Cairns and all its wonders

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Cairns what an amazing place! when I arrived it was beautiful and hot and everyone was relaxing by the lagoon. Cairns wasn’t what I was expecting I was thinking beaches and beautiful ocean. But you can’t go in the ocean between november- june just the time you want to be swimming because it is hot and coming into summer and you cant go in the ocean because of the crocodiles. So the man made lagoon is where everyone hangs out. I checked into the best hostel in town GILLIGANS!! if you ever go to Cairns and you have to stay there, but don’t expect to get any sleep lol it is an absolute party hostel it is attached to one of 2 main bars in town and the cheeper rooms (10 bed) are right outside/ above the bar so the best way to sleep is to get rip roaring drunk and pass out no troubles with the noise at all lol. The cool thing with staying there is that you get free dinner, not the best of food by any means but it is substance and when backpacking when some thing is free regardless of what it is you take it, one of the lessons learned lol. the other thing is you get free entry into the club which is usually $10 and to top it all of there is an out door pool there as well!

My first few days there were mixture of crazy nights and recovering days but I was moving up there and needed to get a job so I did some hunting and applyed to Green Island. A beautiful 4 1/2 star resort 45 min by boat off the coast of cairns and in the first week I had a job I was so thankful I needed to give my poor body a break from drinking lol, Cairns is defiantly for the young and outgoing. Everyone is extremely laid back and in the “ no worries” frame of mind and it is the first place I have been were all the locals just don’t wear shoes, anywhere not in the malls or grocery store, the burning hot pavement nothing lol it was funny to see especially back home you see all the signs “ no shoes, no shirt, no service” it is the exact opposite there so shoes, no shirt, no problem” lol after my diet of goon and instant noodles I still managed to spend $600 in my first week ?!?! I don’t know how that happened!

The one thing I had to do when in Australia was scuba dive the great barrier reef! it has been on by bucket list for years! and I did it I went for a scuba company that wasn’t to expensive $149 but wasn’t absolute crap either I went with Deep Sea divers Den ( the first time) it was really cool you hop on the boat take you about 2 hours off the coast they go over the safety speel , go over hand signals for under the water, show you how everything works and there is one instructor with 4 divers. we jumped in the beautiful crystal clear warm water and got use to breathing with the appreatice and slowly one by one held onto a rope and went down. Once we were all down we started to swim and follow the instructor it was such an amazing feeling breathing under water and seeing all of the beautiful coral and fish it was mind blowing and so exciting but you had to be careful as being excited you breath harder and in doing so you go threw your air faster which means a shorter time under! time still went too fast before we knew it our time under the water was over and of corse we were all giddy as little kids at Christmas for what we just experienced! after that trip I was hooked I went for 2 more intro dives then decided to get my diving certificate with Pro Dive!! it was 4 days on a boat on the outer skirts of the Great Barrier reef and went to different spots, did a night dive! I thought I would use up all my air in 15 min cuz I was scared of not being able to see what was around me and seeing the sharks in the water before jumping in was reeky to say the least. but once in we made our decent and it wasn’t as scary it was really quite amazing!! and we seen his turtle that was literally bigger then me they say he is 6 ft long and he was absolutely beautiful and just gracefully swam right by me SO amazing! The one thing I didn't like was sleeping on the boat it made me queazy so I took my blankets on the deck and sleep under the stars the fresh air helped so much. it was really nice actually! and got woken up buy the sun rise at 5:00 am lol but it was beautiful! we went for about 2-3 dives a day and every time we got out of the water there was food waiting for us it was awesome food, diving, food more diving haha a good way to spend a few days for sure!

LIke I was saying before Cairns is a party town and as a backpacker you get good at card games, and having a pack of cards and some goon will keep you and who ever your around busy for a wile I have learned so many drinking games from all over the world that I didn’t know existed lol, good times for sure. Another bar you have to check out in Cairn is the Woodshead where you dance on the tables and they have fun games every night. I always started at Gilligans and ended at the woolshead

but it isn’t all about drinking....mostly any ways going to the Daintree and seeing Millaa Millaa falls. This is supposedly where Peter Andre filmed Mysteriuos Girl. Driving up to port Douglas taking in the beautiful little town and the beautiful beaches.

There is a hike we did called the Welshes pyramid The 6 km hike up and down the Pyramid was fairly steep, with a rough dirt-rocks-roots track that was very exposed to the sunshine.they suggest 3 hours to do the hike I believe we did it in that but that was with photo time and lunch as well lol, it was 30 degrees and not very much shade but for 2 Canadian girls who spent a few years in BC were expecting Grouse Grind kind of hike we found it really easy lol but it was hot! thank god we took a tone of water with us. It was beautiful form the top you could see all the way to the ocean. We had gotten a ride there and were going to hitch hike back to the city, Not the smartest decision because when we got to the bottom there was n one there but we did spot a couple we were talking to at the top and we hoped in the back of there work van ( scene of a horror film flashed threw out heads) lol but we arrived safely in town and all was good 😊

Kuranda is another place to see while in Cairns, there is a scenic train that starts in Cairns and goes to the remote town bypassing beautiful waterfalls and all the wonderful rainforest that is up there. The train is an old style kind of train that tells you the history of the area on the way up. Kuranda it’s self was quite small but had plenty of cute shops a little petting zoo, bird sanctuary where a particular parrot will steal your jewelry so do ensure you take off anything shiny including earnings and bracelets lol. Also there was a butterfly sanctuary where thousands of butterflies flew around you they were all so bright and beautiful! We took the cable car back down from Kuranda so we got a birds eye view of the rain forest and when we came down over the mountain you could see all of Cairns the Ocean Port Douglas and even Green Island it was a beautiful day!

Taking the 45 min boat ride to Fitzroy Island is nice as well you can do a 45 min hike to what I thought to be the ugliest light house I had ever seen lol but a good little walk lol and then we walked a little further to the very peek of the island it was nice views of the ocean and the beach below. We decided to relax on the beach and go on the water trampoline! but first we wanted to check out Nudey beach and no it wasn’t actually a nude beach, it was a beach of pebbles and rocks but with the heat we still managed to fall asleep on it. then went paddle boarding and on the water trampoline all in all a good day trip.

When traveling to Cairns I would suggest at least 4 days and if you can do nothing else just go scuba diving trust me it is worth every penny!!!

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