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Published: August 23rd 2013
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From Christchurch we began our short series of flights in to Australia and up North to Cairns. After 3 hours we had arrived in Sydney and had a small wait before boarding our flight to Cairns. As soon as we departed the plane the change in temperature from New Zealand was quite the contrast. The sun was beaming down and there wasn't a cloud in the sky - we just wanted to head straight to the beach. After a short shuttle bus ride from the airport we arrived at our hostel - Caravella Backpackers which was located just across the road from the promenade.
After checking in we were shown to our room - a 6 bed dorm. The room was a bit of a mess and was full of stinking, sweaty French guys (lucky me). We couldn't complain though as we were paying $18 each a night, one of the cheapest hostels in Cairns. We quickly got changed into our beach gear and headed down to the lagoon, a man made swimming pool (Cairns doesn't have a beach) just around the corner to soak up the last few hours of sun. That evening we were pretty tired from the
travelling so ended up just having a few quiet drinks at the hostel with the cheap Morgans Spiced Rum we had brought from the airport and chatted to a couple of guys who were from Stafford. One was the spit of Alan Partridge and sounded just like him. 'Ahh Haa!'
The following morning we headed out to book a trip for the famous Great Barrier Reef to do some snorkelling. After visiting various travel agencies we decided to book with a company called Deep Sea Divers Den who were offering a discount at the time. The trip was booked for the next day so with that sorted we jumped on a bus and made our way to one of the beaches 20 minutes north of Cairns called Palm Cove. The beach was beautiful and was surrounded with large Palm Trees surprisingly. After several hours of worshipping the sun and splashing around in the sea it was time to get the bus home.
We had an early start the next morning and had to be at the marina for 8am. After checking in on the boat and receiving all our snorkelling equipment we were free to enjoy the sunshine
on the top deck of the boat. We pulled up to our first snorkelling/diving spot on the reef and the patches of light and dark blue hues were gorgeous. With the help of Jon I got into my snorkelling gear and we made our way down to the edge of the boat. I was pretty nervous as I'd never snorkelled before so lowered myself into the water pretty timidly - not like Jon who dive bombed in!
At first I was being really wary and wasn't putting my head properly under the water. I soon realised I wasn't going to see much if I didn't stop being such a wuss and after 5 minutes we were off. Some of the fish we saw were incredible and also rather peculiar especially the giant fish that was kissing every one. We also saw lots of cute little Nemo's! After an hour and a half we were called back onto the boat and a gigantic buffet lunch was served. We were given 30 minutes to let our food go down then we were taken to the second spot on the reef. This time me and Jon both jumped in and raced off
to see what other sea creatures we could find. We both thought the second reef was a lot better as the coral was a lot brighter and there were lots of hidden passageways to swim through. We even found a leopard print fish! After an hour we made our way back to the boat not before I got a sudden burst of cramp in my foot though. The pain was excruciating and Jon who was not too far away was laughing at me hysterically as I was trying not to drown but stick my fin out of the water at the same time to stop the cramps. Eventually we made it back to the boat and arrived back in cairns around 5pm.
That night we went for our free chilli con carne dinner at the Woolshed with the vouchers we were given from the hostel. The Woolshed is a pub/bar that is full of travellers. The food wasn't great but it was free and we were on a tight budget. After eating we went back to the hostel to have a few drinks with some guys we had met previously. After finishing our rum we headed back out to
the Woolshed to claim our 5 drinks for $10 deal that we had purchased earlier. Five drinks and some terrible dancing later we made our way back to the hostel and crashed out!
Me and Jon both woke up around 4.30 in the morning fully clothed with the light on. After getting undressed and sleeping for another few hours we got up at 8am with slightly sore heads. Even though we weren't feeling our best we spent the day being pretty productive and spending a large amount of money. We booked our Greyhound bus down to Sydney and a flight from Sydney to Melbourne. By three o clock we were shattered so had an hour by the lagoon and a short stroll along the marina.
The next morning we were up at 6.30 as were going to get our first Greyhound bus to Mission Beach a few hours away. The bus was pretty small and cramped - i think we had definitely been spoilt by the buses in South America! When we arrived at Mission Beach our hostel Kangaroo Jack's were there to pick us up. The hostel was located in the rainforest and relatively modern and clean.
It offered free breakfast and free wifi which was a shocker! As we couldn't check in till 1 we headed down to the closest beach called Bingil Bay which was surrounded with palm trees - me and Jon were the only two people there. The weather wasn't the best although it was warm it was cloudy so we stayed a few hours playing cards. We got back to the hostel around 3 and checked into our 6 bed dorm which only had me Jon and another guy called Q in it.
That night we cooked a really nice lamb steak dinner with vegetables and got involved with the unlimited wine night the hostel were putting on. We all thought it was going to be goon (boxed wine) but were pleasantly surprised when we found out it was bottles. Me, Jon, Q and the three Scottish guys Nick, Cameron and Jason who we had met previously on the Great Barrier Reef trip sat round chatting and drinking the pretty decent wine. Jon then decided to get everyone to play a drinking game which resulted in Q and Nick being sick by 10pm and that was the end of that!
In the morning we got up and headed straight to the beach as the weather was lush and spent most of the day soaking up the sun. We had a great time in Cairns and Mission Beach and were so happy to have some sunshine again. Next stop Magnetic Island!
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