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Published: April 30th 2012
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After we left Rainbow Beach a few of us headed up the coast to Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is lovely. It's one road full of everything you could possibly want from a little town, it has a huge harbour, beach and a gorgeous lagoon that everyone swims in and sunbathes round in the day. It also has a fun nightlife. We headed down to Phoenix Bar in the evening, most of the boats do their after party there. You get half a dominoes pizza for free once you've spent $5 at the bar which we thought was a great deal!
The following day we sailed off on our boat 'The Clipper' which is the renowned party boat! And it certainly lived up to it's reputation, we had such a blast on that boat, aided more by the fact that most of the 50 people on it were complete party animals! Quite a few of the guys started on the booze that afternoon and didn't stop drinking! The crew said we were the craziest bunch they'd had in a while. Apparently the first night everyone does a couple of drinking games, have a chat and get to know each other. But we were all jumping up and down partying like crazy by 9pm! Plus there's a hot tub that's filled with sea water, which I got forced to go in at one point, we weren't really given a choice, it was either get in or be chucked in!
The second night was even crazier.. the crew organise the most hillarious games. They put on some tunes and get everyone to pretend to be animals, run from side to side, freeze, and do all kinds of stuff until one by one you are eliminated until there's one person left who is crowned the king or queen of The Clipper. Carol and I got surprisingly far. We had to make an alphabet letter out of our bodies with one other person, and we passed that round then we had to get into groups of 8 and make a rowing boat, all rocking back and forth. Our group was awful, all out of time, and at one point the back of Carols head banged me right in the mouth which cracked us up but somehow we got through on 'passion' (probably because there were a lot of girls in our group!) The next round you had to go into pairs and do certain positions.. you can imagine what, pretty glad we got eliminated at that stage. The final stage was a dance off between the final 4, and the first three pretty much stripped and then Philip (a crazy but lovely German guy) won by getting everyone to join in on a song/dance routine he made up earlier that night. Quite a lot of us knew it already it's point point 'Dance A Tre, Love Your Life, Dance A Tre'.. you definitely had to be there, that song is going to stay with me forever! Aparently it was 'Dance the Drey' after some guy he knew on mushrooms, but it didn't sound that way! So funny and he got everyone buzzing! He got the loudest cheers of them all, and we then all continued to dance the night away on the ship deck! 😊
In the daytime we went to visit the Whitsunday Islands national park which was stunning and got lots of pictures on the famous Whitehaven beach, then in the afternoon we got to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef which as you can imagine was incredible. At first I was a bit scared as there were so many fish, my fear was not helped by the crew chucking in fish food so they swarm around you! But I soon got over it and enjoyed seeing so many colourful fish, my favourite had to be the rainbow fish! We also did more snorkelling on the second day, before sailing home in the afternoon which was torture due to the choppy conditions. The boat kept rocking from side to side and when you're hungover this was far from ideal! I don't think I have ever felt so ill! Once we were back to shore we all carried on drinking at the after party.
The following day I went on to Magnetic Island with crazy Philip and Sophie (who I also met on the boat.) We stayed in Base Backpackers on the island which was lovely, situated right on the beach so the bar/restaurant has views of the sea which I loved. The whole island is filled with trees, greenery gorgeous bays and is filled with wildlife, it's so unique. We met others at the hostel and all went for a walk in the national park the next day, right up to the world war forts which had views over the entire island. Afterwards we went to the Koala Sanctuary and got to hold snakes and a baby crocodile! I planned to chill out on Magnetic Island but this was just not possible, not with Philip around! At first I wondered if he was on drugs but he actually isn't he's just naturally the happiest, most hyper guy I've ever met, you can't help but smile and laugh when you are around him! We all ended up drinking and dancing on the tables every night but I guess you only live once so why not!
We then went on to Cairns stopping at Mila Mila Falls on the way which is the waterfall where Peter Andre filmed 'Mysterious Girl.' Sadly the weather was far too rubbish to take a dip but it was cool to see it all the same! We then went into the rainforest and stopped at a gigantic lake, where our lovely bus driver/guide also cooked us a barbeque with kangaroo (yes kangaroo!) sausages. I wasn't keen on eating a kangaroo but had a little taste and have to say I definitely prefer pork sausages which luckily he was also cooking! On arrival in Cairns we all checked into Gilligans which is the biggest and best hostel in Cairns, and also has a big outdoor bar next to the huge tropical swimming pool as well as an indoor club. Best hostel I've stayed in, ever! Such a shame I was only there 2 nights because I would have stayed there 2 weeks given the chance. Within around 5 minutes of checking in I saw 3 of my friends so instantly felt at home. And later that evening I saw tons more including pretty much the whole of The Clipper (our Whitsunday sailing boat.) Because everybody ends up in Cairns you're bound to meet loads of people you travelled the coast with. That night we all hit Gilligans bar and had a party, it was great fun. I also went to The Woolshed for a couple of hours which is a bar down the road and reminded me of Cheeky Monkeys in Byron Bay, lots of cheesy tunes and dancing on tables! To conclude, I loved Cairns and Australia in general and was absolutely gutted to leave. My favourite part of Australia has to have been the 3 day trip to Fraser Island but I also LOVED Sydney, Byron Bay and sailing the Whitsundays. I am definitely going to take another trip down under at some point in my life! 😊
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