Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Noosa, Australia - Travel with Leanne and Lyle
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Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/
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Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with Kristen and Carol. I am Kristen and I am Carol, and we're two long-term friends with a passion for travel and adventure.
Speaker 2:Each episode we interview people around the globe to help us decide where to go next. In today's episode, we are meeting with Leanne and Lyle from the Beach Travel Wine Podcast and we're learning all about the Sunshine Coast and the beautiful town of Noosa, just north of Brisbane in Australia. Enjoy, hi, leanne and Lyle, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Hi, carol and Kristen, nice to be here, nice to meet you.
Speaker 2:Good morning. Thank you for joining us and being willing to share your experience. You guys are locals to Australia, is that right?
Speaker 3:Yes, we live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and Noosa forms part of the Sunshine Coast.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I was just looking it up. So it looks like the Sunshine Coast is about 60 miles. I don't know if that resonates with you the miles or kilometres north of Brisbane.
Speaker 3:Is that correct? I don't know miles, but that, if that's what it says, I agree. And uh, yeah, and we pronounce it Brisbane, which is crazy, I know yeah, like Brisbane, brisbane yep, wonderful.
Speaker 1:I love your your podcast photo of the two of you thank you.
Speaker 3:Took a bit of dutch courage to get that one right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh that's great, oh yeah thank you, yeah, so I love it. So it's a travel podcast for beach loving, wine drinking couples over 50 perfect fantastic, and I see you've got quite a number of episodes. How long have you been doing your podcast?
Speaker 3:we started in may, actually in last year. So, yeah, we just been, we started and loved it and got such great response and you know we just kept going. Yeah, it's a bit of a buzz, do it. You know, being able to podcast and help people and tell you, tell really good travel stories.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what was? How did you guys come up with that?
Speaker 3:I've been thinking about doing a podcast for a while, because you know, when you come home from a trip and you know you have those people that you start talking to and their eyes glaze over. They're not the ones I'm talking about, the ones that you know that really want to know everything. You know. So where did you go and what did you eat and what was that like and how much did that cost, and you know, and they just want to know all the details. And we just started, sort of we start, we're telling stories, and I thought actually we're pretty, you know, we go away a bit. We're pretty knowledgeable. I, you know, we tell good stories, like you know how, about we do a podcast? And I, I had to sort of, um, you know, keep, keep the idea rolling with Lyle, didn't I you?
Speaker 5:know, I just do as I'm told good husband, right?
Speaker 3:yeah, and so you know, once we got to um, we, we headed off and I bought like a couple little microphones and and um, we headed off last year and I said to I was sitting, our first stop was Paris. And I said, if we don't start now, you know we probably won't. And so we just sat down and and just did one a podcast and, yeah, it just worked and we just loved it and and um, it was fun. You know, that was the thing. It was so much fun and Paris.
Speaker 5:You know, if you're not going to enjoy Paris, there's some something wrong with you so it was a pretty good uh place to start yeah yeah, you picked Paris and just curious your lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Do you both work? Do you work remotely? Are you retired? What's uh, how is what? Do you do?
Speaker 3:well, I used to say we're retired now, so we're travel podcasters. Yeah, yeah, no, um, yeah, we, we are retired, yes oh fantastic.
Speaker 1:How long have you two been retired? 2019 oh wow, right before the pandemic, there we go.
Speaker 3:We had. We had one, one good trip, and then we we were sort of stuck in Australia, which is not a bad place to be stuck on. To be honest, we did lots of traveling around our own country, which was fabulous and to a lot of places that we probably would not normally have.
Speaker 5:We probably would have stuck, kept on going to Europe, but because of the pandemic, we went to a whole bunch of places which were fabulous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what were some of your favorite local?
Speaker 2:I have a lot more questions on the podcast.
Speaker 1:But since we're on this subject, it's funny because I live near San Francisco. I still haven't, like I barely go to San Francisco. I'm more inland and I mean it's only 40 minutes away. But it's funny when you kind of step back and you know usually if I've got a kid's event someplace new or something cool and I'm like, oh, this place is kind of neat, kind of funny how you don't explore your backyard. But I'm curious on your side too. Once you explored Australia, where were some places where you were like kind of caught you off guard.
Speaker 3:You really liked and but you know, this is a good place, yeah well, I guess we always thought we would do some of Australia once we'd finished Europe. And you know other. You know other American destinations, south American, north American destinations, but I think, off the top of my head, I'm, I'm going to say Tas, which is the island right at the bottom. A lot of people don't even know we have that, and that is just, I think, two-thirds of it almost a national park. The nature, the landscape is divine, but also the food there, you know, it's a cold climate and they just grow the most amazing produce and they produce the most amazing wine. And we, just we, we ate oysters, uh, nearly every day, and what we call lobsters or crayfish, and drank beautiful wine every day. And it was just amazing, wasn't it?
Speaker 5:yeah, yeah, and I'd probably go the opposite.
Speaker 3:I'd go the top end up and down, which is got kakadadu National Park and a lot of crocodiles yeah, a lot of crocodiles, and it's just a very unique part of Australia, very, very unique it's, yeah, it's very, a very adventurous holiday, yeah yeah, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Now that sounds fantastic. So you, you launched the podcast. Um, what year are you saying? Last year, may in may. Okay, got it. So one year? Okay, got it, yes, and then did you do mostly all of the australian coast, except for, of course, your first one, then in paris or in france no, we did um, france and I'm sorry paris and then some in london, and then we did spain, which went and did a.
Speaker 3:We've done a whole. We spent months in Spain, so we just podcasted everywhere we went there. We didn't realise it was that's how it was going to work out. But you know it's now become a really good resource for people. You know I'm in a few Facebook groups where people travel to Spain and want to ask lots of questions and you know I've got lots of answers and help for them. And you know I've got lots of answers and help for them. And you know people are, you know, just really enjoying that. They can go and think, oh, do I want to go to this city or that city? I'll listen to the podcast. Oh, hang on, I really probably want that one, and you know so that. And then you know my daughter said to me when we were going she said, well, mum, have a go and if you like it, great, keep. If not, you've done a series on Spain, you know, and I thought that's good advice, you know.
