Cairns - Part 2

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After three big trips in just half a week, we decided to take it easy for a bit. We’d seen a lot of what there was to see in Cairns (except Great Barrier Reef diving, which we did on the Whitsundays) and there was no rush for another adventure. But one thing we did notice was how much these trips had been costing us! Hillary and I decided that it was time to look for some jobs!

Even before leaving Canada, we knew we’d both have to find work at some point if we wanted to stay in Australia for any real length of time. I had estimated we’d have about 5-6 months (from beginning to end) before we’d be out of money. Considering that we’d been gone now 2 and a half months meant that it was time to start looking for work (to be on the safe side). We still had to think about a couple of things though. Where would we want to work? What kind of work would we want to do? And how long would we want to work for? Well, we both weren’t too picky about the type of work, so that answered that question. As for where, that would depend on where we could even find a job! During our travels, we had heard from a lot of fellow travelers that finding work was getting tougher due to the economy. This was one of the reasons we decided to start seriously looking as early as we did. And as for the length of time? Well, we figured around 3-4 months (full-time) would suffice, but of course that would depend on our wages. So I guess it was finally time to find a job.

But where to start?! We had gotten plenty pointers from IEP (the program that helped us come to Australia and arrange visas) and even some leads, so we started with that. We also knew we’d be leaving Cairns soon, so we focused on our next destination which would be Alice Springs. We did some research and sent our resumes ahead. Our profession of choice was anything in hospitality. Working on a resort sounded like it could be fun, but unfortunately it didn’t take long to hear back from many of the resorts, saying that they were not hiring for the time being. Hillary and I got a little discouraged in terms of finding work, but decided to focus on enjoying the rest of our time in Cairns before getting bogged down by setbacks.

We spent our last days in Cairns casually enjoying the city.

Friday we took a VERY long walk to a McDonalds located outside of the city. It started with a little sightseeing around our hostel, but then we saw a sign pointing to a McDonalds somewhere in the distance. A McFlurry seemed like a good idea at the time, so we followed the sign blindly. An HOUR later, we finally stumbled into the McDonalds. Now an hour may not seem very long when you think about it, but it felt like forever when you’re telling yourself every couple of minutes “Just around the next corner…” lol Luckily the walk home felt a lot shorter.

Saturday was a big day for me, because I got a haircut! Lol Spent the morning finding a place that was open, and didn’t charge an arm and a leg. I finally found one, and ended up being quite happy with the cut. I got a lot cut off, but I still don’t think Hillary even noticed at first. Lol That night Hillary went to bed fairly early, so I went to the casino. Spent the whole night there until closing (which was 5:00am)! Afterwards I got to watch the sunrise while working on more blog stuff at McDonalds. Lol Yes, I did go to bed after that.

Well, if you’d say that Saturday was my fun day because of the casino, then I’d have to say that Sunday was Hillary’s fun day thanks to the petting zoo at the mall. Lol Since it was Easter weekend, they had a little petting zoo with chicks, ducklings, guinea pigs, and a few full size farm animals like goats and roosters. She was a little too shy to line up on her own with the other kids to pet the animals, but once I asked one of the workers if she was ok to go in, she had no hesitation in cuddling many of the cute little farm animals. lol

These last few days (Fri-Sun) Hillary and I had really been pushing to make up some ground on the blog as well. We had gotten fairly efficient in terms of writing up the text before hand and preparing all the pics as well, but the bottle neck had always been uploading the pictures. Many internet cafes disallow downloading/uploading, and McDonalds can be pretty slow during peak times. Not to mention I frown upon posting more than one entry in a day, something Hillary found annoying. Lol Anyways, with nothing but time on our hands these last few days in Cairns, we were biting off a pretty good chunk. Lol

Monday was our last full day in Cairns, and it was used mostly for laundry and packing up all our stuff back into our big backpacks. We did go for a little walk though, which would end up being an adventure of its own actually… lol You see, there was an elderly “tourist looking” Japanese couple walking down the street opposite of us. They had a map out, and were walking VERY slowly. When it comes to helping lost sightseers, I jump at the opportunity to point them in the right direction. But I wasn’t quite sure if they were or weren’t lost. So we left them be… Only to run into them again 20 minutes later going in the opposite direction! Lol So this time I stopped them and asked what it was they were looking for. Turns out they couldn’t speak English! They were following a map printout to get to their hotel. It was smart to print the map in Japanese, but because of that, they couldn’t properly identify the street names. I tried showing them where to go, but I wasn’t sure if they really got it. They walked away in the right direction, but I wasn’t satisfied. I popped in the nearest store for some more concrete information and chased after them. This time I tried explaining by using numbers. I counted the intersections and told them to turn right after 3 intersections (and pointed right). This way they’d eventually just run into their hotel. This time they smiled politely, nodded their heads, thanked me in Japanese and went in the direction I said, but I had a nagging feeling. So… I sorta stalked them. Lol Ya, I followed them on a parallel street and watched how at each intersection they stopped and stared at the map for a few minutes before carrying on. At the third intersection they took especially long, but did in fact turn, and now were making good time! I sighed with relief, had a good little chuckle about how stupid I had just been acting, and then met back up with my girlfriend whom I had sort of been late for meeting up with. Lol

Kevin (and Hillary)

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Photos

City
Nice little city bicycle and walk pathways.

City - 2
Sorta weird looking at low tide.

City - 3
Enjoying the cool night.

City - 4
I like the cool night too.

Walk
Ready to just take a quick look around.

Walk - 2
Hmmm... Now that's just weird.

Walk - 3
Scenery's great, but where's McDonalds on this long walk?!

Walk - 4
Finally our destination!

Petting Zoo
Not big on size, but big on fun!

Petting Zoo - 2
The great life of a guinea pig.

Petting Zoo - 3
Hillary was impressed with her powers of comfort.

Petting Zoo - 4
Unlike some of the smaller children was VERY careful when holding the animals.

Petting Zoo - 5
Super cute!

Comments

[Trent]

Where In The World...
Say, where are you guys *now?* Since, after all, I'm in Cairns, too. Just thought I'd check!