World) that are clean. However, dolphins in the wild have to make out their teritory, and quite often get into fights with other dolphins and fish, so end up rather battle scarred. Note the chunks out of the dolphins fin too.




The Sunshine Coast hinterland is a very beautiful place. There is a mountain range, The Blackall Range, that has a few small country towns along the top. These are places like Mapleton, Montville and Maleny. Montville is a nice little town that is famous for it's shops. Now, I'm not overly keen on shopping, but I did enjoy Monville. There is a lolly shop and plenty of other small shops some of which were worth a look.

Here is the view from a lookout near Mapleton. Again it has been stitched with AutoStitch.


The drive out to the Blackall Range area is quite nice too. Starting from Nambour, you make your way up the mountain to Mapleton, and then follow the road along the top of the ridge, making for some great views out both sides of the road. Through Flaxton and Montville and then Maleny is at the other end of the road. Then you make your way back down the mountain into Landsborough.

I also visited the Eumundi Markets at Eumundi. Eumundi is a small town, and on non market days, there probably isn't much happening. However, when the markets are on, hundreds and probably thousands of people flock to the place and it is packed with people. The markets are on Wednesdays and Saturdays. As I said about Montville, I'm not overly keen on shopping, but there were a number of places there that I found to keep my interest for a while.

I had a great time on the Sunshine Coast. The only problem with holidays is coming back to work and wading though the billions of emails that come in while your gone.