ANZAC Day is a public holiday in Australia which meant Sarah and Mike both had the day off. So it is pretty much compulsory to:
a. go to the beach
b. have a barbecue
c. have a few beers
Naturally, we obeyed the rules and did all three. We took our breakfast to the beach and used the free barbecues to cook the bacon. Delicious. After jumping around in the waves for a bit, we headed up to the lookout point in the national park to admire the view. Next we went over to the Nomads hostel to try and sort out the dates for my Fraser Island trip. I had bought an open-dated ticket back in Sydney, but the girl who I had been e-mailing had still not confirmed my booking for the weekend. At the hostel, I discovered there was no Saturday departure after all as it was now considered low season. Luckily, I had just enough days left to squeeze the trip in before flying out of Brisbane on Friday. It actually worked out beautifully as Mike was going away on business so I was able to stay and keep Sarah company until Monday.
All that sorted, we headed back and sat by the pool with a beer until we lost the sun, then headed around to the front terrace and enjoyed the sunset instead. It really is a great house! We had a great evening putting the world to rights, talking about anything and everything, drinking (far too much) pinot noir and enjoying Mike's lamb kebabs. Sarah had the sense to go to bed knowing she had work the next day, whereas Mike and I sat up watching the IT Crowd (Yes Mike, I have seen it - we're watching it now!) and drinking even more pinot! Somewhere after 1am I took myself off to bed and left Mike asleep on the sofa...
When I surfaced the next morning (lunchtime?) I discovered Mike was even more hungover than I was. We'd promised to take Sarah some sushi at lunchtime and got ourselves some too. I spent the afternoon uploading blogs and photos until it was time to meet Christina, who I had stayed with at Dreamtime in Cairns. She had booked into a motel for a night so we dropped her things off then brought her back with us. We had a swim and enjoyed the sunset from the terrace - I never get bored of this - while Mike finished off his work. In the evening, Christina joined us for dinner at a thai restaurant near her hotel. By the end of the evening, Mike and Sarah had invited her to stay too and we had plans in place for a girlie weekend while Mike was away.
On Saturday, Mike said farewell and left for Korea, then Sarah and I picked Christina up and brought her back to Noosa Heights. Christina and I had smoothies on the beach and leapt about in the waves again, taking silly photos with Christina's GoPro. It's a great little camera and I am glad I bought mine. We found a nice place for lunch and were joined by a group of lorakeets sitting on the balcony with us. Later on we met up with Sarah again and hired some stand-up paddle boards for an hour. Christina has done quite a bit of paddleboarding in Sweden (she's even a Swedish women's medal winner, coming third in her category... a category of three!) but it was a first attempt for Sarah and me. It was actually a lot of fun and very peaceful making our way along the Noosa river and admiring the fabulous houses along the marina.
For dinner we each contributed a course. I made the Fijian Kokonda starter again, which went down well with everyone. Then Sarah made a green curry paste and a fabulous thai curry. We started watching Les Miserables but paused it for a break while I spoke to Mum on her birthday. Sam, Cath and my three nephews, Daniel, Charlie and Oliver had all arrived so I got to see them all on FaceTime. The twins have grown so much since I left home. They were both sitting on the kitchen table making a mess of the sweet potato mash Cath was trying to feed them. Daniel was collecting gravel in the yard but ran up to the house to say hello for a moment or two. His speech has come on so much too. I can't wait to see them properly in August.
Christina's contribution was to make us delicious oat pancakes for breakfast, served with fresh fruit and yoghurt. I must get this recipe from her! We spent the morning at Sunshine Beach, sunbathing and swimming, before getting all our stuff packed up again. We had such a lovely few days with Mike and Sarah and cannot thank them enough for making us so welcome - not only me as a fellow Henlowite, but also a random Swedish girl they only know by association. It was great to get to know them both better and I look forward to catching up again sometime soon...