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Published: October 12th 2014
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Week 7 started with a move to our last stop on the East Coast .... A weird feeling! It's gone so quickly! We chilled in base for the morning, packing and getting ready for our coach to Cairns. We had to get a boat back to Townsville and then a 5 hour coach journey to Cairns. We got there and checked into our hostel, Gilligans. We went downstairs and got a dinner for $6 which was good for a drink and I had mash and chicken snitzel. That evening we went out in the bar attached to our hostel for a few drinks. Emily and I were meant to take part in a game of gladiators but they didn't call our names which was sad! We saw the girls from our Fraser Island trip, Gillian and Viv and had a few drinks with them. On Thursday we went to our hostel pool, it was sooo hot we spent the whole day there, can definitely tell Summer is on it's way here. In the evening we just made dinner and hung out in our room reading and then went to a travel shop to book a tour for Saturday.
The next
day we had an early start as we had to check into our new hostel Asylum before going on our Uncle Brian's rainforest tour. Our tour guide Cousin Brad was a little excitable for that time of the morning but once we were more awake we got used to him! Our first stop was a place called Babinda where we went on a rainforest walk. As we got there one of the rangers had caught a brown snake which he let go in front of us and we had to run away if it came near! Fortunately it didn't! On our walk we saw some nice water features and a frog but that was all we spotted! From the moment we got out the bus we got eaten by marsh flies, it was ridiculous but Brad said if we got in the water they would leave us alone- he was wrong, they followed me in there! The next stop was Josephine waterfall, which had a natural slide you could go down. We had to jump off a rock to get in, I had a noodle due to my lack of swimming skills! We took turns sliding down and then in
groups which was fun. We were here for a while and Brad said he was looking for someone to show everyone a new trick on the waterfall and he chose me because he thought I wasn't going to do all the activities because I'm rubbish at swimming but I did. So we went down the waterfall and I had to sit on his back while he laid down which was funny! Then some other people had a go. The next stop was lunch and we stopped at a little cafe in the middle of nowhere which had made us chicken and salad. After we ate we headed to Millaa Millaa waterfall where Peter Andre made the ' Mysterious Girl' video. Once there we swam out to underneath the waterfall and sat behind it for a while. Then Brad introduced us to the hair flick photos. We took a group one and then an individual one which Was fun to take. Then we drove to our last stop but visited a lake on the way to try and spot a platypus- we managed to see a small one. I thought they were much bigger than they are! The last stop was
to see a volcano crater that was now filled with water and was 65m deep. When we got there we saw a tree you could jump in from, I wasn't going to jump because we had just dried off and the water was cold but after watching other people do it I had to! Emily waited at the bottom for me incase I couldn't swim out but I could- I'm definitely getting better at swimming! As we were all cold after we got changed into out spare clothes and then Brad gave us hot chocolate and chocolate cake. Then we had a long journey back which we tried to make better with some some singing and the Macarena! When we got back to the hostel we were really tired so we went to get pizza and then went to bed!
On the Saturday we had another early start as we were going snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef. We found our way to the marina and got given all our snorkelling gear before travelling out to a place on the reef for over an hour or so- for which I slept the entire time! Once there they have a
quick chat about where we could and couldn't swim and what to look out for. I asked the guy about a life jacket but he said I wouldn't need one because I would just be floating along! It was weird getting in at first because all you could see was ocean! It felt strange knowing we were so far out and just in the middle of the sea, something I haven't done before! The first snorkel was for an hour and a half- we saw loads of different fish some of which were electric blue! The reef was colourful but not as bright as I had seen on TV and in photos! It was cool when you swam to the edge of the coral and could just see down into the sea, which was very dark when you looked down! I was hoping to see a Reef shark but had no luck, although the guy who was out snorkelling with us said he had seen one the day before! Then we got back on the boat and had lunch which was rice, chicken and salad, before driving to our second part of the reef. On he second dive we managed
to find Nemo- a clown fish! We also saw some strange fish, one in particular that me and Emily had no idea what it was but it's face looked a bit like a cat without the fur! Then we got the boat back and got ready to go out. We bumped into the people from our Uncle Brian's Tour and Gillian and Viv.
On Sunday we went to the lagoon, it was really hot and sunny again. There was some sort of and playing there so it was really busy. We just sunbathed and then got lasagne for dinner. Monday was fairly similar, we went to the lagoon again, trying to enjoy the sunshine before we head to New Zealand! We went for lunch in a pub which was nice and then went and found the shopping centre to buy some jumpers for New Zealand ( which was a bit depressing as we had been enjoying the sun so much!) in the evening we made sausages, mash and gravy which was so good- gravy always makes me think of home! In the evening we did our laundry and got ready for the next leg of out journey- New Zealand!
On Tuesday I got up early to go to the bank to sort my travel card then went back to our hostel to wait for the shuttle. Our first flight was to Brisbane, it was only about an hour and a half. I watched Maleficent for the whole flight, so the journey was really quick. The plane had free charging for your phone too which was good. Emily was sat next to a little girl who was 5 and travelling by herself so spent most of the flight helping her use her TV and play games which was funny. We had a quick change over at Brisbane, about an hours wait in between flights before boarding for Auckland! That flight was also good (Quantas again!) I watched another film, called blended which was an easy watch! The food was also really good, we got chicken pasta, cheese and crackers, salad and a boost bar! We landed in Auckland without any problems and got a cab to Base, our hostel! It was about 1am when we landed so we just went out to get some water and then went to sleep!
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