Cairns was an introduction for us to the Tropical Wet season, this is waht we would describe back home as winter, it rains alot. And even in Australia it gets people depressed. We first experienced this when we went and asked at the airport about hiring a car, clearly the lady behind the desk took a automatic disliking to us and told us we couldnt hire one because they only had the top car left and that would be around $3,000 for the 25 days. I asked for a quote on the cheapest and she said no and then said there was no point in hiring a car anyway as all the roads were flooded and we couldnt leave Cairns anyway. With this good news we headed for our hostel hoping to get something positive from Cairns. We didnt. We found out we were sharing our 3 person dorm with a weird German who had decided to stay in Cairns for the majority of his time in Australia and work! My thought, 1 your an idiot and 2 you could have stayed in your room in Germany and work there. It turns out that he was actually a dead on guy but still an idiot.

Apparently what the miserable lady in the airport had told us was true and we couldnt leave Cairns as the roads were flooded, so we decided to check out what to do. The first thing we found to do was to get a cable car ride over the Rain Forest just north of Cairns. This should be amazing we thought. A 7km cable car ride over a rainforest. Now i dont know what I expected but this was disappointing, we paid $40 each for this and we got to see the top of trees, ok yes they were tall trees and apparently they are becoming extinct as the rainforests are being cut down too rapidly and thats why it cost so much to get the cable car was for conservation purposes. I have a conservation tip for you, dont put a 7km cable car trip through the rainforest.

The next exciting thing we decided to do when we were stuck in Cairns was to head to the Carins Tropical Zoo. We were told this Zoo only housed animals that were found in Australia, this was fine as that is what we had come to see. Although the first thing we saw was an American Aligator. Odd. