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It has been a helter-skelter couple of days. (Apologies in advance if this makes no sense, I am using a Japanese keyboard and it is very weird).
Our last full day with Richard and Ansie, we got a lift with Brad into the city again as he had to go and pick up Rhian's birth certificate. We meanwhile, had lunch in the Queen St Mall food court and then walked over to Southbank and spent the afternoon lazing about the urban beach. This is such a cool concept - its an area of golden white sand, just off from the pavement, with a free pool stretching out towards the river. You can sit in the shallows, pretend you are on the beach and watch the boats go by on the river, or lie back at look over the skyscrapers, or even see the cars filled with commuters zooming over the bridge in the distance. Once we had swum about about and just generally enjoyed being cool in the heat of the city, as well as the obvious novelty of sitting on a beach in the middle of a very built-up area, we went and lay on the grass to dry off. We caught the buses back to Redland Bay and began the dinner. For our last night, Ansie was constructing the creme-de-la-creme of dishes, a roast leg of lamb for the meat-eaters and for us all, a vegetable and ricotta stack. Yum. Delicious! We helped out laying the table and finishing off the pesto mix and then set to eating. We all ended up staying around the table for the whole evening, eating the main, then later a platter of fruits (fresh lychees! Sun-ripened nectarines and watermelon!) and then Brad brought out one of his expensive, vintage reds and a tray of gourmet cheeses and we ended up all eating more than one would have thought physically possible. Anyhow, eventually, we all retired to bed.

The following morning, Alex and I packed up our stuff from the caravan and loaded up Richards car, as he very kindly insisted on driving us up to Melany, our next destination. Ansie joined us on the journey, and after we had bid farewell to Brad and Licelle we set off on the 'short trip' (Aussie terms, not English. In English, we would refer to it as 'Crikey! What a distance! We should stop for tea and scones, so as to not starve before we get there!') Ah well, three hours later we arrived and after a brief mix-up with the house number and sending Alex into a complete stranger's residence, we found Bren and Reg's house. The six of us had a drink on the balcony, before Richard and Ansie had to go to meet friends for lunch. So we thanked them very much and bid them adieu and off they went.
Now, we are staying in an art deco inspired bedroom in a truly lovely 'Queenslander' house (The traditional state building style, made of wood, with painted cladding and very high ceilings). Bren and Reg took us down into the town of Melany and we wandered up the street while they shopped for groceries. The single high street is lined with an odd mix of cafes, hippy shops touting 'legal' highs (!) and touristy boutiques selling handmade soap and the like. We stopped to have cake at a cafe that was beckoning us in with its chocolate coated muffins and blueberry cheesecakes. We sat outside, pavement cafe culture, shaded from the sunshine and munching on cake. On the way back to the house, we passed along Mountain View road, and saw the Glass House Mountains in all their bizarrely shaped splendour, surrounded by sweeping rainforest covered hills and valleys. Back at the house, after dinner and a sit out on the raised decking overlooking the tropical garden, we came inside and watched 'The Last Samurai' before going to bed.

Today, we awoke and had breakfast on the balcony overlooking the palm trees. We all got ready for our planned day at the beach, zooming off in our host's little red sports car to King's Beach in Caloundra. It was beautiful. Clear brilliant blue skies, baking hot sunshine, fine white sand and turquoise water, breaking as, admittedly large, waves on the beach. Palm trees (and pines, oddly) waved on the shores and pavilions and giant parasols occupied the groundspace. We sat in a little cafe on the edge of the beach and the others had coffee while I had a pineapple juice. So lovely! Fresh from the plantations just outside of town, it was sweet, but not sickly, just right and so good and refreshing! After our refreshments, we headed down the bakingly hot sand with funny, high-step mincing movements and settled on towels. Around lunchtime we ventured back to the cafe for fish and chips and then Alex and I bravely ventured near the water, despite the anecdotes involving sharks/jellyfish/crocodiles/sheer bad luck that we have come across while travelling. The water. unbelieveably, was warm. I have never encountered warm seawater before. It was a revelation! We jumped straight in, embraced being battered by the 7ft waves, splashed around...then the helicopter that keeps a lookout for sharks went overhead and we decided to vacate the water. We esconced ourselves in the saltwater pool at the end of the beach instead to wash off the sand, then went back to the towels and read for a bit. Being fidgety though, we ended up getting up to go on a walk quite soon afterwards and meandered down the coast on a raised wooden boardwalk, next to the palms and looking out over oddly shaped rocks into the surf. We had some ice cream (mandatory beach food) and then sat in the still warm rays of the sun at about 5pm. I could very easily get used to this lifestyle.
We returned to the house with a short detour to Melany to pick up some picnic goods for tomorrow, when we plan to visit Australia Zoo. This is a highly exciting plan, given our addiction to animals and the fame of this particular zoo. We manufactured our own pizzas for dinner tonight, with myself making the bases and then instructing their topping process. We ate outside on the decking, surrounded by a symphony of rainforest noise and friendly black beetles. The sky up here in the mountains is completely free of light pollution and every single star shines brightly and clearly. It is so beautiful.

I am currently writing this from the aforementioned Japanese keyboard, on a Mac - so its very odd, but the soundtrack to my writing comes completely and utterly from the depths of the rainforest. There is the constant low hum of the crickets out in the trees, and a staccato frog that chirrups in scales. Another frog makes a monotonous ticking noise not unlike a clock. Before, when we were sitting outside, there was also the steady bumping of large armoured beetles throwing themselves at the glass lamps as well as various rufflings and skuffles in the bushes that had us quite nervous, as there are both mambas and taipans in the garden. There was even the odd flap of large, leathery wings as fruit bats flipped past through the night on a mission for tasty goodness.