Speaker 3:So, off, we went, and we just didn't want to stop when we got back, did we?
Speaker 5:What going to Spain on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Either both.
Speaker 5:But we spent about six months all up in Spain. So we've pretty much. We haven't done it all, but I'd say we've probably done 80% of the towns in Spain.
Speaker 1:Just curious from a financing perspective of someone who would love to do that maybe early retirement or something and cost-wise, how did you fund that or make that happen?
Speaker 3:Spain is a very reasonably priced country. We find it really a lot cheaper than Australia, so I imagine it's a lot cheaper than where you are too. So that made that very easy. I imagine it's a lot cheaper than where you are too, so that made that very easy. And sometimes when you slow down and spend a week in a place, it's a lot cheaper than trying to go to two or three places in a city.
Speaker 3:And when we you know we worked out the cost of, you know, the transport and you know accommodation costs go up because you're not staying as long. You know we figured out we're better off to. You know you can stay longer for a similar price, because you can go to the markets and and get food for breakfast and things and you don't need to be doing tours every day. You can just wander around the city. We do a lot of that, you know. Once, once we're in a city, we don't spend a lot of money entertaining ourselves. We. We just, you know, wander and and explore on our own. So that that's probably how I'd say we we do it. Um, we did set ourselves up for when we retired, to travel.
Speaker 5:So you know there was a bit of planning in that as well yeah, as part of the exit strategy from the business uh, that we sold, we, we had an allocation to go um overseas every year. Yeah, that's what we wanted to do, and so we had to, you know, make sure we, when we sold the business, we had enough money to do that and we took on a lot of financial advice of what was the best way to go. And so far, so good, yeah, but we eventually won out of money.
Speaker 1:Well, it's just helpful to hear that, because I know from your audience, from our audience. You know of people who want to explore the world. I know I do. That's what Carol and I had. The intention of starting this in the first place was to you know, during the pandemic and our kids are still kind of in high school, so it gives us an opportunity to be able to explore before we do our own, although this year I did do we did one episode on South Korea and.
Speaker 1:Bali. And then this summer I went to South Korea and then it's yeah, I promised actually my daughter that I would take her to a BTS concert in April of 2020, right at COVID or right before we didn't know COVID was happening and then it hit the concert got canceled, of course, and she's such a good kid and she was kind of bummed, but she's like okay, and I said you know how about this, when you graduate high school, I'm going to take you to South Korea. And she was like, oh, so that, you know, that was, you know, 2020 and she graduated last year. So I ended up taking her there and then I called the person that on the podcast that I did and said hey.
Speaker 1:I want to meet you. And she said and actually I know her brother-in-law well, so she said come stay with me and then I'm a surfer and she surfs.
Speaker 1:She said I'm going to hook you up in Bali and go to surf with the pros, which I, my me and my kids got to do, which was just an incredible experience and trip as well. So I wonder also on your side, I'm sure you've met a lot of fantastic people, not only through your travels, but also that you've hosted on the podcast. Or do you, while you're traveling, are you just are you meeting the people, or are you finding folks that you know you interview?
Speaker 3:Well, we, we haven't done any interviews yet. We're not as clever as you guys, so we haven't figured that out. I'll tell you about what we've got coming up in a little while, if you like, and how we probably will interview a few people, but we've reached out to other travel podcasters on social media, just because it's so hard to find. Your group and everyone we've connected with has been so great. But we have met people, or, yeah, certainly in our travels.
Speaker 3:You know we were staying in an apartment in Burgos in Spain and you know the guy who owned that said you know my family owns a winery. Would you like to come out? And we're like hello beach travel wine. Yeah, A taxi driver who was recommended to me and know we've met friends that I've, you know, I'm still in contact with and we go to visit when. Yeah, so it's just a great. You know I'll try and reach out if I'm going somewhere. You know, next country I am. We're off to mexico for a little while and I've reached out to a few people that are, you know, on instagram and ask some questions and you know, just really it's a great way to meet people. That's your favourite thing, isn't?
Speaker 5:it. Yeah, that is my favourite thing is meeting new people. But I think that I think a couple of things, especially with the Spanish side of it. The fact that Leanne speaks reasonably good Spanish has been a real asset. I am so proud of her. But, plus the other side of it, it really enhances the holiday because people are so surprised that people from Australia can speak Spanish. And the other thing is normally depending how many glasses of wine we have. But we often just sit there and we'll say do you want to make a new friend? Today, and probably because of our age, we get away with it. We will go up and say hi and just start talking to people, locals, and probably because they feel sorry for us. We've never been rejected. We're going to Italy in May, I think, and we're two people that we met.
Speaker 1:That way we're meeting in Italy you know, I'm in the wine mecca right in San Francisco, napa, and then the beaches are, you know, they're not Southern California. I'm from Southern California and I've lived here for 25 years now, plus, but, yeah, napa, if you ever want to come, I can definitely hook you up there, and then I have a condo in maui. I'm actually going in a week, uh, week and a half or so, and there's a maui uh wine. That's there too. So I should get your address and I can ship you somewhere. You probably want to come and get the wine and, yeah, we yeah we don't monitor it.
Speaker 1:Till why? Yeah, although I want, I wanted to go to australia too, so yeah, well, well we can hook you up with wherever you want to go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Fantastic.
Speaker 1:So what beach are you using as beach travel line? Yes, I think you said you live on the Gold Coast and right next to the beach.
Speaker 3:Sunshine Coast. Yep, and at our we call it the podcast studio, or others would call it the spare bedroom is the Coral Sea.
