Mooloolaba and Rainbow Beach

Next up we drove north from the Gold Coast, past Brisbane and to the Sunshine Coast area.  First stay was in Mooloolaba, another beachside town with lots of waterfront homes & harbours, a popular holiday destination.  Only had time for some walking around before heading off the next day - a nice enough little spot, but still a bit too "polished touristy" for us at this time.

Main beach as seen from the spit.

Looking back towards the spit.

We drove a lot further north to Rainbow Beach next.  It's a very small town, with not much besides small holiday condos and hostels catering to visitors going to/returning from Fraser Island - the world's largest sand island - which is just to the north.  The name comes from the multicoloured sand cliffs that surround the beach and bay.

First night at our hostel, just before sunset, we joined a group walk up to the Carlo Sandblow - a sand dune-like area that flows down to the beach below.  I gave sand sliding/surfing a shot, though the sand was loose so you had to find a steep area in order to generate any respectable speed.

Sand's up!

Looking out to the bay and point where I would take a surf lesson in 2 days.

Sliding down the sand - fun, but only for about 7 seconds.

Finally looking a little wind-blown and sun-exposed.  In my case, the overly-long hair helps.

There are, perhaps not surprisingly, many Subaru Outbacks in Australia.  Even more common are SUVs fitted with elaborate bush bumpers and snorkels, such as the above.  I would say no more than 5% of those SUVs have seen some outback and forded flooding streams - the rest are shiny and new and have probably never seen a serious dirt road.  Still, a better fashion statement than a Hummer.

The rainbow cliffs as seen from the point break on the far side of the bay.  (More on surfing later.)

Rainbow cliffs.

Our hostel - pretty good for a high-volume young backpacker place.  24-hour coffee always helps.  :-)

We took a drive to the north of town, to the peninsula just below Franklin Island.  Sarah drove for the first time, then handed the keys back to me when the drive was over...

A very rare cache of beer bottle litter near the tip of the point.  Stubbies - how very early-1990s-Canada...

Looking out towards Franklin Island from the top of the peninsula.  I wonder what that sign says?

Ah, probably a good policy.

We decided not to visit Franklin Island, though it's supposed to be really nice.  It was quite expensive and time-consuming to get transport to the island and to stay overnight - even a day trip was about $150 each.  So we decided to save our money for another surf lesson for me, and a short dive/snorkel trip to the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns, far to the north.

Rainbow beach was small, slow-paced and relaxed, and finally let us feel like we were on vacation as opposed to "travelling."  Good stuff.