Christmas on the Beach (Noosa Beach – December 23-26)

We arrived at the Brisbane airport at 10:30 in the evening.  We had been told by the concierge at the hotel that we could catch a bus straight to the hotel (which was about an hour and a half away).  We made sure they knew that we would be coming in late and double checked that the bus would be running…we were assured that it would.  I know I should have done more research but I didn’t and for sure the bus wasn’t running after 9:00 pm.  Our only option was to take a taxi for about $350 or hire a private car for $300.  I negotiated a better deal with the taxi driver and we ended up spending $250.  Our taxi driver was hilarious.  We couldn’t understand a word he said but he kept talking to us…he had the redneck version of an Australian accent.  At one point he pulled over at a gas station to use the bathroom.  He then got lost.  I think he may be the only person I know that doesn’t have a cell phone so Adam called the hotel to get directions, the driver was talking to the hotel and couldn’t read the road sign so Adam read it for him but the driver totally got it wrong on the phone…it took everything in us not to burst out laughing at him trying to describe where we were by mispronouncing everything.  Thank goodness he said the directions out loud because he forgot them and Adam and I had to direct him to the hotel.  It was one of those situations where you wonder if you may be on Candid Camera. 
Unfortunately the weather reported rain for the entire time we were in Noosa and Brisbane, so our first full day there was wandering around the beach shops and eating some amazing food and gelato.  We had Christmas eve dinner at a wonderful little pizza place called Zachary’s. 
Christmas morning we woke up to SUNSHINE well a small amount of sun poking through a lot of gray clouds.  We got up to go to the beach before the sun went away and forgot our sunscreen…I assumed that we would be OK for a short time and I didn’t want to risk losing the one bit of sun by running back for sunscreen.  We both ended up Christmas red after an hour before heading up for lunch (and to pick up the sunscreen).  We sat at the pool under an umbrella for the rest of the afternoon.  The popular thing to do on Christmas day is to go out for a big lunch; we decided to go out for a big dinner instead.  We came back to the hotel and watched White Christmas.

can you see the rain?

Christmas Eve Dinner at Zachary's...next year we will have Christmas Eve Dinner WITH Zachary