Rainforest Love!

 We really struck gold with this weekend's hike in the Lamington National park.  We hiked to Picnic Rock and Elebana Falls.  Not too arduous (about 8 km round trip) but the destination was amazing!!!  It was a true rainforest.  We had read that the Green Mountain off the Gold Coast (which is where Lamington is) is one of the best hidden hiking spots on the coast.  We took a very windy road switch backing down a mountain to get there.  Several people refer to this place as "a fairy forest".  And that's exactly what it looked like.  My girls were so excited.  It looked like a place you'd see in the movies with fairies meeting under mushrooms and pixies sleeping in lily flowers.  It was incredible.

The hike down was actually pretty dark because the vegetation is so dense, it's really, really shady.  We loved playing on the falls and climbing the rocks to reach the different pools.  Of course pictures never do it justice but the falls are actually quite tall.  The main one, I mean.

Our efforts to take self-timer pictures were tricky with no flat rocks to set the camera on...but better than nothing I guess.

I know there are millions of pix in this post, but I couldn't help it.  There were so many cool things on this adventure.  When we got to Lamington, we started our hike at a local resort there called "O'Reilly's".  It's kind of like checking out Ruby's Inn when you visit Bryce Canyon in Utah.  They have a couple little cafes and we had our first taste of Australian meat pie.  Meat pies are HUGE here.  All the bakeries and cafes sell meat pies of all varieties.  They were good. Of course we ordered chips (remember that's fat fries here) to go with them in case we didn't love the pies.  :)  This was the first plane to land at O'Reilly's.

 The trees in these rainforests are so crazy.  They are huge and the roots grow above ground as well as below.  What happens is that an older tree gets wrapped by vines and those vines grow into and around the tree until they virtually take over the older tree.  The older tree eventually dies inside and the wrap continues to thrive and this process repeats over and over so you get huge hollow trees with peek-a-boo holes, automatic tree houses with perfect bases for a tea party (Oaklee's first thought), hide-n-seek (Birdy's idea), a fort for nerf gun wars with all kinds of shooting openings and high guards (Park's wish...and let's be honest, Lex's too!)  Ok boys, next time we come you can bring your nerf guns.

At O'Reilly's they have a tree top walk you take before venturing deeper into the forest.  The walk is all on rope bridges about 30 meters (roughly 90 ft.) above the ground.  You are pretty much among the tree tops!  There are signs all over stating no more than 6 people at a time on each section of bridge...interesting and a little frightening that they have weight limits.  Our boys thought it would be fun to bounce and shake the rope bridges as the 5 of us journeyed across.  Why are boys so weird?  I couldn't help but think how grateful I was to not be taking a scouting den of 8 or 10 boys across these bridges.  Too much boy enregy! We had our fill of testosterone with just our 2.

The tree top walk was incredible.   It is awesome and very Swiss Family Robinson-esque.  There was one point where you could climb a ladder that took you an additional 90 meters up so you could see the very very top of the forest.  You were above everything.  I had to stay down with Oaks but Lex and the kids loved it.  I can't believe they let people do it.  The ladders are kind of in cage tunnels...to provide safety?  :)  

 The animals are very used to tourists so they don't scare easily.  We loved the birds.  They were always looking to be fed.  They are so stinkin bright you can't miss them.

I had to put this picture in because it gives a little perspective as to just how huge these old trees really are.  They are massive.  My kids were sitting at the base and the tree still just looms over them.  They are awesome.  Really mossy and great for climbing...ok and nerf gun wars too!

 More views from the highest climb of the tree top walk.  Gorgeous!!!