Maleny

Thurs 21^st August 

It was Robyn’s day off so she and I decided to drive up to Maleny and have a Devonshire tea at the Maleny Botanical Gardens. Apart from getting badly lost twice because we had no map or GPS, we managed to find it. Robyn had said that she knew the area well, had been there many times. We actually went miles out of our way. The gardens were beautiful – a true labour of love, and the Devonshire tea, taken in a pavilion looking out on the Glasshouse Mountains was delicious and plentiful. There were lots of different areas within the gardens, and a gardener told me that there is the same amount of land again still to be developed. Although there were plenty of visitors, there was plenty of room to roam. When we came out of the gardens we missed the exit and managed to almost do a lap of them in the car until we ran out of track and had to turn around and go back.

 

Next we headed off to Coloundra to meet up with our friend, Kerry, who was expecting us for morning or afternoon tea – whichever. After taking two and a half hours to drive what should have taken a bit over 30 minutes (because we went the wrong way again) we finally got there for a late afternoon tea. Kerry manages a resort and was in the middle of a running dispute with a lady who has a cat in her unit and continually lets it roam freely in the rainforest that is part of the resort. The ranger had come to talk to Kerry about the problem when the cat wandered out of the rainforest: so he captured it and took it to the pound. The owner was most unhappy with Kerry, who has repeatedly asked her to keep the cat restrained, to get the required permission from the body corporate and to get the cat registered – all to no avail. It has already killed one baby possum that Kerry knows about.

We walked around the resort and down to the beach that the resort borders. It was a broad sandy beach with a big grassed area as well. It looked like a delightful place to stay for a holiday – The Rainforest Resort – where the rainforest meets the sea. By the time we left, it was getting dark, and would you believe, we followed Kerry’s verbal directions out onto the highway without a hitch and were back at the marina before seven and had our dinner at the restaurant.