Blogs from Cairns City, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 3

Hey everyone! This is another super quick update I'm afraid, they charge to use the PC's at the 'Hide Hostel' (where I'm currently staying) so I don't have time to upload any photos or anything. I arrived safely in Cairns yesterday and went straight to 'Gilligan's Backpackers Hostel' where my Gold Coast tour was due to start the next day. Gilligan's is a party hostel, full of skanky British twenty-somethings. I managed to get some sleep though and a couple of the girls in my dorm took me out to find some food. Good Friday is not a good day to turn up! Nothing was open apart from the occasional bar. This morning we all met in reception to get on the bus and head up to Port Douglas to learn about the Australian aboriginal lifestyle/heritage. ... read more

Sorry we haven't written in awhile...we ran out of time in Cairns, and then we didn't have internet access for awhile. The big excitement in Cairns was that we got our open water scuba diving certification! Woohoo! Australia threw in an extra money-making hoop and we both had to get medical exams (which we had to pay 60 buck each for). Let me tell you, this was the biggest waste of time and money ever. We showed up to a clinic the first morning we arrived, to a waiting room filled with sick and injured people. A nurse took our basic information as soon as we arrived. She got us worried by saying that our spirometer readings (lung capacity) weren't as high as they should be. Then we had to wait 2 AND A HALF HOURS ... read more

Hello from Cairns the hottest place on earth! it is absolutly stunning up here we are in the middle of a mountain range and you can see lush green hills whenever you turn your head! we flew in and i managed to brave looking out the window and saw a waterfall...theeee most scienic arival ever! i knew we were going to have a good time when i saw that. stepping out into this heat was quite nice from a change from melborune but i seriously love air con now it is most definatly my best friend haha we get free meals at the hostel but last night we couldnt stand our 3rd night of chillie con carne and figured that they just reheat and keep reheating so i splashed out and boguht myself some yum food ... read more

As I haven't had much luck finding work, and having done what I came out to do, I'd decided I would probably go home A.S.A.P rather then staying out here for the full 6 months. I'd got some quotes to change my flight dates and got a bit of a shock when I found out the price. It was cheaper to stay here for another 3 months than to go back home. So I applied for some jobs on the dive boats. It's quiet season now though so wasn't expecting much. Went to Cape Tribulation the following day. It took a couple of hours to drive up there, and then when we arrived we went to some lookout points and drove throught the rainforest before going on a crocodile spotting river cruise. We only saw 1 ... read more

Naz: The last two weeks of our time in Oz have been absolutely crammed withe activities, adventures and unforgettable moments. First, we went to Gagaju bush camp, which is located on the Noosa River. While we were there we canooed up the everglades (singing), camped out, sat around camp fires (eating marshmallows of course) and made some really good friends. It was quite tough living in the bush and this is probably one of the primary reasons everyone got along so well, cos we were all suffering together. Every night we would all get out our boxes of 'goon' (wine) and play drinking games around the fire such as 'ring of fire', 'who the f*ck' and 'Twenty-One'. One particular night we were playing 'ring of fire' and by the end (after a fair few glasses of ... read more

I really really miss Cairns, having spend so much time there as a child... Anyways, after our Western Australia adventure, I went back to Melbourne for a few days to get things organised for the East Coast trip... This trip consisted of me, Martin, Alexandra and Cat... The flights from Melbourne to Cairns takes about 4 hours, Jetstar is probably the cheapest, you can get a ticket for $189 (I am not advertising for them though...), from Cairns airport it takes about 15 minutes to get to the CBD, mainly along Sheridan st and Apline st... The first thing I want to do in Cairns is SCUBBBBAAA... I really miss scuba diving, when I first got certified PADI OW, I managed 60 dives in 3 months... but since moving to Melbourne, I did only 2 dives ... read more