Sunny Garden

After spending four days hanging around Maroochydore doing holiday stuff, I decided I probably should recommence my tour of duty. As with the first photo shoot in Brisbane, the day Rachel and I headed out to Moffat Beach was very overcast. To add to this, when we got to Seaview Terrace there was a policewoman directing traffic right where I wanted to take some photos. It's a challenging job, this website stuff.

Not wanting to take any risks, I approached the officer and told her I'd be hanging around and taking some pictures. She had no problems with this and we had a lovely chat about the weather, Moffat Beach, Caloundra, her boyfriend and shift work. Directing traffic is obviously a lonely job. I don't think she'd make it in the cut-throat world of toilet-paper terrorism. Photos taken, we made it to Kings Beach before the rain changed from a slight drizzle into a heavy downpour.

The rain showed no sign of letting up so I decided the last stop would be the shopping centre in Caloundra. I parked outside Coles and immediately noticed a security guard. I pointed him out to Rachel who just laughed and called me paranoid. When we went inside the centre I read out loud the warning that all shoppers were subject to video surveillance. Rachel laughed again, but she lost some of her confidence when I was nearly knocked over by a 6'5" security guard. He was walking along talking to another security guard. This was getting ridiculous - how many security guards can one shopping centre have?

We went into Coles, headed straight to the medicinal aisle and pretended to browse. Much to my annoyance, there were a lot of people in the aisle, and when they left, more people took their place.

After we'd been hanging around for a while, a security guard walked past us twice, eying my camera bag suspiciously. I had my small camera out ready to take a photo, but the aisle still wasn't clear to take the shot. Eventually I was forced to give up when the loudspeaker boomed All security to section eight immediately. I don't know whether we were in section eight, but we had been hanging around the medicinal aisle for at least ten minutes. Foiled again by Coles, this was another photo the virtual tour would just have to live without.

Sunshine Coast: Take two

The next day dawned bright and sunny and it was back to Caloundra to finish the photos. First, we returned to Moffat Beach which was transformed in the clear weather. Armed with a stick, we entertained ourselves writing in the sand for the Sunny Garden attempt at photo art. Okay, so art is a bit of an exaggeration.

Next, Military Jetty which is located at Pelican Waters. Rachel was delighted by all the pelicans balancing precariously on the street lights in the area. I remarked that they were probably there to shit on passing vehicles. You don't have to guess what happened two minutes later. All over my windscreen. And it's amazing how much shit comes out of a pelican - they don't show you that on nature documentaries.

The remaining photos didn't take very long so we decided to take advantage of the weather and go for a drive to the Big Pineapple. The Big Pineapple was fun, in so far as a large reconstruction of a piece of fruit can be fun. Let's face it, it didn't do much. I tried to find a Big Pineapple ashtray (as featured in After January), but had no luck. Instead I bought pineapples and macadamia nuts and convinced Rachel that we really needed to see the Glass House Mountains.

After January mentions the Glass House Mountains a few times and, after consulting the Discover Queensland's Sunshine Coast guide book, I located a couple of tourist drives that would take us to the best lookouts for the mountains. I particularly wanted to go to Howells Knob Lookout which, as outlined in this paragraph from the guide book, promised spectacular views of the Glass House Mountains: Continue west on this road to Reesville and the Howells Knob Lookout. This lookout has magnificent 360 degree views and should not be missed. Complete the circuit by driving into the charming rural town of Maleny and browse the shops.

For anyone intending a trip to the Sunshine Coast, don't trust the free guide book. Two hours and around 150km later, we still hadn't found this not-to-be-missed lookout. Hell, we couldn't even find Reesville. Mind you, we did manage to visit the charming rural town of Maleny five times.

We also managed to visit loads of other lookouts and a lot of roadside stalls selling macadamia nuts. We stopped at quite a few of the latter hoping to get directions, but they operated on the honesty system and there wasn't anybody to ask. Seeming we'd stopped, we just bought more macadamia nuts and kept driving.

Four-thirty in the afternoon and we were staring at the Glass House Mountains from yet another lookout. The lookout in question offered good views but, let's face it, they weren't magnificent 360 degree not-to-be-missed views. After some discussion we decided that Howell was indeed a knob, not-to-scale tourist maps are the work of Satan and lets just take our large stash of macadamia nuts and go home.

Sunshine Coast: Take three

In contrast to the previous photo shoots, the last day was relaxing and trouble free. In the morning we drove to Noosa National Park where I insisted on walking to Hells Gates although Rachel didn't share my enthusiasm. Her reluctance was understandable as I don't have a good track record when it comes to holiday nature walks. The last time I insisted on a nature walk, it turned out to be almost five kilometres up a very steep hill. Apparently Rachel's shins have never forgiven me.

However, the map at the National Park reassured her this was an easy walk and, as it turns out, the walk was very gentle and the scenery gorgeous. As well as making me a complete Noosa convert, the experience helped restore our faith in tourist maps.

Back at the entrance of the National Park we had a drink and took in the surrounds. In our quiet reflection, we were joined by a koala who had been napping in the tree directly above. He climbed down the tree and ambled straight past us, crossing the path and heading up another tree. His un-koala like behaviour (that is, he moved) attracted heaps of attention and many flashing cameras. By this time, much to the despair of my international friends, I was over the whole photography thing and was happy just to watch him.

Close encounters of the wildlife kind continued on the way back to the car when I practically stepped on the head of a giant monitor sunning itself on a path. After I had recovered from minor heart failure and Rachel had stopped laughing, we headed back into Noosa for the remaining photos.

The rest of the day passed without incident. We spent a pleasant afternoon in Noosa, wandering around, browsing the shops and snapping the odd photo for the website without the slightest hint of any security guards. Last stop for the day, for the tour, and for our holiday was Peregian Beach.

All photos are © Liz Perkins and may not be reproduced without permission.

Disclaimer:
Sunny Garden is designed, written and maintained by Liz Perkins, in cooperation with Nick Earls and Penguin Books. Any questions about Sunny Garden should be directed to Liz

All original contents are © Liz Perkins.