From kayaking to advantageous eating, the Sunshine Coast’s attraction streches far inland from its golden sands
The Sunshine Coast is the proper vacation spot for a solo winter connoisseur getaway, writes Miriyana Alexander.
Prawns. Lobster. Oysters. Snapper. Scallops. Tuna. Salmon. Mussels. Crab. Calamari.
Carpaccio. Grilled. Deep-fried. Crumbed. On skewers, in bao and with the tastiest tequila-and-lime mayo.
I ate roughly 27kg of seafood on my first day on the Sunshine Coast. Okay, not fairly, but it surely was a deliciously decadent welcome again to one in every of my favorite locations.
Six hours after leaving soggy Auckland I used to be in 26C warmth, consuming my first prawn. Twist off the top, open the shell like a ebook and pinch the tail. Dunk in that ubiquitous, tangy seafood sauce and repeat. Heaven.
Fourteen hours after departing New Zealand, a canal cruise, Champagne and all that seafood later, I fell into the perfect sleep I’d had in weeks. Although perhaps it was a meals coma.
When visiting the Sunshine Coast, attempt a Thai cooking class on the Spirit Home, an award-winning restaurant and cooking college at Yandina, about 35 minutes from Noosa. Photograph / Go to Sunshine Coast
When it’s been raining endlessly, it may well really feel prefer it’ll by no means be sunny once more. Now there’s a fast treatment in your Vitamin D deficiency, courtesy of Air New Zealand’s seasonal Auckland to Sunshine Coast direct flight.
Working til mid-October and leaving Auckland on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays on the respectable hour of 9am, you might be within the solar by lunchtime.
I took benefit of the primary flight on the path to do a fast solo hop final month, to high up my depleted sunshine and seafood shares.
The Sunny Coast has lengthy been a wonderful foodie vacation spot. Buderim ginger, prawns, macadamia nuts, mangoes and strawberries characteristic excessive on my favourites record, however there’s rather more to it than that. And now the area’s fare is being celebrated with its personal competition.
The Curated Plate, a 10-day, 40-event affair, kicks off Friday, showcasing the mouth-watering wares of producers from the coast to the hinterland.
If this 12 months’s occasion is simply too tight a turnaround, bookmark it for subsequent 12 months – the programme will attraction to the fussiest gourmand.
Picnics, banquets, lengthy lunches, a craft-drinks crawl, foraging, designing your dream espresso mix, farm-to-fork feeds and a whisky and chocolate masterclass are simply a number of the highlights on the menu.
I used to be fortunate sufficient to style a number of the Sunny Coast’s most interesting meals throughout my go to and located becoming a member of native excursions and experiences good for when time is tight and also you’re travelling solo.
Listed here are three of my favourites:
Trawler to the Desk, Mooloolaba
It was straight off the airplane to The Wharf precinct at Mooloolaba, to hitch Artistic Excursions’ trawler-to-table cruise, a Curated Plate spotlight.
A glass of ice-cold bubbles was in my hand as quickly as I boarded the Duffy, a small electrical vessel that hosts personal excursions on native waterways. Gotta love that Aussie hospitality.
First up was a tiki tour across the Minyama Island canals, house to a number of the coast’s costliest properties. Aussie royalty, the Irwins, have a home right here, but it surely wasn’t theirs that set a latest gross sales file of $12 million.
Property ogling over, it was time to take care of the actual enterprise of the cruise – a behind-the-scenes have a look at the native fisheries business.
Round 120 fishing boats name Mooloolaba house, making it one of many greatest seafood ports on Australia’s jap seaboard. The export-quality day by day catch contains every little thing from Spanish mackerel and spanner crab to tuna and snapper.
Queensland is a seafood lover’s dream. Photograph / Go to Sunshine Coast
We jumped off on the Mooloolah River Fisheries, a well-known wholesaler and public market, the place come Christmas, it’s open for 36 hours straight to cope with the fever-pitch demand.
Queues kind within the early hours of December 23, and when the mud clears, 40 tonnes of prawns can have been bought for Christmas Day festive feasting.
We didn’t get that carried away, however our platter of glistening contemporary prawns acquired devoured briefly order.
Then it was again to The Wharf, the place the feast continued lengthy into the afternoon at See Restaurant, Mooloolaba’s solely over-water eating spot.
