Day 67 - 73. Fireworks, Noosa Heads & Bribie Island

Day 67 - 6th January

We are still in Hervey Bay for one last night and loving it. Due to the huge thunderstorm on NYE the fireworks were cancelled so we saw the display this evening. It was so magical. 

Today we spent most of the time at the beach soaking up the sun and taking regular dips in the sea because it's been SO hot !

Day 68 - 7th January

We left the camp site at Hervey Bay which was actually quite upsetting! The owner was so friendly and nice to us, he made us feel really welcome. As well as some of the permanent residents at the site. 

The site is called Shelley Beach Caravan Park and j highly recommend staying there if you're in the Hervey Bay Area. 

We made our way back to Tiaro Memorial Park where we will be staying tonight, it's set back from the road and has a free 3 minute shower which is great and very rare to find in a free site. 

^Point Vernon, Hervey Bay

Day 69 - 8th January

We headed for Noosa and arrived a couple of hours later. 

We wanted to stay at the sea scouts site as it was really cheap. However, we arrived there to be met by a big sign saying no camping and closed!

So we headed for the next closest one which is Noosa Caravan Park. We booked in for 2 nights at £74 all together. There's a lovely pool here and sun beds where I spent a fair while today! It's a top holiday park and our campervan keys have a top holiday park key ring on allowing a discount for us which is great. 

Day 70 - 9th January

We went to Noosa and did a similar walk as before around the National Park. It was so hot that half way through we had a swim in the sea, even though we had no towels with us and had to air dry it was so worth it! 

I got an iced coffee from the cafe there before headed back to the camp site. 

We had an afternoon swim and sunbathe. Both of us are so knackered today, I'm not sure whether we had bad nights sleep or whether it's the heat or the walk this morning. But I think an early night is in order!

I filmed a little bit of footage today that I will edit and post on YouTube once I'm home. 

When I was in Sydney at the start of 2017 I filmed clips everyday and posted 3 separate videos of the footage on YouTube then. 

^Noosa Heads walk

Day 71 - 10th January 

We moved camp sites to one near the Sunshine Coast. It's in land slightly so not here a beach, and a lot more expensive than we wanted. But it's hard to know where to go for a good price until you actually get the a caravan park to enquire. 

It's been extremely hot today so a lot of the day has been spent in the pool. 

We did a shop at IGA to get some supplies for the next few days. 

Day 72 - 11th January 

Still in the Sunshine Coast and not much has changed, so here's a list of things I miss from home, things I will miss here and things I won't! 

Things I'm missing from home

•family & dogs 

•hot baths

•comfortable bed

•kettle!

•drinking tap water

•kitchen space to cook 

•variety of home cooked food

•my coffee machine

•clean clothes

Things I'm going to miss here

•hot weather

•every day with Ben

•freedom of going wherever

•living minimalist 

•not waking up at 3am for work

•wearing no makeup 

•sitting outside on camp chairs until late

•wearing a bikini every day

•having no itinerary for the day

•deciding whether to swim in the pool or sea first

•not knowing anyone

•doing food shops with ben

Things I'm not going to miss

•thinking of things to cook

•sleeping in sleeping bags

•sand getting everywhere in the camper

•(sometimes) not knowing where we will be sleeping that night

Day 73 - 12th January

Just a week left in the camper! Can't believe how quickly it has gone, I will definitely miss this but both of us feeling ready to sleep in actual beds and feel a bit normal again!

I've felt quite crappy today, I think I'm getting a cold. I feel so drained and not 100%. 

We've had another day taking it easy and swimming in the pool. Onto the next place tomorrow as we drove closer to Brisbane to return the camper soon. 

^sunset from the camper 

Day 59 - 66. Hervey Bay & LOTS of frozen yogurt

Day 59 - 29th December

Yesterday the search for another campsite in this area began. We want to stay here for a little while as it's a lovely area and would be nice again to stay somewhere for a few days and feel a little at home somewhere rather than be on the move all the time. I called a free camp sites and enquired online for loads in the area and everywhere was fully booked. I presume people are having a post-Christmas break. We continued the search this morning and we were so lucky to find a place to stay at just the 3rd place we asked. 

We are staying at Shelly Beach Caravan Park. I think it was fate as someone cancelled 5 minutes before we came here to ask apparently! 

We've had a really nice day swimming in the pool, grabbing iced lattes and going to  subway lunch for a salad bowl. 

Although both of our eyes are so sore and dry from the pool even a couple of hours after getting out now. 

^Iced Latte from Cody's Coffee Shack

Day 60 - 30th December

Our gas canister in the campervan ran out last night half way through cooking our curry and rice which wasn't ideal! We ended up having just the curry as that was cooked (luckily) but the rice was still raw. So this morning as soon as we woken up we started mission gas canister! We've pre-paid for a refill at travellers autobarn as you either had to replace the gas you've used, or pay them to refill it. If we knew we would have been replacing it so soon to the end we wouldn't of paid for the re-fill at $35 as we've had to buy a whole new one this morning at just $17. It's really frustrating and I think the company are definitely onto a money making scheme there, but we didn't know that at the time so the idea behind being the pre-paid refill with the company was so we had one less thing to worry about when returning the camper. But these things happen and I'm just glad we have gas again so we can cook and boil the kettle! 

We had a little swim in the sea before treating ourselves to a huge dominoes each! I've been craving pizza so much as it's one of my favourite things to eat and I haven't had it in so long! 

We also had a little dip in the pool, making sure we both kept our eyes shut today so that they didn't irritate like yesterday. It took over 5 hours for my eyes to feel normal again yesterday. I was quite worried that they were damaged in some way as they were so dry and both our visions were foggy & cloudy - I couldn't look at bright lights without it being blurred and having a rainbow around the whole light. Thankfully both our eyes are ok now but I didn't want to take the risk in the pool again. 