Speaker 5:Is right outside that window. Yeah what?
Speaker 3:is it, the coral sea, yeah, oh and it's part of coral sea, is part of the pacific ocean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, so you're literally on the water, you just yeah, yeah, it's across the road and the water's there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're very lucky, that's just my memory.
Speaker 4:And did you? Did you move there to retire or have you been living there for a long time?
Speaker 3:I know we moved here. This was part of the the strategy, and we, we found an apartment that, when prices weren't crazy, and, um, you know, we, um yeah, we just bought the first apartment that we walked into, because that's what we do, wow.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at pictures of the Coral Sea and I've got to back up because it's just so beautiful.
Speaker 3:We're at a little place called King's Beach, so on the Sunshine Coast. That will probably give you a good idea exactly where we are.
Speaker 1:California, we have a King's Beach too, oh right, well, that's great, I'll have to look that up and we cannot.
Speaker 3:We can see people at our window surfing, so that's how close we are, which is nice how is the third?
Speaker 1:well, that's going to be carol's question. I don't mean.
Speaker 3:Yes, I know that's coming, so I'll leave it. I'll leave that one, okay sounds good.
Speaker 1:So been doing this a year, you have quite a number of episodes and I know we were going to talk a little bit more about Australia and from a local's perspective and where you're at. That's a huge part of, I know, these conversations of just sharing that our love is not just, you know, going to the Eiffel Tower, which is amazing and beautiful in Paris, but really living there, how that's like and just kind of experiencing that and remote, being able to work, remotely work and then, of course, take your lunch hour to go surf. Right, sounds like you're just curious about where you live specifically. Is there? Is it um, it's developed, obviously, but are there office buildings? Do people work there? Is it more of a resort area?
Speaker 3:uh, the sunshine coast, the whole area. 90 90% of Australians live within five kilometers of the beach. So you know, because it's such a big desert as well, but the Sunshine Coast in particular. A lot of families live here and work here. Yeah, there's a lot of work, isn't there? A lot of that work is probably in tourism as well, like it is a big tourist area, but it's certainly all the time you office. You know all the shopping centres, the office buildings, you know it's all spread out over the Sunshine Coast. So it certainly is a place that people come to live and people some people do live here and drive to Brisbane those 60 miles that you said a couple of times a week, but you know a lot of people are moving here and drive to Brisbane those 60 miles that you said a couple of times a week, but you know a lot of people are moving here. It's one of the fastest growing areas in Australia, so there's all sorts of infrastructure going in to support that as well, isn't?
Speaker 5:there. Yeah Well, it's definitely a lifestyle population. Yes, Lifestyle meaning like oh, that's because of just the weather, the water, and of course, in Australia everybody swims and it's a big surfing community as well.
Speaker 3:It's a real outdoor lifestyle here and lots of families, young families, just love that. You know, just the parks, playgrounds, along the beach, and you know we have what we call nippers here, which is like surf lifesaving for kids. You know that's big, you know. So they learn to become lifesavers and they learn.
Speaker 2:Lifeguards yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:But they learn being safe in the surf, sort of skills you know.
Speaker 5:And that starts from about six.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And upwards.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a big we had the same.
Speaker 1:I grew up in redondo beach in southern california and we had all the lifeguard programs I never did it shockingly. I'd go to the beach but I I'd see them all on the beach and the kids and and what's the? I'm assuming it's very warm. I'm curious if it's like what the?
Speaker 3:the temperature yeah, I should have probably worked out that the fahrenheit. We're in celsius. The last few days it's been really quite unusually warm, for here, typical summer is between sort of 28 to 30 degrees Celsius, which probably need to figure that out for you.
Speaker 3:But yeah, right, so just the perfect temperature. We do get a little bit of humidity in summer, but we also get the breeze off the ocean, so that makes it really nice Winter. You know, a perfect winter's day is probably around 18 degrees Celsius, you know between 18 to 20. So you know there's not a lot of chill factor.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we get about a week and a half of winter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what we say that's right.
Speaker 1:I was just calculating 30 is about 86 degrees here and then 18 is about 65, which is similar to here as well, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, sounds great yeah.
Speaker 3:So it is a real lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So a lot of tourists. You tourist um tourists that come, but it sounds like the tourist industry there's folks that work in that and then assuming corporate as well yeah, we, it is a tourist area but it's generally through the school holidays, you know it, it's busy with families.
Speaker 3:It's um, you know it's not, uh, where we noosa at the top end of the Sunshine Coast. That's probably more touristy year round.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And we were just up there this week and we said we had to do some research. You know, because I like your quotes yeah, we just yeah, we love. Well, we just love Noosa. That you know, it's just. You go in there and it's not a big place at all, but it just has a feeling about it and it's just this. People walk around with heads held high, looking so glamorous. They get, you know, like it's just, they're just so proud of their, of where they live.
Speaker 5:I think that's the impression I get well, you've also got the international tourists that we couldn't believe how many different languages we heard that's's right.
Speaker 3:We heard people from the Netherlands. There was English accents, american, canadian, french.
Speaker 5:Italian, south American Italian, and we were only there for two days.
Speaker 3:So it's a very popular area up there for international tourists.
Speaker 1:What's the city called Noosa?
Speaker 3:Noosa, how do you spell that?
Speaker 5:N-O-O-S-A-a so noosa heads, it is actually noosa's the area, yeah that's what I was gonna ask.
Speaker 4:I see, I see noosa north shore and then I see noosa heads, because the noosa head is the most popular yeah, it's a yogurt. It's a yogurt called noosa. I don't know how that yeah related that's where it's.
Speaker 1:I'm like I feel like I know this, it's the yogurt. Yeah, well, okay, I haven't heard that and then there's a noosa bill is that?
Speaker 4:is that pretty popular as well?
Speaker 5:the noosa yeah, that's, that's the actual noosa river. Yes, it runs along there yes, and noosa has the.
