Sunshine Coast, Australia: The Great Australian (Mini) Road Trip!

From Brisbane, we started our great Australian road trip! Ok, it wasn't that crazy - more like a mini road trip.  Jess and I rented a car for a week and cruised up North through what is referred to as the Sunshine Coast, in QLD (that stands for Queensland!).  It's a pretty popular drive with tourists, just because there are tons of little towns and scenic sights and nature and ocean that you pass by on the way.

Our mini-road trip involved Caloundra, Noosa, the Glass House Mountains - then we diverted off the coastal drive on the way back and headed more inland to the tiny town of Tenterfield, to pay a visit to Jesse's dad.

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Drove the ~2 hour (with lots of stops!) route from Brisbane, up to the coastal city of Caloundra.

We may have overloaded on strawberries for the road trip, as there were tons of farm stands selling boxes of them.  Also, peppers = capsicums!

We are in Caloundra! On the boardwalk

And here is part of the shore! If only it wasn't winter....this fleece has seen more action these past two weeks than it has on the entire trip combined.

Then we found a perfectly-located picnic bench to watch the sunset from

What better way to watch the sunset than with trays of fish & chips?

After the sun set, there was pink sky for a bit <3

• The next morning, we made the hour-long drive from Caloundra to the popular beachside town of Noosa. Noosa reminded me a bit of Miami - lots of old people, lots of fancy buildings, gorgeous buildings, pretty boutiques, beautiful calm beach, outdoor cafes, and white furniture. White furniture everywhere.  It's apparently a pretty big vacation spot, especially since all the hotels were exorbitant prices (we ended up staying in Caloundra).

Tell me our delicious brunch doesn't look like it could be set in Miami

Beach in Noosa Heads. It was actually semi-warm enough for us to lay out in swimsuits under the sun. But not get in the water. No. 

Noosa not only has beaches and boutiques, but also some nearby nature walks and national parks you can wander. We went to one of them to watch the sunset (I LOVE SUNSETS)

This sunset over the water was beyond pretty

Do you know how hard it is for me to cull sunset pictures?! Each photo is just slightly, yet so importantly, different

Great sunset lighting. So I turned Beauty Mode up to a 10 on my camera, and this is the product. I call this the bug-eyed/anime combo.

Sigghhhhh one last shot

And then we headed to dinner, but on the way, stopped by the beach to admire the last dregs of the sunset

Taylor approved.

Beers we had with dinner. They seem to like theming their beer with animals?

Next morning, we had a delicious open-air, ocean-view brunch in Caloundra at the most delicious coffee/breakfast joint in town; the Coffee Cat on Kings Beach.

In addition to sunsets, I'm obsessed with photographing brunch food.  Dear brunch - you have no idea how much I have missed you!

Taking a little stroll on Kings Beach post-brunch

• From Caloundra, we wound our way back South to the famous Glass House Mountains! The Glass House Mountains are a group of 11 mountains that seem to randomly pop out of the flat coastline along the Sunshine Coast. And the mountains have weird shapes. And you can hike them - any of them, take your pick.

Two of the Glass House Mountains (with a tiny third one in the background!), don't ask me which ones, I don't have a clue

Pano from the entrance of a bunch of the mountains. See how they just seem to pop out out of nowhere??

Some of them have weird shapes

We chose Mt. Ngungun to hike (not reallllly by choice, we got a little lost), which only took about an hour.

We made it to the top! Which had STUNNING 360 degree views of the landscape, and a beautiful view of all the other mountains that we didn't climb

There are two of the Glass House Mountains in the back (I  like the weirdo smokestack-shaped one!)

Two of the tiny mound-like Glass House Mountains (they do all have proper names, I swear - I just can't recall them)

Another one. All such different shapes!

The mountain in the back is the tallest one of them all, called Mt. Beerwah.

• From the Glass House Mountains, we drove on back to Brisbane and stayed one last night with Jess' sister and her family.

Overlook of the city of Brisbane from Mt. Coot-tha

Gorgeous clouds from the liquor store parking lot

Looking the other way; gorgeous sunset

• Road trip, Day 4 - we set out from Brisbane to head more inland: about 3-4 hours away to Jesse's dad's place in the town of Tenterfield.  3 things about Tenterfield: 1.) It was FREEZING (seriously, like a legit winter feel rather than the 62 degree/I-need-a-light-windbreaker weather I had been complaining about on the coast), 2.) WILD KANGAROOS. EVERYWHERE, and 3.) it's tiny, with a population of around 3,000 people.

On the open road! Australia's landscapes seriously look just like South Africa's. It was total déjà vu sometimes.

This road may look ordinary, but it was littered with dead kangaroo roadkill. 

The skies in Australia! So magical EVERY NIGHT

• We arrived in Tenterfield in time for dinner with Jess' dad and his girlfriend, Sue. And winter. Winter was at dinner. 
• The area around Tenterfield is chock full of wineries and vineyards - not a hugely popular thing to do in winter, but we went on a mini-tour to do some wine tastings and winery-visiting the next day with Jesse's dad.

