Noosa

Noosa is a place where I spent a lot of time but did very little (of interest). One of the first things I did was try to confirm the date of my Fraser Island tour which was next on the list. Unfortunately they wouldnt have room for me for a full week so I had to spend that time in Noosa. Luckily the hostel I was in needed backpackers to work for them as they were renovating the place and there was a hell of a lot of stuff to do. So they let me stay there for free if I put in 3 hours a day. During those 3 days I helped out the resident handyman doing all sorts of stuff under the title 'maintenance'. Like I said the hostel was being renovated since it had recently been taken over by Nomads (a franchise of hostels in Oz and NZ) and they needed to get it up to their standard. This was going to be hard work since the previous owners had let the place go a lot. This meant I was put to work stripping down walls, filling in holes and painting them, building bunk beds, putting up curtains and then stuff like emptying the rubbish bins and clearing paths. My shift was also bang in the middle of the day from 12-3 so not only was I saving money on accommodation I wasnt able to do any activities during the day so I was spending very little. What I did get to do was meet a variety of groups of people. Most people spend one or two nights in Noosa and there was a lot of turnover in my dorm. Every 2 days there was a new group of people to get to know and hang out with.

One of my last nights in Noosa was that of the 2010 World Cup Final between Holland and Spain. Australia is on the wrong side of South Africa for watching the games at the World Cup and this meant the final was on at 4.30am Australia time. Not the best hour of the day or night to be watching football. Since there is nothing in Noosa that stays open that late everybody went to bed and set their alarms to get up for the game. So we were all tired and cold when we settled in the tv room of the hostel to watch it. There were a good few dutch in the hostel so it promised to be a fun game to watch. That was of course until the game started and the dutch team began trying to kick the Spanish off the pitch. The game wasnt a great spectacle so it was almost a relief when the goal finally came and the Spanish deservedly won. By this time it was about 7am so I decided to make use of my morning. I had some brekkie and headed off to go for a walk through Noosa National Park. This is one of the main attractions of the town and I hadnt gotten around to doing it until now. I spent the next few hours walking along the coastline looking at the spectacular views and then came back through the woodlands of the park. I didnt see any koalas though which is a pity as a few supposedly live in the park somewhere. Once back at the hostel it was time for work and after that I was pretty tired having been up since 4 in the morning. I took it easy for the evening and in the morning I was on the bus to Rainbow Beach for my trip to Fraser Island.