As we slowly move off from Gold Coast and head up north towards Sunshine Coast, we were looking forward to the last leg of our road trip which started from Brisbane. We will be driving to our next airbnb – Laura’s Cottage located at Hunchy near Montville which is a little town in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland which has an altitude of 400m.
Day 10 and 11 – Montville / Maleny
The whole drive took more than 2 hours with a lunch stopover and we met our friendly host Laura who gave us a tour of the cottage. Our kids were busy playing with the dogs and feeding the sheep within the compound. The cottage offers a double bed in the master bedroom with ensuite toilet and shower, sofa bed (for the kids) in the living room, a well-equipped open concept kitchen and a nice balcony platform to chill out. This cottage idea is part of Laura’s plan to supplement her retirement while providing people with an opportunity to stay in a cottage as her adult kids moved out to the big city to work.
After we were more or less settled into the cottage, we head to their small laid back town of Montville where you could find very interesting shops and nice cafes (but most of them close quite early). There was slight drizzling when we were there, thus making it a really chilly day as the town is located near the top of the mountainous region. We visited a chocolate shop “Country Chocolate” and even surprisingly found a nice authentic Japanese’s restaurant (Edamame At Montville) where we had a great dinner there (really nice to find nice hot food cooked by Japanese owners at the top of the mountainous area with a google rating at 4.5 out of 5)
Next morning, we head out to the Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve to hike along their treks where we saw sightings of birds and wild animals within the sub-tropical rainforest. They have trees which were hundreds of years old and have a very nice interactive discovery centre that we could learn more about the living habitats within the reserve before we start the actual trek. Our kids even have a nice Junior Ranger Explorer pack which contains binoculars, magnifying glass and some activities designed for the children to do while trekking. We had our lunch at a very nice cafe – Mountain View Cafe where you have a panorama view of the beautiful Glass House Mountains district of Queensland.
Next, we went to Maleny Boardwalk where you could spot wild platypus (and luckily we did spotted some) and then we went to buy some really nice chocolate from Maleny Chocolate Co where all the delicious chocolates are done on site. We managed to get back to our cottage just before nightfall for our last night before heading towards our next destination at Noosa Heads.
We bided farewell to our nice friendly host Laura, her sheeps and dogs which our kids adore before heading to Noosa Heads for the white sandy beach in Sunshine Coast. We drove about an hour before we reach a nice coastal shopping strip with nice cafes and restaurants along Noosa Heads Main Beach. The kids ran straight to the beach for the waves and sands.
Next, we went to Noosa National park to do some trekking and along the way we saw loads of surfers along the coastal trails. They have quite a number of coastal treks which you can choose which ranges from an easy 1.8km return to the challenging 10.8km return which could also bring you to Sunshine Beach. As we were still tired after playing at the beach, we just went to the coastal trek up to the dolphin point to explore before we head back.
Day 12 – Noosa (Sunshine Coast)
We head out to the Ingenia Holidays Noosa caravan park which is just like 20 – 30 mins drive away to turn in for the night. Coincidentally, they are having one of their weekly pizza night where a pizza truck drove into the caravan park where we had really delicious pizza for our dinner while star gazing. The kids love the bunk bed in the small cabin but its nice and cosy inside as it gets really cold at night.
At the caravan park, I could see a lot of retirees travelling across the country via their caravan which is a attractive holiday option for the locals there. Australia is so huge that it will take a long time to see most part of it and the biggest asset they have there are loads of nature to explore. We did not spend a lot of money there as most outdoor activities like trekking is mostly free. A lot of people might say that their food or groceries are expensive but the two biggest expenses like housing and cars are still much lower than what we pay for in Singapore. You can even bring the cost further down if you were to stay in the suburbs, a caravan, tiny house but we do not have that option to do that in Singapore. Overall, their cost of living is still lower than us if you factor in these two large expenses as shown in this Numbeo website which shows cost of living between two countries.
Day 13 and 14 – Brisbane Airport
Lastly, we went to stay at the Novotel airport hotel near Brisbane Airport where we did some last minute outlet shopping “DFO Brisbane” before we head back to Singapore on the following day.
Overall, it was a really nice relaxing holiday for us and the kids love the road trip adventure so much. Two weeks is the right time frame where you could really unplugged from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives yet start to miss home. This is part of our slow travel plans going forward where you do not drive more than two or three hours each day, having lesser and flexible activities so that you do not feel you are rushing all over the place just to checked off the number of attractions you aimed to go for.
Thanks for reading our travelogue series and will continue to share more about our travel adventures soon!
You could see the first two parts of our road trip as below:
Travelogue Series 2023 – Queensland/Brisbane Road Trip Part 1 of 3 (Brisbane City – Springhill)
Our expenses are listed as below for your reference.
