We had a fabulous dinner at the the Hyatt Regency Coolum on Saturday night, as part of the annual A Taste of Coolum gourmet festival. It was a tri-nation degustation featuring wines from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, matched with food by the team at the Hyatt's top restaurant, Eliza's.

The wine highlight for me was a Stellenrust 46 Chenin Blanc from the Stellenbosch region of South Africa (sorry, Australia), while the food highlights were grainge beef dusted with porcini mushroom and a dessert of rich butterscotch creme brulee with a tangy Buderim ginger ice cream.

They had wine makers from all three countries there to talk about the 13 wines that were served during the meal, and we learnt quite a bit along the way.

The Taste of Coolum festival, which runs over three days each June, this year also included a Champagne degustation dinner, 'A Night in Italy' in the village square (pictured above) and the annual Chefs Alfresco Sunday afternoon event, which was sold out. It's a great festival, definitely worth putting in the diary for next year.

Noosa Queensland

The Noosa Longweekend arts festival kicks off today, running through to June 26 - yep, they really do mean a long weekend.

There's a huge line-up of shows and events, including a new play by Australian playwright David Williamson, who is the patron of the event, and performances by French cabaret star Caroline Nin and singer Katie Noonan.

There are also lots of leading authors coming, to give talks at various venues around town, and there are a few food and wine events. There's also a 40th anniversary tribute dinner for David Williamson, which has an impressive line up of guest speakers.

There are still tickets available (not to all events), so have a look through the program by clicking here.

Noosa Queensland

I might have mentioned this in passing before, but it's worth checking what's on at The J if you're in town or planning a trip. The J, located in Noosa Junction, is the main events venue in town and does the ticketing for a lot of big Noosa events, such as the upcoming Noosa Longweekend arts and culture festival.

We went to see the Melbourne International Comedy Festival roadshow there a couple of weeks ago - a great night out, as it is every year - and I often take the kids there to see shows in the school holidays, too.

And here are some pics from the Noosa Winter Festival, which was held last weekend. The winter festival is a big sporting event including a half-marathon, the Noosa Blue Water ocean swim, the Noosa Century bike rides and various other events.

There were apparently 6000 entries this year, which makes it a pretty sizeable event... and just goes to prove my theory that there are a lot of crazy people in the world. I mean, come on, a 160 kilometre bike ride??

(That's Susie O'Neill looking so cheerful there. I guess it's a ride in the park for her.)

I didn't have this to hand when I was writing about the Australian Body Art Carnivale the other day but check out this image from the other weekend. Very cool, don't you think?

(Photography by Bob Lewis)

The Australian Body Art Carnivale was also held on the weekend, in Eumundi - and was also bigger and better this year. The Masked Gallery Art Walk on the Friday night sold out weeks before the event and there were huge crowds over the weekend, especially on Saturday when the markets were on.

I can't really do it justice with words, so click on the links below to see some galleries of pics. It's impressive stuff.

Special effects

Face painting

Wearable art

Noosa Qld 

Hats off to the organisers of the Audi Noosa Food and Wine Festival - it really took another step up this year.

If you made a list of Australia's top chefs pretty much all of them have been in Noosa this weekend, doing cooking demonstrations, working as guest chefs in the top Noosa restaurants and just wandering around enjoying the event.

The crowds were huge, no doubt helped along by fab weather, and everything ran so smoothly, thanks to the army of volunteers they have.

Well done guys, you deserve a drink!

Noosa Queensland

I can't wait for the Noosa Food & Wine Festival, which is only just over a week away now. I was just looking at the video clip on the festival's website and it's so exciting to hear someone like Matt Moran saying Noosa is now considered the number one festival on the Australian food calendar.

The calibre of chefs that the event attracts is impressive, with this year's line up including Guillaume Brahimi (Guillaume at Bennelong), Justin North (Becasse), Cheong Liew (The Botanical), Martin Boetz (Longrain), Matt Moran (Aria) Jacques Reymond (Jacques Reymond) and Tetsuya Wakuda (Tetsuya's).

There will also be plenty of our local Noosa chefs taking part, like Shane Bailey (Berardo's), Hajime Horiguchi (Wasabi) David Rayner (Thomas Corner), Andrew Tomlin (Season) and Paul Leete (Sails), along with many wineries and breweries from around the country.

It's not too late if you want to get tickets for the festival. All the events and prices are listed in the back of the program, which you can download from the festival website and there's also travel and accommodation information on the site if you need it. Happy wining and dining!

Noosa Qld

Nothing gets in the way of a girls' night out, so we ignored the rain, donned our sexy gum boots and headed down to Noosa Woods (at the far end of Hastings Street) for the 'Zinc Night in the Woods' on Saturday night.

The concert was part of the Noosa Festival of Surfing and was a fun night out, despite the teeming rain. There were some good bands and the crowd was pretty big considering the weather.

Here's a very short clip I took during the headline act, Dallas Frasca, to give you a feel for it. The festival has finished now, but there's always next year.

What a cracking program they've put together for the 20th Noosa Festival of Surfing. It's now a nine-day event, running from March 12 to 20 and including all sorts of events on and off the water.

I always enjoy watching the pro surfing and I love the tandem surfing. Surfing on your own is hard enough, without trying to coordinate with someone else on the same board.

There's lots of live music and beach entertainment in the program and I know a lot of locals are planning to go along for that. The program also includes a barefoot ball, a surf expo, stand up paddle surfing and a family surf challenge.

Now, fingers crossed for perfect weather and perfect waves!

Noosa Qld