Speaker 3:There's only two beaches on the east coast of australia. They're actually faced north, which is unusual. As you know, normally face east and because it faces north it gets. It's very sheltered, so it just has the most perfect little waves and it's like a real little cove. And then there's a headland that you walk around, which we do every time we go there, and as you go you come across little coves the whole way. There's one called boiling point, and then there's dolphin point and then there's First Point and the most amazing views and clear waters.
Speaker 3:I think it's still the most beautiful walk I've ever done, you know, and we do it every time, and so that's, that's just out of the main street of Noosa Heads and then, of course, noosa's famous for its main street. It's only one block long called Hastings Street, and it's just full of beautiful clothes, shops and restaurants, and you know that you sit out the front when you and you, the cafe chairs, face the street and, um, you know, at night time there's fairy lights everywhere and it's. It's just just so beautiful and because a lot of it's national park, you know you, sometimes you can't even see a house and there's no high rise there so that it's just beautiful hills and mountains. We've covered in lush, lush vegetation and on that walk that I just talked about, I haven't seen one recently, but you often see koalas in the trees oh wow, it's such a huge national park.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful, it looks um well.
Speaker 3:I just saw the map.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen the pictures, but it looks beautiful.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a stunning, stunning area, and yeah.
Speaker 5:The local government have been very, very careful how they've made it very unique and there's actually a cap on the amount of people that are allowed to live in Noosa, which obviously also puts the prices of everything up.
Speaker 3:It's the most expensive place on the Sunshine Coast by a long way, but you know as Leanne said, there's no high rise.
Speaker 5:They're very and even on the mountain or the cliff. Face there the properties where the five-star resorts. You can hardly see them from the beach area because of you know government regulations of how they have to build the actual resorts. But they've done a fabulous job.
Speaker 1:Wow, it looks beautiful and I can see. So it's at the top. Of you said Australia. I'm just looking at it.
Speaker 5:No, no, the top of the.
Speaker 3:Sunshine Coast is like a region that takes in, you know, probably about, I'd say, 100 kilometers which is probably 60 miles for, and we're at the south end, at Kings Beach. We're the sort of the first stop in and then the whole way up, you know, like it's just different suburbs. I guess you'd call them all the way up to noosa, which is the top.
Speaker 4:So what is noosa shire? Is that a town? Is that part of it? Is that just some? I don't know how it's like that's the, that's the, that's the government area yeah, that's what we have.
Speaker 3:Our local government areas are called shires here. So yeah, that would be noosa shire.
Speaker 5:So for instance, the population is about 50,000. 57,000. 57,000, which is what they're capped at, and then the Noosa area is about 4,500. Noosa Heads is 4,500.
Speaker 3:That little place yeah.
Speaker 4:Oh my gosh. And then how do you get around the Sunshine Coast? You guys live in King Beach. Do you have to have a car? Is there trains or buses or anything for people that want to go visit?
Speaker 3:There's a pretty good public bus system. Yes, we've got a car so we use that. They're also developing more and more sort of bike tracks, walking tracks. You know a lot of people push bike around. There's a bit of a craze at the moment.
Speaker 1:Everyone's on e-bikes, electric scooters. You know a lot of people push bike around.
Speaker 3:Um, there's a bit of a craze at the moment everyone's on e-bikes, electric scooters. You know, um, you're in california and I'm sure colorado too. It's all over, I think. Yeah, so, um, but yeah, there's um, the public bus system is quite affordable and cheap and there's a bus stop not far from us and you can, you know, basically go to any of those main places in um noosa. When we were there, they, they had their own. Like, um, you can hop, you know, basically go to any of those main places In Noosa. When we were there, they had their own. Like you can hop on a bus at the beach and go to the other little towns.
Speaker 5:Yeah, because they do try and keep traffic out of Noosa Heads area because it's only a small area, so the local government there have had free shuttles for years, basically just to keep the traffic out there.
Speaker 5:But, you've got to understand too. In Australia well, I'm not sure in America, but I know in Europe, especially Spain the public transport is unbelievably good and it's so regular, whereas in Australia Australia's just so big We've only got 27 million people. You guys have got 337, I think. So one of the things that really doesn't we don't cut it at is public transport. Yeah, Because we just haven't got the population to pay for it.
Speaker 3:But it's pretty good around here.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we are lucky here. You can grab a train from here to Brisbane, but that's not easy to do either. Most people just travel down by car. Yeah, Interesting.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at all of Australia because I'm not familiar with it and I was kind of backing up to see where the Gold Coast was and I haven't been there. I want to go there I think I was just talking about it with my daughter but is it Brisbane, where you're near, which you said? So I see it kind of central and there's some sort of something on my map here that's not around.
Speaker 3:In the north of St Pete yeah we're on the Sunshine Coast, so there's Brisbane in the middle, there's Sunshine Coast north and the Gold Coast is south of us. Yeah, got it.
Speaker 1:And then Australia is broken like Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales. It reminds me of Canada. Right, we were talking about the provinces, because here in the US we have 50 states, right? So is that how Australia is broken out? It's not states, but there's.
Speaker 5:Five states and there's two territories.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the Northern Territory, and then I might not show on your map, it very rarely does. It's called the Australian Capital Territory, which is a small territory contained inside New South Wales.
Speaker 5:And that's called Canberra.
Speaker 3:That's the capital city of the ACT. Yeah, and that's the capital city of Australia, actually Canberra. I don't even see that on the map. No, no, it certainly doesn't show up. It's in sort of central New South Wales, oh okay, no, okay, and I see New South Wales.
Speaker 1:That is on the map. You just got the whole thing going so I was kind of looking as well, because it's just a, and then, under New South Wales, you've got Victoria, and then you've got Tasmania, tasmania. I see that too. I see Melbourne, yeah, melbourne, sydney.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, melbourne.
