Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Noosa - Day 4 & 5

Day 4

Day 4 was the start of the road trip out of Gold Coast. We proceeded to Mount Tamborine, which is about an hour drive from Gold Coast. This is a small mountain and it was relatively easy to drive up.

I woke up early in the morning to take some pictures of the sunrise since this was the last day of our stay at Narrowneck court apartments. Wow, the sunrise was beautiful. As you can see, the apartment is just beside the ocean. Would definitely recommend this place to stay for anyone planning to travel to Gold Coast.

Off we go to Mount Tamborine early in the morning at 8:30am. We went to pump some petrol first as I heard petrol is relatively cheaper in the city. For the first 3 days, we only use $20 of petrol. Driving in Australia is really not expensive at all.

At Mount Tamborine, there are a few places we went. First, it was the gallery walk where there are many local shops which sells quite interesting stuffs such as glass sculptures, olden clocks and also wineries plus some cafes. It was quite quiet when we were there probably as it was not a holiday that day.

Next, we went to Jasmine organics. This is a place where they grow and make their own organic products such as facial cleansers, moisturisers and other skin care products. It was quite a nice place as you can see below:

Jasmine Organics

After that, we proceeded to drive to Curtis falls which is a famous waterfall there. It was a 15 minutes walk down to the waterfall area from the car park. The waterfall isn't very big so if you've seen much better waterfalls, then this isn't really that spectacular.

Curtis Falls

On the way out of Curtis Falls, there is a look-out place nearby called the Rotary lookout. This place is worth a stop by to take some pictures

Rotary lookout

Next we went to some wineries namely witches fall winery and also the famous tamborine mountain distillery. Do take note they do charge each person for wine tasting. The taste of the wines there are quite special especially the tamborine mountain distillery where we got to try some special ones like roasted coffee, peach and some vodka too.

For lunch, there's a nearby place called the local Codfather which was recommended on TripAdvisor. The cod fish there is really good with generous portion. Do check it out if you're there.

From Mount Tamborine, we drove straight to Brisbane which is another hour away. The road in Australia is really smooth with no traffic jams during the 8 days when I was there.

In Brisbane, we stayed at Econo Lodge City Star Brisbane. Its strategically located near to the heart of the city at an affordable price. We booked the family room which has one double bed and 2 single beds in one room. There are fast food restaurants nearby such as Macdonalds, KFC and subway.

After we check in, we went to take a walk near to the famous Brisbane river just when the sun was about to set.

It was quite nice to see the sun setting behind all the skyscrapers

We walked further down to take the city hopper, which is a free ferry ride that goes to various parts of the CBD. It was only a 5 minutes ride across the river into the heart of the CBD.

There were quite a lot of people walking around in their business attire in the evening which I suppose is their off work hours. It was only about 5:30pm. For dinner, we just settled for KFC which we wanted to try how their KFC taste like. Their KFC came with fries again... They really like fries. Surprisingly the fries was quite tasty. You should give it a try if you're there.

We took a long walk back to our apartment. I think in Brisbane, we really walked a lot as it was difficult to drive and find parking. The whole walking took about an hour plus.


Day 5

In the morning, we went to have breakfast at a Vietnamese restaurant called Cafe O Mai. Oh man, the food here was really good, tasted similar to what I have eaten in Vietnam before. We ordered the beef Pho and the Vietnamese baguette. Really good food here and plenty of place to park along the road side.

After breakfast, it was time to check out and proceed for the long drive up to the farm stay place. We wanted to visit the Brisbane street beach but unfortunately, I couldn't find any parking nearby and it was quite late already so we had to give up that place. Such a pity actually.

The drive up to the farm would take about 2 hours plus. As it was a long drive, I planned some breaks in between for us to rest and also buy groceries up to the farm for dinner.

The first stop was glass house mountains. Its a scenic drive to the glass house mountains look-out which you can locate easily using google maps GPS.

The road to glass house mountains. Pretty tall trees along the road

At glass house mountains look out

Explanation on how the mountains was formed and how it was discovered

The mountain on the left is the famous glass house mountain

Its worth a visit to this place if you're travelling to sunshine coast or noosa. Makes a great pit stop for a rest.

After this, we went to a small town called Nambour. No tourists here at all, really its authentic Australia at this place. There was a large pharmacy here selling discounted supplements which is much cheaper than in Singapore. There's also a large supermarket, Woolsworth here where we bought most of the ingredients for the 2 dinners at the farm. We had lunch at a small Chinese restaurant, near to the supermarket. Quite expensive for a plate of fried rice at $12 and fried hor fun at $12 too but portion was very big. 2 plates is enough for 4 people.

After Nambour, its the drive to Rosecliffe cottage where we will be staying at the farm for 2 nights. The drive up to the farm was gravel road with very sleep up and down slopes. I was really worried if the car could take it but it did eventually survived.

Once we were up there, the views were amazing. Really worth the drive up here. They had many animals on the farm which you can see in the pictures below

The view at Rosecliffe Cottage

Donkey

This horse is pregnant so they put a cloth over her

More Horses

A cow that looks like panda

Cow with her baby

A special type of animal called Llama

The house there is a small cottage with one bedroom, one bathroom, a living room and kitchen. They also have a BBQ pit outside at the backyard with a hood which we did BBQ for the 2 nights there.

It was quite fun actually to BBQ at the farm which was up in the mountains. At the farm, there is only us and another family in another cottage plus the host themselves living in another house. Just 3 house in a secluded farm. It was really quiet and peaceful at night not forgetting the many stars which could be seen at night. 

That's the end of day 5.

Day 6 continues here. 

For more of my Australia trip, click on the link below:

1. 8 days in Australia [Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Noosa] - Planning tips and Day 1
2. Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Noosa - Day 2 & 3

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