Tuesday
Today we had another leisurely start (well, Hannah annoyed Nik into getting up as he has accustomed himself to about 12 hours sleep a night at the moment).
Then we went for our day out. Randy tried to take us to the Tweed Valley art gallery, but it was closed so we will have to go tomorrow. So instead we drove out to Mount Warning National Park. It was very busy as it was a school holiday, but was a lovely piece of rainforest with some pretty little streams - quite random to find so near to here. We went on a wander through the forest, and Randy and Nik did not kill and bury Hannah as they kept saying they were going to. Apparently there is some good nature there including tiny little frogs which looked awesome, but we didn't see them. We walked part way up the mountain, but it was going to take about 3 hours, and that meant that by the time we got up there we wouldn't have been able to get down as it would be dark. It was a lovely refreshing sight to see so many children climbing down the mountain having had a great time after 6 hours hiking! We finally saw some nature on our drive out the national park, as a bush turkey ran out in front of the car.
Went into Murwillumbah to go to the pub for a beer. While we were in there, an old man came and sat with us and he was genius - a true taste of rural Australia. He had hairs growing out the top of his nose and nicotine stains on his white beard. He was called Gary and liked Hannah's hair. We talked about the royal family, his time working for Wella, his time on the oil rigs, Canadians, squaw wrestling and his sole encounter with a Japanese woman. It was very entertaining. Randy then tried to win on his favourite pokie but it was not to be today.
Chilled out at the house for a bit, and then Matt came back and cooked us an enormous dinner of chicken cordon bleu, mash potato, salad, prawns, smoked salmon crudités - loads of good food. Hannah established some new learnings in her fish allergy. Salmon - bad. Prawns - ok. Bringing it to two fish based things she can now eat safely.
After clearing up dinner, Hannah then cut her hair and then Randy, Nik and Hannah sat down and watched a film. Sadly the remote control didn't work so we couldn't make the subtitles go away but Randy devised a clever system of putting a bean bag in front of them so they didn't annoy us anymore! We then went to bed so we could get up bright and early to talk to Hannah's parents on Skype.
Wednesday - our final real day in Murwillumbah L
Got up early to talk to the parents on Skype as arranged, but the time zones were all confused so they weren't there. After waiting a while, we went back to bed.
When we got up for the second time, we had some breakfast, and then put our sporty clothes on for some time on the tennis courts to make the most of the lovely surroundings. Hannah cannot play tennis but had fun running about and hitting some balls around. Nik's tennis mainly involves hitting the ball very hard so the balls kept disappearing into the forest. After a tea break, Randy came to join us on the courts and played against Nik while Hannah sat as the umpire. Nik lost the first game (standard) but won the second - he finally won something!!! We then went for a nice walk around the grounds which was very pretty on a sunny day. On the negative side however, it turned out that we had both been bitten lots by something while we were out there and these ones are really itchy.
Unfortunately, we also discovered that Nik's friend still isn't back for us to go visiting with, but very kindly Randy and Matt are letting us stay on for a bit longer.
In the evening, managed to have a chat with Hannah's mum on Skype which was very nice as its been a couple of months since we spoke. We also arranged to call back at the proper time in the morning to try and talk to Hannah's dad as we didn't want to miss out on him too.
Matt the secret master chef whipped us up an excellent dinner of a vegetable and bacon stew with rice with ice cream and sauce for afters - yum. We spent the evening watching some very good TV shows, including one which had a terrible advert featured on it for Flea Market Montgomery, which is some big dude rapping about sofas. Look it up on You Tube - had us in stitches. Then had another early night ready for the morning Skype session tomorrow.
Thursday
Woke up early doors to Skype Hannah's dad from our bed. Initially the internet attempted to not work but we managed to get it going and had a lovely chat in the end.
After a little post chat sleep, Nik made a lovely breakfast. We had veggies from the fruit stand on toast (tomatoes for Hannah, mushrooms for Nik) and it was amazing. About 5 minutes later, Nik had a burger. Then headed down to the tennis courts for some fun in the sun. Randy and Matt joined us for a hit about. It was all fun and games until Hannah took a tennis ball to the guts. But she just about stayed alive.
We then went for another walk around the grounds and decided to play gnome checkers (like a giant checkers board with gnomes instead of buttons). Nik was back to form = Hannah won. We also explored the herb and veg garden which had some amazing stuff in it, like kaffir limes and the strongest smelling basil.
For the evening, we drove out to the pub in Uki again, to meet Randy's friend Riley, who had been away on holiday. We had some beers and a bite to eat which was actually really tasty. Hannah managed to take a whole day off from eating meat - bliss - which is no mean feat as everything is made of beef here. After the pub, we went back to Riley's house which is a beautiful wooden structure on a hilltop that her father built - Nik had house envy. Nik also had dog lust, as they had two beautiful dogs which were Pit Bull Ridgeback crosses. They were very lovely and playful and liked Nik a lot. We spent a lot of time looking at them. We also went out on the hill to look at the Southern Cross in the stars - an oz trip staple. After a few drinks here, we headed back to Randy's and luckily no kangaroos jumped out and tried to kill us on the windy roads at nighttime.
Friday
Pretty much did nothing all day. Nik currently needs around 12 hours sleep a night, and Hannah felt grotty with a headache and nausea - most likely a reaction to the 16 bites she got in one go. Ugh.
A high point of the day was doing the final bits of laundry and doing our packing - it literally gets worse every time.
Hannah spent the evening on the sofa attempting to recuperate, and Nik and Randy went to buy some food and stopped in for some drinks at the pub. Nik saw some shocking women in massive heels, a big dude boasting about how he was after a fight tonight, and met a character of a cab driver called Pablo. Hannah was at home watching the wizard of Oz, which is much better and funnier than she remembered.
When the men got back, we had chicken and salad for dinner and chocolate cake with ice cream for afters - the best cure for any ailment. We then watched a rubbish film before going to bed. We were anticipating people coming back for a party, but it transpired that there were a few birthdays on so nobody was around. Disappointing as we've heard these parties are a little bit legendary.