Speaker 1:I see Sydney in there and then Tasmania sounds. I always think when I hear Tasmania, I think Tasmanian devil, because that's what I think.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah yeah, in Tasmania, when we were there and not they're not just exclusive to Tasmania, but other the wombats are, they're just the most. They just look like you want to cuddle them there and they're just. They're not frightened, they just wander around and, um, that really interesting fact, wombats are the only animals that I know of that do square poos. So they um, it's true, and they stack them up, you know, like, so they don't roll down back into their holes, apparently.
Speaker 1:So how good is that? Oh my god. So I I do a girl scout camp and I volunteer to take kids backpacking in the summer and one of our camp we have to have camp names and one of them is wombat, so I'm going to share that with her this summer and do something silly for her yeah, yeah, I love wombat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, wombat's gorgeous, I love them yeah oh, that's great.
Speaker 1:So it just curious, for if someone wanted to come and stay where you are and, um, it sounds like it may be a little expensive more, but I don't know how much should someone budget if they wanted to stay there for a month to work remotely or you know, experience it. And then, once they're there, what do you suggest?
Speaker 3:Well, I think if you wanted to go and stay in Noosa there's obviously a lot of people stay up there that travel from overseas there's some budget accommodation. They've just built these great big new backpackers, so that's an option for people that like that and where is that?
Speaker 3:what's that new stuff? There's a little bit. Yeah, there's some backpackers up there in noosa heads, um, and the one we saw was, um, almost brand new, was called bounce and yeah, it looked beautiful. So and because you know sort of listening and talking to a few of the, the backpackers, you know that they love that sort of. So that's if you're a bit of a digital nomad and not, you know, happy to do that sort of travelling.
Speaker 1:Do they have Wi-Fi there too? Like could you? Yeah, is it just TrueBuck?
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, maybe Wi-Fi.
Speaker 4:And Leanne, did you say that it's called Bounce?
Speaker 1:Yeah, bounce, is that a company?
Speaker 3:name or a place. It's a new backpackers that they've built right in Noosa Heads there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just thought it was an odd name too, but that's why I remembered it. Probably, if you come off season, if you come out of the school holiday period so our main holidays are sort of for six weeks over December, january, and then at Easter for two weeks, and there's a couple of others through the holidays If you come out of school holiday time, it's going to be much cheaper, isn't it? The accommodation is probably almost half the price, and you could find, for instance, where we live, on the beach now we're talking Australian dollars, though you could stay here for around $800 a week, which is, you know, this is a, that's a two-bedroom apartment, two bathroom, right on the beach. Us dollars what would that be? To? 600 US, probably okay for a week yes, that would be a week.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's it sort of the top. Well, you know where you want to be, obviously you can, you know, as I said, you know where you want to be, obviously you can, you know, as I said you know, like most infrastructures, within five kilometres of the beach. So if you're happy to, you know, be back further from the beach area. You know you'd certainly get something much cheaper than that.
Speaker 5:Then a lot of the really nice areas, especially further up north like Port Douglas and those sort of places before the pandemic. There's a lot of backpackers there because a lot of international young people actually work in our hospitality industry and so before the pandemic came those backpacker places would be absolutely full, and what they say is because our wages are so high.
Speaker 3:Our minimum wage.
Speaker 5:Our minimum wages are so high that a lot of international backpackers come here to build up their Savings Savings so that they can travel other places. So yeah, so there is cheap places to stay.
Speaker 4:Port Douglas is way up there right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's beautiful though.
Speaker 4:Like near Cairns or Cairns, Cairns yeah. Cairns. I thought I'd think that's silent R Cairns. Okay, it's probably hot there.
Speaker 1:It's just so weird because where it's like no, north is cold for you guys and south is cold right, yeah, isn't it your summer, your summer's right, right, yeah, and I I am only in a tank top because I've been for a run, but it is rainy and cold, we're having one of our colder years and very wet, which is nice in the us, and I I kind of forgot that because I saw your fan going above and I oh that oh, that's right, it's opposite which. How funny is that?
Speaker 3:Well, that's probably good because you know for us, you know we leave winter to go to summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
Speaker 1:So you know it's perfect, you know yeah well, and when I was in Bali in July I got in at midnight and it was just all Australians and it was just packed. And luckily it went that way, because I heard the following week it was even more packed. But they were commenting that it was a really cold winter. Was that right, or wet, or something kind of more drastic? I don't know Wherever they were coming from they had a lot of floods?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it depends where you live, you know, because it's so big, you know, one one end of the country can be having bushfires and the other's got floods, or you know, yeah, it's quite random.
Speaker 1:Is that a thing where people go to bali to have it as well in australia for holiday?
Speaker 3:it's a. It's probably our closest, you know holiday holiday place overseas, isn't it?
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's very, very popular.
Speaker 4:Yeah, how about some of these other islands Solomon Islands, manitou, new Caledonia are those very popular? Yeah, not as popular as Bali, I think.
Speaker 3:Bali is so popular because it's cheap and you know, once you get there it's. You know like everyone loves the, the party atmosphere and and that sort of thing. Um, some of the islands the pacific islands are still still have a little bit of political unrest and and you probably wouldn't travel there. But Vanuatu, you know it's more of a honeymooner, you know sort of place and um cruise ships too oh, cruise ships, that's right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they call into Vanuatu, new Caledonia, um, yeah, so that that's probably. You know. It's not where young families or young people go to to holiday.
Speaker 1:No, I see, and it's limited infrastructure there as well yes, very limited okay, new Caledonia, fiji is even Tonga, samoa, those guys, I think maybe that's too far.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of Australians also travel to New Zealand and vice versa. Um, yeah, it's New Zealand. There's a. You know, we go to Queenstown and and we do some skiing there in winter. We still think Queenstown's the most beautiful city we've ever seen in the world. It's just New. Zealand yeah. New Zealand's beautiful I mean really, really beautiful, and it's only a three-hour flight for us, so it's actually easier for us to go to New Zealand to ski than to go to the ski fields in Australia.