It was one chic seafood mouthful after the subsequent, although my standouts had been the deep-fried snapper and the salmon and tuna carpaccio.
Some days are simply higher than others.
creativetours.com.au
A Style of Noosa, Joel’s Journeys
A blackboard signal welcomes you to the Noosa Chocolate Manufacturing facility, tucked away in an industrial space of Noosaville.
“Chocolate comes from cocoa. Which is a tree. That makes it a plant. Subsequently, chocolate is a salad.”
Onerous agree. And a sensible advertising and marketing transfer if my bank card receipt is any information.
Specialising in handcrafted chocolate, the manufacturing facility is churning out every kind of mouthwatering flavours. Reportedly well-known for its contemporary rocky street, I discovered it more durable to decide on between the handfuls of different unique creations.
Finally, macadamias lined in mango chocolate, a ginger darkish chocolate slab, a smashed raspberry block and a blueberry jelly slab discovered their manner into my bag. Some even made it house to New Zealand. (Declared, clearly.)
The chocolate cease was one of many highlights of a Style of Noosa tour with Joel’s Journeys, run by founder Joel McPherson.
He’s simply been named Queensland’s high tour information – spend a day on one in every of his personal or shared bespoke meals, artwork or outside excursions and also you’ll see why. He’s stuffed with the fun of life, captivated with taking care of the land and supporting native.
Take Artistic Excursions’ trawler-to-table cruise on the Duffy, a small electrical vessel that hosts personal excursions on Sunshine Coast’s native waterways. Photograph / Go to Sunshine Coast
Make your manner across the different stops on the tour (Belmondos Natural Market, espresso on the Flying West Roasters, lunch on the hip new eatery The Doonan, and a scrumptious gin tasting on the Seabourne Distillery) and McPherson will regale you with tales of sustainability, the good outside, indigenous tradition and Noosa’s UNESCO-awarded biosphere designation.
Given to recognise areas that show a balanced relationship between people and nature, Noosa is one in every of three neighbouring Sunshine Coast Biosphere Reserves, the one place on this planet the place three sit side-by-side.
He nails it although. Lots of the artisans we visited cited the nice fortune of first-class native produce as important to their success. Take care of the ocean and the land, and it’ll take care of you.
Spirit Home Thai cooking class, Yandina
After I say I’m not a home goddess, I’m not joking. I’m not the cut-myself-chopping-an-onion kind, it’s extra that I keep out of the kitchen solely – except we’re speaking one thing easy like marmite on toast. Fortunately, my husband is a stellar cook dinner or we’d be in bother.
So it was with some trepidation that I lined up for a Thai cooking class on the Spirit Home, an award-winning restaurant and cooking college at Yandina, about 35 minutes from Noosa. (Until you’re like me, and get barely misplaced. One draw back of travelling solo: no navigator).
However Thai is the takeaway of alternative in our family, so I used to be decided to select up some abilities to impress the whānau.
The chef placing our “Artwork of Thai Curries” class by means of its paces was Simon Blaby. A former head chef on the restaurant, he was the proper mixture of calm, authoritative and inspiring as we 16 college students peeled, chopped, floor, blitzed, fried and stirred our technique to Thai curry perfection.
On the menu had been Khao Soi Gai (hen with turmeric, coriander and mustard greens); Hor Mok Goong (banana leaf wrapped prawn curry with contemporary coconut and kaffir lime leaves); Hung Lai Moo (pork stomach curry with pickled garlic, ginger and peanuts); and a black pepper panna cotta with strawberry and Thai basil granita.
Queensland’s Sunshine Coast is the best spot for a connoisseur getaway. Photograph / Go to Sunshine Coast
Over a number of hours we made the curry pastes from scratch, butterflied prawns, chopped hen and pork, and scraped granita, all of the whereas being given insider recommendations on one of the simplest ways to get true Thai scorching, bitter, candy and salty flavours to sing.
Better of all, we acquired to sit down down collectively to eat it for lunch. It was completely scrumptious. Clearly, given we’d made it.
spirithouse.com.au
Guidelines
SUNSHINE COAST
GETTING THERE
Air New Zealand’s seasonal direct Auckland to the Sunshine Coast service operates 3 times every week, till October. airnz.co.nz
DETAILS
visitsunshinecoast.com
visitnoosa.com.au