Trip Summary: 2025 Sunshine Coast

 The 2025 Queensland Trip to Celebrate Retirement!

The trip's objective was to celebrate full retirement and learn to adopt to slow travel and the idea of staying in one place.

The road trip was fanastic with lots of wonderful places found and lots more to go back and spend more time at.

The two weeks at Caloundra was fun and enjoyable , but we think that next time we will try one week at a time for each place, especially on the first visit.

Total klm's 5,100

OutBound

Homeward bound 1

The back road option on the Toowomba to Tamworth section went astray with flooding on roads, hence the left hand turn , but wass nice to see Texas and Tenterfield.
Armidale was a very nice town and overnight stop

Homeward Bound 2

Final days to home

The final two days of this wonderful holiday were mainly travelling around 5 hours per day , with stops at some nice towns on the way.

The two hotels we stayed at were very good , the Coach inn in Giliganra and the  Camilia Motel in Narrandera both very clean with good beds and facilities.

Suggestions from both saw us having dinner at the Imperial in Giliganra ( two for one on Wednesdays) and the RSL in Narrandera.

Day two also stopped at Tocumwal and Nagambie both very nice towns worth a revisit.

Day 21 Armidale Nundle Tamworth Coonabarabran

Nice night in Armidale good hotel. 
Very nice drive to Nundle perhaps some of the best we have yet on the trip.
The wool mill at Nundle was interesting being one of only a couple of wool mills in Australia

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At Tamworth it was the golden guitar , the wax museum of country music. Interesting and even knew most people displayed.
Followed by a nice drive to Coonabarabran for the night 

Days. 18 to 20 Toowoomba to Armidale

After leaving the sunshine cost we spent a wonderful 2 days catching up with the sister in law and children.  
Toowoomba has a number of great things to see and we included a wonderful lunch at picnic point 

Monday morning saw us on the road toward Tamworth but a great maybe not so great idea to take the back roads saw us hitting water covered flood ways. Not something I really wanted to try for the first time in a place I didn't have mobile access etc. so a detour which was very pleasant saw us across to Texas and then over on the New England highway with lunch at   Tender field , an interesting town worthy of a future visit to explore and stopping for the night at Armadale which is a very pretty town also.

Day. 17 Last day. Kayak swimming relaxing

The rain has stopped and this morning was a good kayak followed by a beach swim. A late lunch and relax for this afternoon as we prepare to head off in the morning

Day 16 a rainy relaxing day

So a rainy day but very relaxing with a drive to golden beach for a Thai lunch which was very nice but not quite ped standard

A walk this afternoon during a lul in the rain watching the bigger waves crashing in. Funny enough most people out and about looked like fellow melbournities!

An interesting part was the Main Street pavement stars. The sad part I remembered almost all, the stars have been there a while.

Day 15 rain easy day

A rainy day spent reading and relaxing with a nice lunch out
And a nice walk along the headland ANZAC memorial walk

Day. 14. Touring the Glass House Mountains

A rainy day so a road trip around the glass house mountain area.

Lovely day great views starting with the rain forest stop which includes the best views of the outcrops.
Followed by a waterfall walk and then a very nice lunch at the CJ Pastry bakery at glass mountain township including a curry lamb pie with Angela having a nice toasted BLT

Day 13 Beach Lunch at Surf life Saving Club

Another relaxing day with swimming and eating lunch at the surf life saving club. Meal was ok but not great scenery was great.

Caloundra surf life saving club

Day 12. Markets followed by Lunch at the beach front

Very nice relaxing day with a walk down to the markets in the morning. Then a walk down to the beach front for lunch. Followed by a swim in the afternoon. 

Over 12000 steps plus 45 minutes swimming but still a relaxing day

Caloundra street market 

Day 11 kayak and swim day

Nice calm weather to go and try the southern end of the inlet at Donnybrook. This turned out to a bust with the low tide restricting water to the middle so a detour down to sandstone point next to the bribie island bridge.

The bay here is also fairly shallow with a strong tidal movement. But a nice paddle anyway

Back home for a swim at the beach this afternoon 18c water and very nice afternoon.

Day 10 lunch in Mooloolaba

Day started with a swim in the ocean not bad but still fairly lively, good fun.
Followed by a Nice day trip to Mooloolaba and Maroochydore with Lunch at a very nice cafe below the mantra.
The beach front was undergoing reconstruction so it felt more like a building site.

Day 9 sightseeing Noosa

A day of site seeing starting with a visit to the ginger factory. Nut world and the coffee world all in the same street! 
Ginger world was nice with a bit to see and do. The nut world has great coffee from a local roaster at umunundi. The nuts were great and we stocked up on snacks. The coffee place was a bit ordinary. 

Onto Noosaville for a wool shop sew red hen quick visit 

The down to Noosa for the obligatory cruise down the strip. Ok but not for us 

Back from beach found a nice Vietnamese restaurant serving delicious Thai noodles. 
Which we then ate on sunrise beach down the road wander back down the coast as the rain started to threaten a bigger downpour. 

Day 8 kayak in the inlet

Pumistone inlet qld  

Today was a great day to go kayaking, after a rest day yesterday, launched at Caloundra and headed south down the pumistone inlet, stopping off for a lunch break on a part of bribie island. 9klm round trip.
Interesting inlet with a lot of shallows and mangroves along most of the shore lines. Bird and fish life were plentiful even a smooth ray was about.  

Afternoon was a walk to the shops and general browse around

Day 6 settle in day

First full day of Sunshine Coast retired speed vacation.  So relax we have 13 days to go here.

Started with a Nice walk along the shore front in the morning, seeing where to maybe launch a kayak when the wind drops as expected on Wednesday and all the popular eating places. 

The recent cyclone has changed the sea passage between bribe osland and the mainland, which means the calmer water is further south.

Afternoon was a quiet walk along the shop strip mall just to see what was there. 
Nice place and lots to do and see

The apartment 

Day 5 Grafton to Caloundra.

A travel day setting off after a good night in Grafton. 

Interesting town worthy of future exploration on another trip 
Exploring the coast off the main highway via tourist route 26 some wonderful towns and rivers, rivers and countryside  towns like Woodbury had a nice market, Evans head had nice river, beach and township , and Broadwater with its sugar factory.

Onto Gold Coast but with major roadworks gave up on that idea and back to the freeway to continue up to Caloundra 

Finally arriving at the apartment that will be home for next 14 nights. 

Nice place and should serve well for this stay 

Quite night after 5 days on the road

Day 4 Forster to Grafton

 Today started with a drive around the lakes on the Great Lake drive. Then the scenic route 10 to port Macquarie , lunch at the hotel on the beach front. then up the highway to Grafton ready to push on the Sunshine Coast tomorrow

Day 3 Sydney to Forster

Travel day but hugging the coast , some really nice towns and rivers beach fronts along the way. Stop at Newcastle with it nice beaches and surf, saw a  coal train with 100 carriages , stopped early at Forster. 
overall a wet cold day kept walking etc down.

Day 2 sydney

A nice easy travel day starting with a coffee at the Goulburn trapper bakery, a very nice place to take a break just off the freeway and next to the giant merino. Goulburn is sheep country. 

Stopped at the Olympic park outlets for a spot of shopping and kill time before apartment was ready 

Night was a catchup with old work team great night 

Apartment was great with city views and well located

Qld day 1 travel

day one of the Sunshine Coast road trip.

A travel day to reach Goulburn 

 A cold wet start for our drive north, stops along the way, lunch at chiltern , a rather nice town just off the freeway, a stop for the night at Goulburn with dinner at the same place we eat 8 years ago. Still a good meal.

The big merino  Goulburn