Speaker 1:You're skiing. I didn't think about that, you guys. Well, I guess I'm looking where you're at.
Speaker 3:Apparently, our ski area gets more snow than Switzerland, so that's bizarre, isn't it? I?
Speaker 1:know Curious. The quality Is it different? Because you don't hear going to ski in Australia right as much as you do in Australia?
Speaker 3:We do in Australia, because it's sort of a yeah, like it's in one area, sort of, you know, on the Great Dividing Range, the mountains, and you know, like sort of from New South Wales into Victoria, there's a couple of really popular spots that you go, so there's only that one spot. But yeah, you do get a lot of overseas people coming here because our season's obviously opposite, so it's great for them, you know. And so I come to Australia and New Zealand to ski in winter. But we've been to ski in Japan and you're right, the the, the snow here is, um, nothing like you get in Japan yeah, you don't get powder here or anything like that, whereas in Japan you do.
Speaker 5:But we we would love to go to. We've just had some friends that have spent about a month in Aspen and look pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have a friend over there, and Carol as well. There's snow. California snow is more wet and different than the Colorado snow, for sure.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we definitely have the best in Colorado. Steamboat's got record record snowfall this year. Steamboat Springs.
Speaker 1:No, that's fantastic. How's the food there? What kind of? I mean especially, I thought, for sure, you guys, I know wine we need to talk about as well.
Speaker 3:We're so lucky here because we have such a range of fresh produce. You know, especially we have the variety, you know, because we have cold climate food and then we have tropical food. You know, at the moment, you know we can go and get, you know, gorgeous mangoes that are in season and grapes and lots of tropical fruits, you know just easily. And we eat a lot of seafood too. You know we have prawns a lot and you know Lyle likes to do his specialty of, you know, tropical fish, so he'll go and buy fish from the fish shop and come straight off the boat. So you know we are very lucky. But we're also a big sort of sheep and cow producing area, so you know there's a whole range of meats as well. So yeah, we, we have a no, no, no shortage of lovely fresh food, for sure.
Speaker 1:yeah, what are some of the traditional meals or things? What are your favorites?
Speaker 3:that, uh, that you like, yeah, well, uh, I like a spanish breakfast. We don't have that here. Um well, we just well, I love fresh fruit salad for breakfast or I'll have, like Greek yoghurt and fruit. That's my sort of thing. But if you go out for breakfast here which is quite a big thing, you know, like for Aussies, we, you know it's become a real cafe culture and you know, eggs Benedict or Smashed Abo on toast is quite popular. We know avocados are really, you know well, lots of avocados are really, you know, um well, lots of avocados grown here as well so, um, but always just a really nice coffee, isn't it?
Speaker 5:yeah, yeah, coffee's pretty good. Yeah, yeah, um, I love uh seafood.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm, I'm like lamb, but I'm, uh, I, I love lamb yeah, we do eat a lot of lamb in australia, so roast lamb would be a pretty. Yeah, there was an ad once, wasn't there? About roast lamb and on TV it was that long ago. But it was like this girl said she had a date with Tom Cruise and she had to say sorry to him because mum was making roast lamb and you can't miss, you know, mum's, you know, or nana's roast lamb or something. It was ridiculous.
Speaker 3:But we also eat a lot of asian uh there's a lot of asian fusion, yeah, dishes in australia it's become very, very popular and that's probably, I'd probably say that's my favorite now and it's quite reasonably priced to go out here, you know um, you know you can you certainly go out to an expensive restaurant, but you can go out and have a, you know, a main course. You know, at an average restaurant, you know, for, you know, say, 20 bucks Australian and which is probably more like sort of 15, 16 and you know, like a glass of wine and you know so it's, you can certainly get um reasonably priced food although, although may I say that when we just came back from Spain recently, Leanne walked in and there was a dish for about $20 on the menu and she turned around and she said I'm not paying that, that I know.
Speaker 5:Because in Spain it's like 40 euros or it's zero.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's free, it's tapas. Yeah, free tapas.
Speaker 5:And that's another reason why we spend so much time in Spain, because we love wine and the food's free. It's perfect.
Speaker 1:Perfect combination oh my goodness, Sounds like it Makes total sense.
Speaker 3:Something to remember too, and people get horrified when we say this. And it's just the way it is here, we don't tip at restaurants it's you know you can, that's in south korea.
Speaker 3:We were there too. Okay, you can, and we did when we were in new. So these that you know when the service they were so nice and so helpful. We tip, but because the minimum wage here is so good in comparison to a lot of countries that rely on tips our, our waiters and hospitality stuff they don't rely on tips at all. So we don't, we don't tip hardly at all. So that's why probably a meal could be a bit cheaper too, because you don't have to add an extra 10, 15, 20 on top of that for for a tip. And it's not because we're we we're tight, we just don't do it. It's not, it's not part of our culture here at all to tip. And it's quite different for us when we travel to. You know, you think do we tip here? You know, like you've got to get your head around it.
Speaker 5:And probably the reason we tipped this time is because the two people that served us one was Italian and one was French, so we sort of I don't know. I just felt, oh, you know, they're used to tips and we we hadn't like. We're having a lovely chat with them and uh, yeah, but they've had it about a couple of Australian, uh, young people, we probably wouldn't have even thought about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah no, that's it. What are their side dishes and like what's a traditional lunch and dinner? And then also what are meal times. Are they just like we do, like noon and six or so, or are they different?
