A DRIVE UP TO CANUNGRA FOR AFTERNOON TEA....

 After spending the morning with Willow at school for her sports day, we took off to meet up with our good friends Ian and Kathy.  We were spending the afternoon out in the country and then having dinner together that night...

We decided to take a drive up into the Gold Coast Hinterland to a little town called Cunungra.  Canungra is a vibrant country village nestled in the Gold Coast Hinterland and is known as the "Valley of the Owls". Originally a timbermill town, it is now known as the gateway to the World Heritage Listed Lamington National Park and it is well known for its natural beauty and friendly country hospitality.

This beautiful little village has retained its old-world charm and appears to be a popular destination with day trippers, motorcyclists, hang-gliders, paragliders, birdwatchers and bushwalkers.  We found that there is plenty to do around town. 

We arrived up in Cunungra just after 2pm and the first cafe that caught our eye was the "The Outpost Cafe".  As there was a car park available just across the road from it, and there looked to be quite a few folk dining there, it became our choice for afternoon tea ( or should  I say a late lunch).

"The Outpost Cafe" has the reputation as having some of the best pies in Australia, so we decided that this would be our choice for afternnon tea. 

The cafe was originally built in 1946 as a small cafe serving 120 meals each day to the Canungra Army Barracks.  The cafe has now developed into an iconic Gold Coast tour destination and attraction for the locals and its many visitors from different walks of life...

Lots of amazing pies on offer...

They also had a large selection of sweet treats as well.

Steve and I decided to order one of their specialty pies.  Their seafood pie sounded really delicious.  Ian and Kathy decided to try their lamb and rosemary pie.  We could recommend both, as they were really delicious...  It is one that we would definitely order again..

Our seafood pie

Ian and Kathy's lamb and rosemary pie..

 Us girls needed a pit stop before heading off to explore the rest of the town.  The Cafe has a large outdoor seating area where art work adorns the walls of the cafe giving a brief history of the area...

Once we got back to the boys it was time to head off down the main street for a closer look at this lovely little town...

 Canungra is also home these days to a burgeoning wine industry and state of the art equine facilities.

 

 On of the noteable landmarks in town is the windmill, which is painted a bright red and is situated in the main street of town..

 It is quite a vibrant little community with a primary school,post office, ambulance, police, rural and auxiliary fire brigades, doctors, chemists, dentists, veterinary surgery, service stations, garages, TAB, hardware store, bake, butcher, electrical stores, hairdressers, supermarket, newsagent, video shop, real estate agent, RSL, laundromat and several nice looking little cafes...

There were several very busy little cafe's or bakeries in town, and all of them looked to be doing a good trade, even at this time of the afternoon.  We were so impressed that we are keen to come back and try out some of these other little eateries   at a future date...

More yummy treats on offer at the bakery down the road..

By this stage the boys were ready to head across the road and explore the other side of the street, but I had just spied another little cafe that took my fancy..

After taking a few photos, Kathy and I joined the boys across the road.  By this stage, Steve had spied the Hardware Store and was off to check it out...  We were happy to browse the delightful boutique fashion stores in the main street as well as check out some of the other wonderful little shops in town..

Kathy and I both visited a cute little shoe shop and were pretty impressed with the range of shoes they had... We could have been tempted and maybe I would have been if I had been younger and not needed the orthodic shoes...

As we wandered down the street we came to the D.J. Smith Memorial Park.  This park also is the home of the War Memorial... The monument here commemorates those from Canungra and District who served in World War One and World War Two.  it was originally erected to commemorate those who served in World War One, but the names of those who served in World War Two have since been added to the monument on ANZAC Day in 1954..

We then came across a lovely Mexican Weeping Pine tree, known as Mary's Tree.  This tree today stands tall as a tribute to Mary Hart's contribution to the area...

Seventy years ago, Mary brought the seedling tree back from the 1951 Country Women's Association (CWA) Brisbane State Conference where the country of interest at the time was Mexico.

The council has since installed a bronze plague in Canungra to allow visitors and future generation to learn the history of this tree.

The park also has a lovely new playground.  Playscape Creations were the designers of this project with two key goals.  - the first to provide a tall structure that would draw passers by to the playspace and the second to create something for all ages that blended into the natural environment. 

 The playgroup is surrounded by mountains in the background and native bushland so definitey lends itself to the nature inspired theme.  The playground features nature inspired systems with creature features embedded into the glass fibre reinforced  concrete with the look and feel of real rocks and bark.  A whole range of climbers create rather varied challenges, and a multitude of slides make the exit routes swift and fun.

Our walk then took us past the beautiful little St Luke's Anglican church which was officially opened in 1936.  It is a beautiful little church built in the Old English Gothic style using a beautiful rose cedar.

The beautiful Canungra Hotel was first built as the Bellissima Guest house in 1916 by the Lahey family and it was built to provide overnight accommodation for people doing business with the sawmill.  The guesthouse was sold in 1927 and became the Canungra Hotel with the addition of a bar on the eastern side.  Unfortunately the original hotel was destroyed by a fire in 1937 but it was then rebuilt in it's present form. 

As we continued to wander around town we came across the display paying homage to the history of the timber industry that was part of  Canungra's early history.  In the early part of the 20th century was home to the largest softwood timber mill in Australia.

As we headed back towards the car, we came across a pretty cool antique shop.  Unfortunately it was closed so we were unable to browse inside.  However we did get some photos of the awesome art work on the side of the building..

Situated right next door to the antique shop was a brilliant second hand book and vintage clothing store.  I could have spent half the day browsing through this amazing store...It was quite busy when we were there also.  It did have a wide variety of books to choose from and is definitely a place to come back to if ever we stay and spend some time in Canungra. 

Lots of lovely vintage clothes...

It was almost 4pm by the tme we got back to the car.  We were parked outside another little bakery which had a quirky little garden outside...

 

I have read on numerous occasions about camping at Canungra with lots of folk on the caravaning Facebook pages recommending the showgrounds here, so we decided to drive out and check it out.  The showgrounds is situated on the banks of the beautiful Canungra Creek.   The showground not only has plenty of unpowered creek sites it also has powered sites with two amenities blocks.

Canungra Showgrounds..

situated on the beautiful Canungra Creek.

It is pretty reasonably priced at $27 a night for a powered site and $22 a night for a non powered site, especially since its location is very central to both the National Parks and the Gold Coast.  I can see why it gets rave reviews and it is definitely a place that we would be happy to stay at.

 

From here it was time to head back into Brisbane.  Rather than come back the way we had driven up, Ian decided that it might be nice to drive back to the city through Beaudesert and check it out...

 

We had a short stop in Beaudesert mostly as a toilet break... but we did check out a couple of the parks and the war memorial in town...

 

The sun had set by the time we got back into Brisbane.  We had talked about going out for dinner, but as we had been out all afternoon, we ended up eating in at Ian and Kathy's.

After dinner we had a bit of a games night.  There is always healthy and friendly competition between us girls and the men and our favourite go to games are both "Five Crowns" and "Sequence".  

It has been a busy day with both being at Willow's Sports Day this morning and then our drive up into the Hinterlands this afternoon.  We are so appreicative of our wonderful friends and really do always enjoy catching up with them and spending time with them.  Hopefully we will get to see them again before we head home...