Hi All

Its been a while since my last update. Our trip to Cairns was great, we stayed in a all girls hostel in the centre of town. Cairns was a sweet little town, we went to a trip in the Daintree rainforest which was really interesting it was a full day trip in the rainforest and we went on a boat trip and saw crocodiles on the river. We went to an aboriginal centre, they were on the digarado and we had lots of talks on their history. We got shown how to through a boomerang and then how to throw a spear using a spear thrower it was good fun we were shown by the aboriginal guys. We also went to Cairns Zoo which was great fun we got to hold a kuala and a baby crocodile and sit next to a wallaby. We also got to feed the kangaroo's we had a great day!!!

One of the best days was a trip to the great barrier reef, I went scuba diving and Mel went snorkelling. The first dive site was ok, I went down with a buddy as fully qualified you can just dive on your own now - but its safer to go with a buddy. The first site was ok but the current was quite wild so it throws you around in the water. The second dive site at hastings reef was fab we saw lots of coral I tagged along with a previous instructor I saw loads of coral and a white tipped reef shark it was fab - the dive and the boat trip, with a glass bottom boat was great it was very worthwhile. I've got to admit that the best dive I have been on yet (best coral wise) was in Kho Phi Phi in Thailand that was amazing.

After Cairns we moved onto Alice Springs, we went to a reptile centre there and held snakes and lizards. And we went to a flying doctors centre which was interesting. But the main aim of the visit was to go on an Ayres Rock 3 days trip, we got up at 5am everyday we did loads of walking everyday, we walked the whole of Kings Canyon and then we walked in the Olga's and we had two walks around Ayres Rock and saw the sunset and the sunrise. It was a great trip we camped in swags and a sleeping bag just in the open air under the stars with a camp fire it was back to nature. The tour guide and the food was all really good a real achievement. We finished at Alice we had a celebration dinner but as we hadn't had a lot of sleep and loads of exercise Mel and I got a little drunk too early so we were mega rough and on a bus, plane, bus journey the day after it was the longest day on record I was so ill I can't tell you how many times I was sick I lost count.

I am in Melbourne at the moment so I will give an update on that asap.

All my love Ali xxx