Speaker 3:yeah, sure yeah, yeah, um, yeah, sort of. You know, breakfast is, you know, I guess, people going off to work and school, you know, sort of around that eight, eight, thirty in the morning, so they're having breakfast around the seven o'clock. Uh, we don't, because we get up and go for a walk and I don't like to eat before I exercise, but you know that that that that's the typical sort of time. And then lunch, you know once again. Well, you know, schools and workplaces often have like morning tea, we call it, you know, when they have a cuppa or the kids have water and a snack or something. That's sort of around the 10, 10, 30, and then lunch year, anything from sort of 1230, you know, to one, 30 would be pretty standard. And then, yeah, it's probably, you know once again, afternoon tea for kids from school. Once they're home it's sort of 3.34. And then dinner. I like to have early dinner just because then the jobs are done, you know, for the day, but if we're going out for dinner you generally meet around 6, 6.30.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so, yeah, but I think that also depends on like what part of the country we're in. For instance, down south, where it's colder, they eat a lot later than we do up north, because I'm not sure why that is.
Speaker 3:In the cities people tend to eat later. They go out later. That's where they go home from work and you know if you're going out, they eat later. Is that what?
Speaker 4:you mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, my theory is, when you live in a warm climate, you're outside all the time, and so you really want to maximise the daylight, and so then you go to bed earlier and so then you eat earlier.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, yeah Well we ate outside last night because it's just so quite warm and you know it's so nice to eat outdoors. We do a lot of that here. We eat outdoors a lot. You know um barbecues. You know when we've got all the family here at Christmas, you know we only have a small place, so you know we between it, you know, like we've got um, we have eight adults and I've got eight grandchildren, so it's just um, you know, crazy busy bedlam bedlam and um, we have all eaten here.
Speaker 3:We've had, we had breakfast one morning and stuff, and but you know we've had christmas lunch. Here we have. Yeah, true, we have, but when there were eight of them, though, how?
Speaker 1:was christmas there. I actually have to quickly ask about that because I know it's still december 25th of course right around the world and um, but it's warm.
Speaker 3:I couldn't you know, because we have winter, christmases and you guys have summer. Christmases. Yeah, we're just. We're just up and we're generally at the beach for a swim first and um. You know a lot of people still go with the traditional cooked lunch. You know we don't do a lot of cooking maybe a ham we like ham's pretty traditional here like a marinade yeah, ham and um, you know, and we just generally just like a really nice salad, don't we?
Speaker 5:and um, yeah, fresh, nice, lots of fresh fruit and and stuff for as well, for snacks through the day and yeah, so yeah, it's always hot, yep yeah, but in saying that, I've actually um, oh, this I'm talking 30 years ago, I suppose, I used to run a snow resort which was just in Victoria. It snowed Christmas Day.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, yeah, that's neat, especially on the.
Speaker 1:There's something different there, that's for sure. In a summer, to get snow.
Speaker 3:Well, a lot of people you know dream of a white Christmas.
Speaker 1:So do you have Christmas trees? Is that a thing too, like how we did in the US? Christmas decorate Not real trees.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was laughing because I have a tree this big and that's because of you know, our apartment's so small. You know we have to put a thing on the door when people come in and I'm not a big decorator but people do do it and I love that they do, because someone should do it and I don't, but it is a thing. It definitely is a thing, yeah and then you have all the presents under the tree and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah and then Christmas lights on houses is that a big thing too?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, it's getting bigger and bigger actually, yeah, it's huge here and the things that they're doing now.
Speaker 1:It it's just amazing. I love it.
Speaker 3:I just love it. I mean, we will never do it. You know like I. Just you know. You know you Cape builders, you know what you're good at and you know Christmas decoration isn't my thing, but I love that people do yeah.
Speaker 1:But the wine and beach traveling is your thing, which is amazing. That's our thing.
Speaker 2:And what would you?
Speaker 1:I'd have to say and then I'll turn it over to carol and I know she's got her rapid five questions but what are? What would you say are your favorite wines or wines that you'd recommend? Um from australia?
Speaker 3:oh, that's a. That's a big question. Um, probably, um, we we've got a few around the place, haven't we? We like any wine from tasmania. We haven't had a bad wine.
Speaker 2:We generally drink white, so that's sort of I was gonna, I was going to say white or red yeah, Generally white In Margaret River.
Speaker 3:We were just over there in Western Australia. That's a really well-known wine-producing region here. They had some lovely Rieslings over there, didn't they?
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, and they do Well, actually, they've just won the world best.
Speaker 3:Chardonnay.
Speaker 5:So just yeah.
Speaker 3:And there's a local. Which home is it? It's called Margaret River.
Speaker 4:Margaret River in Western.
Speaker 3:Australia.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So Lyle's got family in Western Australia so we were over there before Christmas.
Speaker 5:The brand, I think, is Fermu, which is F-E-R-M-U-Y or something like.
Speaker 3:that is the brand, but my all-time favourite wine which I talk about in our Darwin podcast, which is really funny, is called. It's from Adelaide Hills, which is in South Australia, and it's a really light, lovely Sauv Blanc from Shore and Smith and it's just my all-time favourite wine. So yeah.
Speaker 1:That sounds fantastic.
Speaker 3:We don't claim to be wine experts. We just put the wine in there because we like it. We just like drinking it we like well, and it goes with travelling and eating in nice places. You know it's the whole. You know the whole package. Really, yeah, we sort of.
Speaker 5:I think we probably, because we've been to so many places now and because we do have an interest in wine, we've got a reasonable idea. But we went to like, when we were in Spain we went to La Rioja, the red wine area there, and that was a real education and the wine there is fabulous, red and white. We had to do both but it was good. But in Australiaia we probably focus on the colder climate wines the pinot gris and the saffron. Tasmania morning to peninsula and victoria. Yeah, you, you very rarely, uh, don't have good wine from there that sounds great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you pair it with a wine or, like the wine, with cheese and crackers and grapes and fruit and stuff like that? I know that's what they do in Napa a lot we don't.
