Blogs from Cairns City, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

We had to be in Cairns by the 27th May as I had a flight booked but we wanted to be there a few days earlier so we could do the things we wanted to in that area. Luckily we arrived on the 22nd so we were fine. We arrived late afternoon and the first thing we did was find a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We found a perfect one; we didn’t want to dive, we were happy to snorkel. We found a boat that went to the Outer Reef and included lunch and other things. We booked it for the Friday. The day before the reef we spent walking around Cairns and exploring the town. It isn’t the prettiest of places but it has the reef so everyone goes there. The day of ... read more

Finally landed. 3 layovers and 19 hours later, we made it to Cairnes. Before we left, I bought homopathic vitamins off amazon to help with jet lag. I don’t know if it was the vitamins or just the adrenaline but morgan and I have transitioned really well. We are staying at Gilligan’s hotel for backpackers. It’s really neat! It reminds me of a college dorm more than a hotel. It also has a really neat bar overlooking the pool. (Will send pictures later). Morgan and I spent the afternoon walking the board walks and watching kids swim in the Esplanade. During our walk we kept talking about how Australia reminds us of our home videos from Japan. We keep talking about all the fun things we are going to do! We asked the concierge what countries ... read more

Geo: -16.9181, 145.772... read more

Sunday March 12, 2017 And on the seventh day the Lord rested; and that is what we did today. Did some research on where to attend mass and found few places. Finally we ended up in the cathedral of Cairns dedicated to St Monica. A nice church with exceptional glass windows. From the sight of it a relatively new building, apparently due to the fact that the previous version burned down a number of years ago. After service we went to do some shopping at the local mall, surpisingly modern and well assorted. The rest of the day we walked around some more and had lunch at a nice italian place where we had dinner a couple of nights ago. Simple, but nice food. Later in the day we spent some time at the pool of ... read more

Arriving into Cairns from Brisbane I immediately liked the feel of this coastal city. Cairns is the main jumping off point for the Great Barrier Reef and the primary reason I had come here. After dropping my bags off at the hostal I had one mission to accomplish - book a live aboard scuba diving trip onto The Reef. My original plan was to get on a sailboat for a couple of days but all of the operators were sold out for this type of trip. Again my lack of planning comes back to haunt me. Not to be discouraged I booked a two day/one night trip aboard a motor vessel deemed Taka including six daytime dives, one nighttime dive, food, and accommodation. My bank account was drained $410 AUD for the pleasure, but this is ... read more