Time to pack up

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Well, I guess you could say this is the end of the road for us. After roughly 8000km on the road, we’ve reached Cairns (that includes a couple "short cuts" and routes off the beaten path). I guess there's really not much to say about Cairns itself; obviously everyone comes here for the Great Barrier Reef, but we had a few days before our diving trip to play around the city and a few days after to tie up lose ends.

We attended a really informative presentation by Reef Teach. A marine biologist described the different types of coral and fish that we’d see, and pointed out basic characteristics that could help us classify them. She also filled us with interesting facts (turns out peeing on a jellyfish sting doesn’t really help after all- just a good laugh when it’s all said and done). That was probably the best part about our time in the area. The streets were lined with travel agents and gift shops, but the scene was a bit old and the staff quite jaded so we decided to venture off on our own.

We stayed at a caravan park about 15 minutes out, but it felt like worlds away. It was located within the ranges of a rain forest - pretty cool to look up and be surrounded by massive mountains and gorges. One morning there was a group of clouds hovering off in the distance as if they were suspended by a string- the peak of the mountains were still in plain view. Josh led us along a walking trail to water cascades and a natural pool. The water levels were way up because of all the recent rainfall, so it wasn't safe for us to swim around. Beside it was more fun to watch the kayakers take a tumble over the drops in the river. Several others found their way into the water via rope swings from the tree tops and white water rafting trips. We decided to finish out our time on land, so we found a running trail nearby. You'd think all the trees would give off a little extra O2, but we were sucking wind by the time we got back (guess all the time underwater caught up with our land legs).

We picked up brochures about the Atherton Tablelands (think the mother of all domes). It was a bit farther inland and we were nervous about road conditions (and petrol levels), so we watched a DVD on the area and called it a day.

Once we turned our van in, we knew this chapter had come to an end. We waited out the remainder of our stay in the airport. It seemed like we were stuck in a time warp -we checked in Tuesday at 5am and arrived in New Zealand Wednesday at 4 am. No major time changes, just long lay-overs lengthened by weather delays. I guess Australia didn’t want us to leave either.

The pictures really don’t do this place justice, but the memories will always bring a smile to my face (and this blog will tell the story when my memory starts to go!)

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Photos

Playing in the water
This was the tamest waterfall so we were able to get a couple of poses in

Lessons at Reef Teach
All these stuffed fish were just a prelude of what was to come on our dive trip

Mad Cow Tavern
One of the highlights of our mini pub-crawl in Cairns

Sydney Airport Outbound
Where did all this sh*t come from?!?!

Killing Time
Video games and dance parties with big sunnies & hair dryers- wow, we should do this more often!