We had an evening stroll on the beach just before the sunset which was lovely. 

^HUGE 16" dominoes pizza!

^Shelly Beach

Day 61 -31st December

The start of the day today was very humid, even in the shade we couldn't escape the heat. 

There should be a fireworks display tonight for New Years although a thunderstorm is forcasted and it has rained today.

There's a street market in Hervey Bay today so we've watched that get set up, also aninflatable waterslide park which looked sooo good!

It's a shame to see it deflated as the rain got heavier tonight. I really hope the fireworks go ahead and they aren't called off. 

Day 62 - 1st January

Happy new year! Last night came to an abrupt end as there was a huge thunderstorm so the fireworks were called off. So disappointing as we were looking forward to going out and doing something normal!! But nethertheless it was night to be in the camper playing candy crush and drinking lemonade! (Wild night!!) and it was also nice that it wasn't so hot as the rain took away some of the heat. 

Today has been very relaxed. We got some fish and chips for lunch - definitely not as good as back home and England obviously has the best fish and chips, but it was still yummy and a nice treat. 

It's rained again this evening, but we are cooped up in the camper cooking curry - we even went to an Indian restaurant to get some naans! 

^Cod and chips, I miss English chip shop chips!!

Day 63 - 2nd January

The sun has been in and out today. It's a weird kind of heat and very muggy. The sea was so rough and washing up loads of sand so we didn't swim as sand would of gotten all over us! 

We went to the shopping centre near Hervey Bay and got frozen yogurt. This has become a regular thing and we both love it so much! I will miss it a lot back home!

The rest of the day has been very chilled, we've had a dip in the pool and we are now cooking pasta sauce for our evening meal. 

Day 64 - 3rd January

Another beautiful day in Hervey Bay. 

We spent a while at the beach topping up the tan. We also accidentally made another trip to the frozen yogurt shop. This is becoming too much of a regular thing!! But it's too damn good !

The afternoon was spent (as usual) in the pool which was just what we needed as it's been so hot and humid. 

It's not raining a little - this is becoming too much of a regular thing in the evenings for my liking. 

The rain stopped and we had such a nice evening; we went to the beach for sunset and got ice creams. 

Day 65 - 4th January 

I can't believe we have 2 weeks left in the campervan. I honestly don't know where the time has gone!

Today was really hot and I felt so sluggish and couldn't do much because of this. We drove around a little and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. 

This evening we went from beach to beach to watch the sunset and take some photos, it's nice to do things in the evening when it's not hot and isn't raining! 

Day 66 - 5th January 

Today was very similar to yesterday so here are some photos ! 

Day 4-7. Hervey Bay, Noosa and Sunshine Coast

Day 4 - 4th November:

We headed back down the coast and aborted mission to head to Cairns. We probably should of thought of this sooner but we found it very hot in the camper at night and as we headed further north the temperature would only get hotter. Cairns is also so far away that we felt so much time would be spent on the road as opposed to exploring and seeing as much as we could. 

So with this in mind we headed back to Hersey Bay where we were a couple of days ago. We really loved it here so wanted to spend a bit more time there. We treated ourselves to a subway as basic rations in the camper were getting a bit tedious! We then parked along the coast near Urangan. We walked all the way to the end of Urangan Pier. After this we bought some chips near by and headed to an off road car park for the night. 

Day 5 - 5th November:

We woke up around 5.30am and quickly moved as we were paranoid about where we stayed!! 

I FaceTimed my mum and dad back home who were wrapped up in scarfs back home! That's a bit of a difference to the 25+ degrees we are experiencing here!!

We went just down the road to a car park and had a coffee on the park. We met a local man walki his dogs who stopped and chatted to us for ages. He gave us lots of local knowledge and informed us about the pier we walked down yesterday as he renovated it a few years ago. 

Ben wanted to watch the UFC fight that afternoon so we found a sports bar, I happily sat in the shade and drank lemonade!

Then it was my turn to do something so we went and got frozen yogurt, my favourite!

We headed to the nearest free camp site from Hervey Bay which was in Tiaro. This camp site even had free hot showers which seems a luxury when you're living in a campervan!

Day 6 - 6th November 

We left the campsite around 9am and headed to Noosa where we spent a few hours. We parked down the end at Park Road car park at the beginning of the National Park for anyone thinking of going here - it's an ideal place to park but everyone has the same idea, so expect to do several laps of the car park before finding a space. 

We walked along the coastal path and stopped at a couple of beaches along the way. It's such a stunning, picturesque place. The weather was fairly overcast which worked in our favour as if he t was any hotter it probably would of been unbearable! We stopped at the cafe on the way back and I had a cappuccino which was amazing after almost a week with just instant coffee (torture for a coffee addict)

We then planned to stay at Belli Creek camp site. But after the bloody satnav (that we both want to throw out of the window) sent us round the houses we ended up nearer to Glenview where we spent our very first night in the camper. 

Day 7 - 7th November:

Today we had our usual morning coffee on our camp chairs outside the campervan, one of my favourite thins to do this trip! We left and headed to Dicky Bay on the Sunshine Coast. Spent the morning here which was lovely. We had a swim in the sea, a sunbathe and breakfast on the beach (an apple and a blueberry muffin from Aldi!!...) after this we had a shower at the beach and made Thai green chicken curry for lunch. It was actually really nice and we were surprised how creative we can actually be with basic food and 2 stoves! 

There was a thunder and lightening storm at the beach. So we headed back to the camper and decided to make our way to the camp site we would be staying at this evening - Wyllie Park rest area.