I left the rest of Dipidydoo back at home (Ipidydoo?) and headed north for a quick visit with family, my parents and brother already being here on the Sunshine Coast.  So far living up to its name, and it’s so good to be wearing shorts again.

The thing I dislike about travel is, um, the travel.  Can someone PLEASE build a rail link to the airport? and can someone PLEASE fix the checkin system? Absolute chaos.  Once past all that it was all smooth, and we landed in Maroochydore just in time for lunch.  An afternoon familiarisation stroll around Alexandria Beach revealed a small seaside town, much quieter than many of the highly developed resort areas.  The wind was too strong to make the beach feasible, but we enjoyed the lake. After that we settled into the cabin which is home for the next few nights.

The thing I LOVE about travel is the unexpected discoveries.  Today we set off up into the nearby hinterland, through Buderim, to the Maroochy Bushland Botanic Gardens.  Only 13 years old and not mentioned in any of the brochures, this is a hidden gem.  Run almost entirely by volunteers, the gardens make brilliant use of the existing native rainforest.  They are very cleverly designed and laid out with numerous wandering walkways, picnic spots, and plenty to catch the eye.

We started with the sculpture garden.  Back in 2005, a group of Australian and international sculptors spent two weeks on site, carving marble and sandstone.  The result is a fascinating mix of abstract and realist, but all blend beautifully into their surroundings.  Our favourites were the ones by a South Australian sculptor who creates native animals and birds from black marble.

The gardens themselves are full of native plants ranging from towering eucalypts to rare and fragile orchids.  They are full of lovely touches like the “leaf seats” – timber seats in the shape of gum leaves.  It was a wonderful place to spend a couple of very tranquil hours. I thoroughly recommend a visit.

Afterwards we sat next to the windows of the pub in Buderim, which has a spectacular view of the coastal areas to the south – we could see for miles.  A very good lunch was followed by a stroll through the village, before our return to home base.