But first, an adorable morning coffee/scone/cake at a local tea house. Internet, this is Jesse's dad, Bob.
(Please note the scarf got pulled out. Things are serious.)

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On the way out to the wineries, I had my first wild kangaroo spotting of the day! Here's a bunch of them in a field, staring at the car (since we may have pulled to a stop and let me out of the car to snap them)

This is about as close as you can get to them

And they started to hop away the closer I got.

But onto the wine! We hit up three wineries (Kurrajong Downs, Balladean, and Jester Hill).

• Road Trip, Day 5: we got breakfast in town and then walked around Tenterfield's main street. Which is tiny and picturesque and sweet.

Like stepping back into the early 1900's!

I love how old buildings have the year they were established on the top of the buildings. And of course in this tiny town, there is a place for Chinese meals.

• We then said good-bye to Jesse's dad and winter, and drove back to his mom's house in Goonengerry - I was leaving the next day for a flight to Sydney, so that was the best place to leave from. 

One last time feeding the neighbor's horses!

I was headed to Sydney....and Jesse's headed to Vietnam, apparently (I can't keep track of all the rando countries he decides to move to on a whim either) - so his mom threw him an early b-day celebration. His birthday is in December, btw - but he won't be home for it, so she wanted to celebrate while there was someone else around. It was so cute!

One last brunch at a trendy Japanese cafe in Mullumbimby with Jess and his mom.  

• Thanks, Jess, for truly being the greatest Australian tour guide ever - and to your wonderful, wonderful fam for being the greatest hosts ever! All the delicious home-cooked meals were epic, and it was one of my favorite things ever to get to actually feel like part of the fam, vs. staying in hostels and eating out all the time and lining up my days with sightseeing plans.  It was beyond appreciated, I had the best time (despite complaining about how the temperature was almost hypothermic) and you're truly the greatest!

Meal of the Day:

Three words: free unlimited sprinkles.

Fun Facts of the Day:

• McDonald's in Oz is shortened to "Macca's."  Which ok, fine, I get the lingo. 

But "Macca's Free Wi-Fry" is pretty much the most GENIUS WiFi name every invented!

• I was explaining to Jess the premise of Outback Steakhouse - you know, the Australian steak chain! Just kidding. I know it's an American company that has bastardized a restaurant to be Australian.  Jess was like "yeah I've heard of it but it's definitely not Australian."  

So imagine my delight when OH MY GOD is that Outback?!?! In Australia!?!?  It IS a legit Australian chain, I knew it! :)

• Last of all your fun Aussie fast food fun facts, Burger King here is called Hungry Jack's.  I've heard reasons for this ranging from the name Burger King not testing well with Australian audiences (uhh why not, it involves royalty), to the fact that the name Burger King was already licensed to someone else first.  

This is a great photo, I know. Feel free to save.

• A proper Aussie response to "thank you" is "that's ok" or "it's ok."  I found this very strange at first. Of course it's ok.  Why wouldn't it be.

Sunshine Coast to the Wild Coast, South Africa: The Coolest Little Villages

What It's All About:

We continued our road trip past the Garden Route to the Sunshine Coast, which is the coast you pass after exiting the Garden Route - and after the Sunshine Coast comes the Wild Coast.  Here, the Southern Coast of South Africa starts to get less populated and developed, and most of the coastline has gorgeous beaches and more nature. Many of the small towns are known for their surfing due to the intensity of the waves, and as expected - even more amazing views.

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Finished up our time in Tsitsikamma National Park with a quick hike to see some giant trees, and then some zip-lining (which is not nearly as exciting after you've spent the previous day jumping off a giant bridge bungee) (but still fun).

We hiked to "The Big Tree", which is this GIANT yellowwood tree (see a tiny me standing in front for scale) that is believed to be almost 1,000 years old.

There were crazy neon mushrooms on the path

More normal-colored, but still crazy amounts of mushrooms

Are we out of the woods yet are we out of the woods yet are we out of the woods yet are we out of the woods

Jess crossing a fancy footbridge

And then we went zip-lining

It was cool zipping over canyons and trees and stuff

• That evening, we drove from Storms River out to Jeffreys Bay (cooly referred to as "J-Bay") to meet up with Jesse's friend Kevin, who he (who he? whom he? I never can remember that rule) knows from English teaching in Korea. Kevin happened to be in South Africa for a wedding, and was also doing his own cross-country road trip with a friend - and our schedules aligned to meet up.

We went to, oddly enough, a Mexican joint for dinner. All I can say is cheese. The theme of the night was cheese. No complaints from me, but holy cheese.

Snapchat artist, present

• J-Bay is known for its sweet surfing, but the wind was ridic the next day. So we went to the beach and built a sandcastle.  Oddly enough, the other thing J-Bay seems to be known for (despite the big foreigner surfing scene) is crime. We seriously got warnings from everyone in the city, who all had their own lurid tale of some crime or story they'd heard happening in town.  Charming. 

Kevin and I created the foundation for the castle

And then Jesse wanted in. Note the stunning castle gate, adornments on each tower, and shell bling. 