Speaker 3:we try not to do it too often because you know there's always the problem of too many calories, yeah, but um, we have um Friday fun day, we call and you know it's our little tribute to being in Spain, I guess like the tapas and stuff, and yeah. And then sometimes it's Sunday Funday as well, because that sounds good too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Actually, that was my moment growing up was Sunday, funday. That was what we did once a month. Yeah, some alley, oh, fantastic.
Speaker 4:Well, carol, I know you have rapid fire questions. Yeah, oh, fantastic Well.
Speaker 3:Carol, I know you have rapid fire questions. Yeah, rapid fire questions. Okay. So what did you have for breakfast today? Or you probably haven't had breakfast, but what's the typical breakfast? We haven't had breakfast today because we got up early to speak to you, but we will be having a lovely cup of coffee and I'll be having my blueberries and yogurt, and Lila will probably have trumpets and yogurt, and Lila probably had trumpets.
Speaker 4:Trumpets, okay, very nice, yeah, okay. And then is there any traditional food or music? In Australia we have a bit of everything you know.
Speaker 3:We like Aussie rock and so do yourself a favour, girls and listeners Look up a guy called Jimmy Barnes. If you like good Aussie rock, he's the, he's the, the guy to go to. And, of course, the old acdc, which I think everybody in the world has heard of them.
Speaker 5:Yeah of course, so yeah, in excess yeah, in excess probably someone else, you've probably heard of oh yeah in excess yeah that was one of my favorites up in excess when I was growing up in acdc.
Speaker 1:Of course, obviously, of course. So what what's, jimmy? Jimmy, what what's.
Speaker 3:Jimmy's last name, jimmy. Jimmy's last name is Barnes, b-a-r-n-e-s.
Speaker 5:Jimmy Barnes and the original group was called Cold Chisel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, they're, they're. They're well known, australia for sure okay, nice, okay.
Speaker 4:And then what are some of the common religions there? Um, we talked to someone else before and they said it's quite a melting pot now in Australia that you know, because there's some like primary religions that are.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'd say we're mostly just Christian, like a whole range of Christians, but yeah, we have a lot of. You know, I think your podcast was someone from Melbourne and that's a very cultural, diverse city where we are. It's pretty just Christian based, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Okay, okay, yeah, city life, okay, makes sense. And then what is the closest place to surf? Probably just a hundred feet outside your window. That's it. Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 1:How are the waves, by the way. What height are they? Pretty good, oh, it's flat.
Speaker 3:It's flat today.
Speaker 1:Really flat.
Speaker 3:Well, I don't know what a good wave is, but I'd say maybe one and a half meters would be what they like to surf on here. Does that sound about, right, like about?
Speaker 2:six feet.
Speaker 4:They like to surf on here, Does that sound all right, like about six feet? No, it's 50. Yep, okay, yeah, so would you guys get in the water then?
Speaker 5:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:Have a board or a boat or oh no just swim. Would you like to be in the water to swim? Okay, is it warm?
Speaker 5:About 27, I reckon at the moment.
Speaker 4:Okay, it's hot, hot, it's too warm yeah, okay, all right, and then the money is the australian dollar. Is that yes?
Speaker 3:australian dollars and, um, and I you know, for people traveling from the us, your, your dollar's much stronger than ours, so it's probably, you know, a good, good place to come to economically for you.
Speaker 5:Yeah, great, yeah yeah, australia, like I think it's about I think.
Speaker 3:I think ours is 60 or 70 cents to your dollar 60, very similar to the the euro for us.
Speaker 4:Oh okay, gotcha, all right. So where's your next trip?
Speaker 3:we are off to Mexico in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3:Yep, just we. I've been a quite a lot a few about 10 years ago Lyle hasn't been and, um, we had a tour picked and it's a quick rapid fire. I'll make it really quick. We had a tool book, um, previous to COVID. We had to use up a voucher and I picked a Spanish-speaking country that I thought you know would be fun. So, um, but we're going to podcast as we go because we haven't done a tour before and we're going to do like you know what it's actually like to be on the tour.
Speaker 3:So I'm hoping and hopefully speak to some other people, so that should be like you know what time you're going to get up and how far we travelled, and was it fun or was it too much, and all the nitty-gritty stuff that you don't know. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to trying that format and where are you starting?
Speaker 4:in Mexico. City oh nice, okay, are you going to the?
Speaker 1:coast and um in Mexico like yeah, yes, all the basic, oh, no, no not Cabo, we're just ending up in in Cancun Merida.
Speaker 3:I think that's on the coast as well, is it? Yeah, so there, but so there. But Oaxaca, yeah, you know a lot of the, I can't think San Cristobal Merida.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're only there for nearly three weeks, so it's not a long time. Oh, okay, yeah, and then hopefully Italy. You know we're planning that as well, so that's a bit exciting.
Speaker 5:And then in August we're going to Queenstown to ski.
Speaker 3:Yeah, back to Queenstown. Back to New Zealand. Okay, that's it, and then we'll probably have to go back to work.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, back in the streets.
Speaker 4:We'll make it out. Yeah, sounds good, great. Okay well, thank you so much. It was a pleasure to meet you and sharing all about the Sunshine Coast, right? Yeah, sounds amazing, sounds great.
Speaker 3:Oh, you're welcome.
Speaker 4:We've been helpful. Yes, yeah, definitely, absolutely so, thank you. And where can people find you? Your webcast, your Instagram account?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, thank you. Our podcast and blog is on our website at wwwbeachtravelwinecom and, of course, our podcast is Beachtravel Wine, on whatever platform, and yeah, same handle at Instagram Beachtravel Wine, so you can't forget that Everyone loves the name.
Speaker 4:It is a great name, such a pleasure meeting you both, thank you.
Speaker 5:Okay, bye.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast, can you please take a second and do a quick follow of the show and rate us in your podcast app, and if you have a minute, we would really appreciate a review. Following and rating is the best way to support us. If you're on Instagram, let's connect. We're at where next podcast. Thanks again.
