Noosa & Fraser Island Getaway (a World Heritage Site)

This past Monday is Australian Day (the day of the first fleet arrival from England to claim this land), so we have a 3-day long weekend here in Brisbane. Since I have seen the city already, and most places will be closed on a public holiday, I was looking for a nearby getaway.

The “we” here included me + a coworker + a consultant for my project. There are total of 3 in our party. Being the only female in a group of males with hardly any travel planning skill, I took the lead in figure out our weekend plan. Let’s say it this way, I rather plan and get to do what I want to do than wait for someone to decide for me with questionable choices!!! Once we agreed on the destination, I booked the tour and the hotel. It wasn’t easy when this plan was put together within 48 hours of the long weekend. A lot of the places were already sold out. Looking for 3 single-bedroom in the resort area within the same budget as the one we had in Brisbane wasn’t easy. A 3-bedroom unit would have been easier, but I wasn’t going to share bathroom with any boys…

There are many choices for our destination. Balancing between budget and time, the final selection is Fraser Island. It is a little over 200 miles from Brisbane, so we need an overnight point somewhere. Noosa is a beach resort town in the Sunshine Coast, about 1.5 hours drive northeast from Brisbane, and it is a good spot as our hub to Fraser Island.

Fraser Island lies just off the east coast of Australia. At 75 miles long, it is the largest sand island in the world. So, what is special about this place? It is the majestic remnants of tall rainforest growing on sand. It has at least half of the world’s perched freshwater dune lakes on the island. The combination of shifting sand-dunes, tropical rainforests and lakes makes it an exceptional site and the reason for being on the World Heritage List since 1992.

We arrived in Noosa about mid day on Saturday, checked into our hotel for the weekend. We stayed at the Noosa Blue, a nice resort; about 15 minutes walk to the beach. I didn’t feel the humidity when I was in Brisbane. But out here, the temperature was hot and the humidity was high. I felt like I am almost back in Houston. Ok, Houston still ranks #1. I love my little one-bedroom self contained suite (I have one in Brisbane too, will show pictures later). Basically in OZ, unless you are in hotels, most lodgings are self contained, meaning it comes with a full kitchen and laundry facility. I prefer this way of travel anyway even with just one of me. It is nice to have a kitchen, not that I am cooking much on the road, but it is nice not to pay exuberant price for a breakie.

After check in, we dashed to the beach. Well, I was practically melting by then. The beach was crowded due to the holiday weekend. But the ocean breeze was nice. The water temperature is perfect. I wasn’t prepared to go into the water then, especially after seeing the post warning of possible stingers in the water. We decided to grab a quick bite. I had Aussie pie, Thai beef and mushroom, and save room for dinner. Then I strolled around Hasting Street, where all the shops are, with frequent stops on the sand so I can catch some wind to cool off. We had an early dinner at Rococo. I wasn’t impressed with the portion size. It was expensive but not exceptionally well tasted. But what can I say, I forgot about getting a dinner reservation for a Saturday night on a holiday weekend. Since the economy is suffering as badly here as US, I thought we would have our selection of top end eateries, but not true!!!

The next morning, we started off early with our Fraser Island Discovery tour guide picking us up at 6:30am. After 1.5 hour of bumpy ride in the 4WD backseat on an unpaved, unmarked road, we found our access to the Fraser Island via barges from Inskip Point. The ferry trip time is about 10 minutes. There is no docking facility on either side (main or island), the barge basically just lands on the beach. If you don’t have a 4WD, you don’t get on the barge.

Once we arrived onto the other side, it was open access. Or should I say, open beach. There is no paved road. The beach is the “official” access/highway for the island. The speed limit is 80km/h (~50 mph) on the sand. You just have to mind the oncoming vehicles, the guy behind you, and the beach fishermen, and the dingoes looking for food. In the morning, it was low tide; we couldn’t get around some of the beach area, so we had to take part of the inland unpaved road. On the return in the afternoon when it was low tide, you can easily fit a 4-lanes highway (each direction) before reaching the sea! I love it. Speeding down the open beach, even just riding in the confine of the 4WD feels so free!!!

By the way, no one should go into the salt water here. This is open sea. And Australia is WILD. There are sharks, deadly jelly fish, plus many many other killers out there. My local colleague told me he only swims in the pool, not the beach!

Our first stop was the central station. That is the rainforest area. We took a quick 20 minutes walk through part of the rainforest. You can feel the drop in temperature once under the canopy. We examined some types of tree and bugs, ok, I don’t remember the technical terms. There is this little stream running next to our path. The water is clear because it has been sand filtered. We were trying, but couldn’t locate any water eels in the stream.

Our next stop is Lake McKenzie. Oh MY GOD. This lake is BEAUTIFUL. There is no inlet or outlet. Its only influx/efflux is from rain and evaporation. There is no mistaken it, this is true powdery white sand and clear fresh water, slightly acidic at 5.5 to 6 pH. I have never been on a lake like this before. The water is in perfect temperature. The only real living things in here are little turtles and they don’t bit (I didn’t see one). I immediately took off my sandal and soaked my feet in the cool water. The funny thing is even though the temperature is hot; the sand was not burning my feet, very strange. I didn’t bring my swimming suit, so no swimming for me, but I walked half way around the lake, bare footed in the water. It was really fun. Yes, this place is on my top list of water facility. Of course, you will see I play around with photography skill, trying to capture the scene as much as I can.

We had a nice lunch after the lake activity. I had Tasmanian smoke salmon salad, along with wine. No decent Aussie meal without proper wine pairing here…

After lunch, we got into our 4WD, heading back to the mainland. The next stop is Rainbow Beach. The colorful sand is not in the full spectrum of the rainbow colors as one would imagine, but more in the tone of earthy red. From the pictures, they may look like different color of rock formation, but it is indeed sand. The cliffs are made of compressed sand. No one should be climbing on it. I am sure it experienced lots of erosion being exposed to the open nature.

We were still on the beach then, trying to cross a narrow section of the beach before the tide comes in. It would reduce our return trip by half hour drive on rocky road if we can get across to the other side of the beach. We all were enthusiastically hopeful to make the crossing. It was close but the driver did it!!! We had a nice tea break afterward before dashing back on another hour of open beach driving. After a bit of rest, we were well awarded with a nice dinner at Muse. I had New Zealand Kingfish with a nice glass of pinot noir.

This trip is well recommended if you are in the area. I don’t know if I would pay top dollar just to come here. But as an extension to an Aussie holiday, it is a must do in this part of the world.