I'm sure some child destroyed this immediately afterwards

• That afternoon, Kevin hitched a ride with us on a couple hour drive to the city of Grahamstown.  It's a super charming/quaint little university town - Kev was meeting a friend there, and Jess and I stayed in the city for a night as well. Unbeknownst to us, it was actually the very first week of university - and we'd hit up one of the most happening college bars in town (in our defense, I think there's only one or two bars).  So we were right in the middle of tons and tons of college kids. Add to the fact that the legal drinking age is 18 here, and I was in the bar staring at some of the kids because they looked so young; in fact, way too young to be wearing what they were wearing and drinking what they were drinking. Grandma Wang here.

This is the only picture I managed to snag of Grahamstown - hotels were super unavailable (given the first week of university thing; I think all the parents were staying in the hotels to drop off their precious bar-loving children) so Jess and I ended up staying at this mountain-top studio, and it was gorgeous and amazing and I stayed up all night watching movies on the TV (given it's the first time I've had a TV in my room in......forever). This was the view of the sunset from atop our mountain.

• The next day, we bid adieu to Kev (he was leaving SA to go back to work), and continued on our way up the Wild Coast. We chose to stay the night in a town called Cintsa. We stayed in a backpackers looking right over the beach - they also had a fun communal all-you-can-eat BBQ (brai!) that evening. 

Walking on down to the beach in Cintsa

Yes, I am drinking a light cider and reading a trashy book

Watching the sunset on Cintsa beach - local boys playing soccer to the left, a vicious cow who tried to eat me as we passed to the right.

• From Cinsta (we are moving at breakneck pace here; keep up), we drove out to this tiny, very remote area called Coffee Bay. This area lies on the coast - but getting there involves driving over an hour down a super winding road through tons of zig-zags and hills, not to mention the zillions of cows that are lazily walking across the road with no concern whatsoever about oncoming cars. Add tons of sheep to the mix (which I'm gonna be honest, they don't seem so smart). Not the most efficient drive.

Driving to Coffee Bay!  This area is super remote and village-y, so the locals still live in these traditional round-type houses called rondavels.

The scenery driving down was breathtaking.

• We got to our backpackers called Coffee Shack, which we'd heard a lot about.  I can see why. I kind of loved the place. You get to Coffee Bay, and it's super undeveloped. But backpackers come here because it's on the coast (so water sports!), it's gorgeous, and there's tons of hiking and cool things you can do that are pretty off-the-beaten-trail.

Our first night, we signed up for a local village dinner.  We sat in this village lady's rondavel (which had no electricity)

People in this village are from the Xhosa tribe, and their language consists of cool clicking noises and words. A bunch of the women did traditional dances and songs for us. And then fed us traditional food.

A chicken runs through

A gaggle of foreigners crammed into this lady's hut

• The next day happened to be Coffee Shack (the hostel)'s 15th anniversary, so they were having a huge party. Seriously, other employees from other hostels around SA and such came all the way to Coffee Bay for this party (we recognized an employee from our hostel in J-Bay, which at this point is like a 7-hour drive away).  During the day, the hostel offered a discounted anniversary hike and cliff-jumping excursion, which a huge group of us joined for.

The hike itself was surreal. Coffee Bay is gorgeous.

It was cloudy and there were tornado-force winds

And we scaled cliffs and rocks

Some of the descents were like death traps

Arriving onto the rocks

Inside this cave was a bunch of incredibly stinky bats. The locals come to collect the guano for fertilizer

And then we got to the top of a 7-meter cliff for cliff-jumping. Maybe it was 10. I can't remember.  It felt like a million meters, however, because the wind was so strong that the waves were crashing super scarily and I was pretty freaked out to jump in and drown. But most of us made it. 

This is one of the guides, Daniel, doing an even higher cliff jump. Which you do by climbing up that rock face. Um no thanks.

Jesse and I both survived the jump. And then we hiked out of the canyon - magical

On the way home, this little local girl came out to greet us. She was the cutest - she was shouting "good-bye!" and waving at all of us - and then Jesse pulled his camera out to take a picture, and she started posing in a zillion different poses like a supermodel.

Naturally, I copied her.

The skies cleared up on our walk back and it was so, so stunning.

More rondavels and cows.

• The 15th anniversary party at Coffee Shack that evening consisted of free oysters/mussels from the ocean (NOM NOM I think I downed an entire plate single-handedly), free gin/tonics for a couple hours, and thumping beats (they erected an entire party tent), which I'm told lasted well into the wee hours of morning. Which Jesse and I didn't witness firsthand. Because we are fuddy-duddys who went to bed early - but it was because we signed up for 7:30AM surfing lessons the next morning!  The waves are better in the morning. Also, a 2-hour lesson was 50 rand - which is like, $3. And it was one of the best lessons ever - our guide Daniel was the shiz, and I had the best time ever, and now I want to continue to surf forever.
• Coffee Bay marked the end of our Sunshine Coast/Wild Coast road-trip adventures - next, we drive more inland to the majestic beauty of Drakensberg National Park!