14 ) Lamington -- the park, not the "treat"

Lamington is another local national park, so we took a jaunt up there for a look-see. We took a nice hike down towards a waterfall, but
didn't make it quite there. These 5pm winter sunsets are killing
us--the days are just too short (in OZ the parks have a more "take care of yourself" attitude than the litigious US - the trail crossed multiple places where a misstep would lead to a serious bit of airtime! No place to be sans headlamp in the dark!) We're glad the solstice has now
marked the turnaround time for day length. But Lamington had more
lovely temperate rainforest scenery and unidentified bird calls.
We're starting to get the gregarious black and white raven/magpie type
birds sorted out, after a Currawong posed nicely for us, though.
There's the pied currawong, the Australian Magpie, the pied butcherbird, the magpie-lark (or Australian magpie lark). Or maybe
just combine the words pied/Australian/magpie, and the bird probably
exists! We also saw a little "Pandemelon" that looked like a
mini-kangaroo. (Luckily the nearby informative signage told us there
may be pandemelons present in the area, and even had a picture for us
to compare our pandemelon to, otherwise you may ask how we were able
to positively identify a Pandemelon in the wild!).

Nancy is getting psyched for a "Great Walk" run, if she can stop eating cakes and pies
and start running again. It's possible to run between Lamington and
Springbok on what is known as a "Great Walk" route, if you manage not
to twist an ankle and lurch off of the unrestricted cliffs hidden in
by the lush vegetation or get taken out by something poisonous or
what-have-you. However, given the predilection for a bakery on every
corner, and a distinct lack of close-by local running trails, right
now the bakeries are coming out the winner in the number of calories
consumed versus the number of calories burned, and this may not happen
before winter (good running temperatures) is over and the great "hot"
begins. But the locals we stood aside for on the trail as they ran
past were training for a "challenge" race means there are at least
some trail runners nearby. But, no time to chat to discuss
details--must be an oxygen thing--too much here. I was always willing
to stop for a breather on those alpine runs, right Michelle?!
Speaking of endurance events, we haven't signed up yet for the Kokoda
Trek in PNG. After seeing the movie "Kokoda" about the brilliant
Aussie defence in WWII as the Japanese were making
their way across PNG, we decided leeches and mud and tropical humidity
may not be our thing... But Glenn, we do want to see those birds!