Kickin' back on the Sunny Coast

So much for enjoying the sunshine - we have a wet weekend ahead. Ah well, gives me time to post up some holiday snaps.

First off a wine tasting tour with Nev at (the highly recommended) http://www.sunshinewinetours.com.au/ - after we were picked up the driver / tour guide cracked open a bottle of sparkling wine to get us in the mood. It was 9.30am.



We visited a couple of wineries - by far the best being Mason Wines for both their wines and the spiel (and generous samples) of the guy in the shop. Their Petit Verdot is amazing.

We also found the time for some site-seeing - the Glasshouse Mountains were particuarly beautiful that day

and it was clear enough to see the towers of Brisbane in the distance (far right)

 As well as the olde-worlde charm of Montville

 and dinner at 'The Edge' - this view from our table!

During the rest of the week there was of course lots of time at the beach

and some Baywatch style antics - this pic posted to prove to the guys in the UK who I'm going climbing with next year that I'm not sandbagging when I say how out of condition I am!

How do you get a physique like that? I'd suggest lots of this...(Alex Headland surf club)

accompanied by plenty of this (Chicken Parmigiana with a seafood topping) 

worked off by plenty of this - the joy of lazyboys. And comfy chairs too...

There was plenty of activities to do if you were so inclined, and I blush to think of what my more active friends would think of me lounging around when I could have been doing this

 or, further up the evolutionary tree, this

As it was, the only exercise I managed was a ride on the BMX early one morning (with accompanying magpie strike - 3 solid impacts on the side of my helmet!)

The coastal paths are teeming with exercisers on the Sunshine Coast - power walkers, runners, PT classes - and it looks like you need a fitness test before you can buy a property up there. I also encountered a social group even more dismissive of other people than middle aged men riding road bikes on shared use bikeways - exercising pensioners. I got tutted by a posse of older ladies strung out across the pathway because I rode on the grass at the side of the path to avoid them!

There was also the chance to see strange wildlife, both out in the wild (this is some kind of giant sea snake I think)

and in 'Underwater World', a theme park / zoo in Maroochydore. They had seals

some very cute otters

 odd sea-horsey things

 lots of barramundi

and other beautiful underwater beasties

Best of all an impressive plexiglass underwater tunnel that threaded it's way through a large aquarium

This meant you could get up close & personal with all types of fish 

 Although some were more friendly looking than others

I went a bit nuts taking pictures of sharks - it's hard to get a good shot under low light and through plexiglass and slightly hazy water, and my camera skills are not the most developed. So I ended up guessing random settings on the camera and snapping away for what must have seemed like hours. Fortunately I have a very patient girlfriend! I'll do a full 'shark pictures' thread later on if you're really lucky....