We took the 12 hour day bus to Cairns along with a couple of people wet met on our Fraser Island tour, Mark and Patrick. They were following the same route, and this was actually our third bus journey with them since leaving Brisbane. We arrived at our hostel soaking wet even after getting a taxi from the bus stop, as it was pouring with rain. This unfortunately was to be the theme of our stay in tropical Cairns.

We were advised to spend as much time as possible in Port Douglas as we only had a few days in the north of Queensland. So our first morning was spent hiring a car and driving the impressive coastal road to Port Douglas. Luckily the weather was holding out for us which helped us take a nice stroll around the Marina, where we stopped for some great fish and chips. We also bumped into some people we met on our Sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands. In the afternoon we walked through the main street of Port Douglas heading towards the 4 mile beach on the east side. It reminded me of a sleepy American town, and was nice and relaxed compared to the hustle and bussle back in Cairns. While cruising the shops we also booked ourselves on a full day's snorkelling and diving on the Great Barrier Reef for the following day, something we had been looking forward to for a while.

We were staying in a hostel/campsite in Port Douglas called Dougies which had a real hippy vibe (more people with dreadlocks than people wearing shoes!). We attempted to cook ourselves dinner in the communal kitchen which was a bit of a battle, only to realise that no crockery or cutlery were supplied. You were supposed to be issued with these upon arrival. But we were not and reception was now closed, not a great start to the evening!! It was also worsened by the rats or possibly bandicoots living in the roof space of our room. Queue many jumps from Aimee when they decided to run around, scratch and squeal throughout the night!!

We were up bright and early the following day for our pickup to the Great Barrier Reef. When we stepped onto the bus, the driver asked if we could possibly delay our trip by a couple of days, as the weather out at sea was not ideal. As we were already short of time we had no choice but to continue as planned with the trip. When we arrived at the marina to check in, the office staff were also warning us of the bad weather, with strong wind warnings being issued for the area. We were offered to change our trip to another day if we wanted but we had run out of time. Aimee has already suffered sea sickness more than once on our travels, so we spent the next 20 minutes debating to go, or not to go. In the end we decided $400 was too much of a risk to waste on being ill for the whole day. Although we were really disappointed, we at least did some great snorkelling on our sailing trip.

So with the day spare, we had breakfast and then headed to Mossman Gorge, which was within a rainforest in Daintree national park. Rain being the appropriate word for it, as again we were drenched as we took in the views, but still got some good photo's of the river. That evening we headed out to Rattle 'n Hum for dinner, which was like a posh looking Weathersoons but with worse food. We spent another night with the roof animals, before heading back along the coast to Cairns. After dropping the car back we took a stroll around the town, and when the weather cleared we lazed around the lagoon as there was no beach as such on offer. In the evening we met up with Mark and Patrick for a few drinks before trying out another Thai restaurant, which we really enjoyed. This was followed by some cocktails and a Cold Rock ice cream.

The following day we flew back into Brisbane to stay with the Rodgers family for our last 2 days in Australia. They made us feel right at home and we can't thank them enough. Overall Australia has been a great experience with many highlights, and we hope to return sometime for a holiday or two.

Now we were looking forward to our next adventure in New Zealand.