Peregian

We had an early start today, waking up to pack for our trip away from Melany. Bren had booked us in at a resort in Peregian Beach, so that we could hang out at the beach for a day and go and see Noosa, and have a 'last-blast' holiday before we have to head home.
Off we went, through Yandina and onto Coloundra where Bren hoped to stop for her coffee fix. However, the cafe was closed as it was a Sunday and in order to avoid any 'putrid' coffee fails, we continued on to find another cafe that met the standard. We found one. It was overlooking a glorious turquoise blue beach, with hot white sand and palm trees. We ordered our drinks (Chai latte time!) and sipped and revelled in the light breeze that interrupted the 30 degree sun beating down outside the sheltering cloth roof.
We moved on, arriving at our apartment-style hotel in good time. The apartment was lovely, decked out in sunshine bright colours and with a walk-out patio that took you right to the pool. We stopped just long enough for lunch, then Alex and I headed down to the beach. It was a long curve of golden soft sand, edged by white breakers from the deep blue sea. There wasn't a cloud in sight and we strolled along, toes in the water. We saw a few tiny drops, about a centimeter across, but gave the jellyfish no thought. They were too small to worry about. We splashed about in the shallows and then made our way further up the beach to the lifeguard flags. The friendly lifeguards were walking about, helping kids build sandcastles and paddling with the parents. We dumped our towels high up on the beach and then plunged into the refreshing sea. It is so odd - we are programmed to assume that seawater equals cold water, but here in Oz, its actually warm. It is so much more pleasant! So there we are, swimming around, cooling down in the breakers, when I hear I hear Alex apologise - to me, for hitting me by mistake. Thing is, I am about three metres away - his arms are not that long! So I look around and what he has actually hit is a giant brown rock. Thats weird, I think. There was no rock when we walked over that bit of sand a moment ago.
It was a gigantic jellyfish! It was huge! Alex had brushed the top of it with his hand while playing about in the waves. We both realised at the same moment and you have never seen two people exit the sea at quite such speed. We stood there, on the shore, dumbstruck by the sheer size of this thing. Vowing to never set foot in the Australian sea again, we settled down on our towels, still amazed and horrified.
We sunbathed for a bit and then headed back along the beach to return to the apartment for dinner. As we walked along, we spotted several jellyfish stranded on the beach - some small, frilly ones akin to those we saw in Abel Tasman, some fist-sized brown ones, a few more that were bigger than motorcycle helmets and then, the biggest pile of goop masquerading as an aquatic creature ever. We took some pictures (which will turn up once we have our own pc going again) with Alex next to it for size reference. If we'd met this thing in the water...well, it would probably have eaten us. *shudder*
Back at the apartment, Reg and Bren had gone out, so we went into the pool while we waited for them to return and let us into the house again. Alex and I made supper and then we all watched 'Memoirs of a Geisha' on the super comfy sofa, before going to bed.