AUSTRALIA- Cairns/ Queensland/ Port Douglas

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Helllooo!!

Sooo everyone, after a few weeks at home, i have made it to Oz and I am LOVING it!!!!
The flight was terrible- took so so long as I had to stop in both Bangkok and Sydney before arriving in Cairns last Tuesday. I am currently staying at good friends Sarah and Simon's beautiful house in Port Douglas which is about an hour away from Cairns.

It is amazing here, wonderful palm trees, Clear blue sea, great barrier reef, and rainforest!! Its paradise!
I spent the first couple of days not doing much, as I had such bad jet lag and was so tired from all the travelling. On Wednesday night jack (Sarah and Simon's son) came from Brisbane to show me around Port Douglas/ Cairns, we went to Cairns for the day which was great as Jack knew all the places to go, and im glad I went but am so happy here in Port! We went swimming in the Mossman gorges which ware right at the edge of the rainforest (they are basically really fast running rivers, surrounded by huge rocks, which are great for jumping off ( - 😊 The water was freeezing tho!

In the evening we had a bbq with some people down the road and then headed into Port to a place called the Iron Bar which has great live music/ cold beer! Jack invited some friends down from cairns who were great fun, and they stayed for 2 nights, both of which we all got quite drunk, had fires on the beach at night and danced like idiots in the Iron bar (was brilliant). Then on Sunday before jack left to go back to Brisbane where he is at uni, we went into Port to see the wonderful view point, where you can see the whole of the 4 mile beach! We had a hugggge breakfast, got some shopping and then Jack left to get the bus to Cairns airport.

I spent Monday basically tidying up/ cleaning after the messy boys and then went into Port to have a look around, the marina is amazing, and then took Horris ( sarah and simons dog, who lives mext door) for a walk along the beach... I seem to be doing this twice a day, I just love the beach so much!

Today has been the BEST day!!! I went diving on the great barrier reef, it was the best experience of my life!!! I went out on a fairly small boat with only 40 other people (other companies can hold up to 400 people!!!!) ... so I had such a good deal!
It took about an hour to get out to the reef, and I have to say I did suffer a bit, it was so rough and so I was glad when the boat came to stop at Blue Reef! Cups of tea and hot muffins were on offer which was yummmyyy!!

As I did an actual dive we had to have a half an hour safety briefing and fill out loads of paperwork which made me feel quite nervous! I was in group two (only 4 people in each group) and so had the chance to spend an hour snorkelling around before doing the dive, which was great!

When It was my turn to do the dive, it was so exciting, geared up to loads of equipment and going right down was just amazing! Saw so many beautiful fish, Clown Fsih (nemos!!!), rainbow fish, angel fish..... annnndddd A SHARK!!!!! Was brilliant!!
After the dive a huge lunch was served and then we moved to another dive site which was even better, I snorkelled for a bit but then deicded to do another dive as I loved the first so much!! The guy said I was a natural and should get my PADI license ( - :
The second dive was even better, he took us deeper and also got to see a lot more, including giant clams, and some huuuuge fish, the coral was amazing too!

After coming back up we had about an hour left of snorkelling before making our way back to Port. We had a talk from a marine biologist and morrre fruit, muffins, tea coffee, was GREAT!!

Anywayyy, as you can tell by my blabbing I loved the dive so so much, water was 27 degrees (just like a bath) I will definately be doing it again in Fiji!!!

Tomorrow Im doing the cape tribulation jungle trek, which after today is going to be even more exhausting but well worth it from what I have heard!

Im off to Sydney on Sunday to stay with George for 4 days then on to stay with family for another 3! I seriously dont want to leave this place.... no wonder people move here!!!

Love to everyone,
Chloë xxxxxxxxxx

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