Blogs from Cairns City, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 7

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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City October 27th 2012

6 days out and the best part of it all.....we do not have to stand night watches. That is big. Ok, there are no meals to prepare, no house keeping, no bilge pumps to take apart and lots of entertaining people and activities about. We are both enjoying this much more than we expected to. The Volendam is a lovely ship, very well appointed and staffed by the most gracious people. The meals are varied and delicious. There is Tai Chi on the pool deck every day. Plus morning stretch and an abs work out every day. There is a spa and even a fellow who works for Microsoft (and is contracted to this boat) who runs computer classes, including how to make movies. He is available several times a day to help one on one. ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City October 7th 2012

After watching many youtube clips of people's cars being washed away and upturned on their journey up to Cape York along the Old Telegraph Track, Brad and I decided we couldn't think of any better way to spend our holiday. We knew this was the holiday we would test out Old Faithful. Old Faithful is a 1994 Toyota 4 Runner, equipped with enough modifications to keep ARB and Rhino Rack in business for the next ten years. Brad had recently purchased it and we were pretty sure we were prepared to go off road. Besides, we had done the Gibb River Road with a hire 4WD which had nothing in the way of recovery equipment, that is unless you call a beacon and hi vis stripes recovery gear. After a frantic pack up, we set off ... read more
Very dry and beautiful!
The Famous Lion's Den

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City August 4th 2012

We decided to spend our second day in Cairns embarking on a road trip to Hartley's Crocodile Adventure! Normally, renting a car in another country wouldn't be THAT big a deal - but in Australia, they drive on the other side of the road AND they have LOTS of round-a-bouts that you go around backwards! Anyway, turns out - Brian's a pro at driving on the other side of the road and there was very little traffic to actually make us nervous! While he drove, I was able to enjoy the beautiful coastline of Australia and take some pictures for everyone back home. Once at Hartley's we walked around the park to see the unreal number of crocodiles on the property. Then we got on a lagoon tour (on a caged in boat) to get up ... read more
Brian Driving on the Right (WRONG) Side!
Keeping Cool
So Close!

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City July 26th 2012

We got the bus transfer at 1030 to the airport from the kiwi basecamp hostel where we had stayed. It was time to leave NZ which was sad but we were looking forward to the warmth of Oz. The flight from Christchurch to Sydney was 3 and a half hours. We got food on the plane and there was a movie but we just read our books for the flight. We arrived in Sydney in the afternoon and had 3/4 hours to kill in between the flights. We had to collect our bags and bring them through customs before sending them on to Cairns. At customs we were told we couldn't bring a key holder made from wood that we had bought in Iguassu into the country without having it treated which would probably have destroyed ... read more
Spoonbills on the Mudflats
Masked Lapwing
The Mudflats

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City July 22nd 2012

Well, not written for a while, been really busy! I have scuba dived on the Great Barrier Reef with a company called Tusa, which was for the whole day, and was amazing! Went down twice, and really enjoyed it! And on the way to the reef, a humpback whale decided to follow the boat, and my instructor got some stunning photos of it! Was very choppy and lots of people were very sea sick... I'm really pretty good on the water but it was that bad I nearly got sick but held it together :) I went on a rainforest trip called Uncle Brian's which took us all day as well, showed us some different parts of the area and some waterfalls, rapids etc and we went to Millaa Milla which is the waterfall they used ... read more

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City July 14th 2012

Hello from Cairns! It is currently 4.30am here, after all the travelling and lack of sleep I fell asleep at 5pm and I'm now wide awake, but going to try and get a bit more before 9am then head over to the mall get some breakfast from the supermarket. Flight from Tokyo was ok, about 7 hours, got some sleep on the plane. Landed from Tokyo about 6am yesterday, got stuck behind about 100 Japanese students at passport control so that was fun! Eventually got the shuttle bus to Gilligans where I'm staying, dropped my bags off, went online for a bit to talk to people, then had a mooch about the town. Got few bits sorted and had a wander about the mall, then headed back, thinking it was 2pm ready for check in when ... read more

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City June 19th 2012

Our final stop in Australia and after a couple of days sunbathing by the pool Gary and Lou joined us and the activities began! We went white water rafting on Tully River. It was so much fun!! As well as the rafting we got to jump off 6-8m rocks and swim through some rapids nearly drowning. The first was the 'wave train' which each wave pulled you under and you had about half a second to grab a breath before being draged under again and so on and so on... Rachel didnt like this one! The other was the 'drowning simulator' where you slid down rocks into a deep pool where the current pulled you further down, Rachel and Gary were only down for a few seconds but Paul went down for a very long 8 ... read more
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Xtreme Team!!

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City May 8th 2012

After sleeping at Darwin to catch our early morning flight to Cairns we arrived at our Hostel Gilligan's before we could check in, so we grabbed the essentials for a day relaxing in the sun and took the short walk to the man made lagoon. We were soon laying our sarongs under a shady palm tree snoozing the day away. Since coming off our tour regime of having three meals a day Will has been suffering so Jo decided to wake him up with a double cheese burger from McDonald's which he was very pleased with, and he surprisingly savoured in more than 3 mouthfuls! Soon it was time to head back to the hostel and enjoy the free dinner they provided, and we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the turkey escalopes, mash and ... read more
Will on the sea front
Jo Lagooning!
Pool view at Gilligans

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City May 7th 2012

My first day upon arrival in Cairns, I was relieved to be in warm weather. It's humid, tropical, and definitely a turnaround from the weather in Melbourne. I had a walkaround the city and was determined to hold a koala. I asked around and it was too late to take a trip to the zoo. I knew the only time I would be able to do so would be on my first day since I have day plans for the next three days. So...I asked around and found a place in the city where you could do so. And that I did :) So cute that cuddly little fur ball...with massive claws! Next, I needed some lunch...had some fish n chips. Then walked around the night market and had met a cool girl at the tourism ... read more
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YES! I'm snorkeling in the the Great Barrier Reef!
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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City May 4th 2012

Thursday morning (19thof April) was an early start at 4am to be picked up by a taxi and driven to the airport to take the 6am flight to Cairns. When I got to the check in, my diving gear weight over the allowed limit, so I took out a red bag I had inside it with clothes, but I didn’t remember that I also had my brand new Swiss army multi-tool knife in that bag. Surely enough, when I went through the security check in, I was asked if I was carrying a multi-tool in the bag. It was around 5:15am and from what I could remember, I had made sure the night before to specifically put the Swiss army knife in the diving bag, until I realized I had taken the red bag with clothes ... read more
Lizard Island
Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef




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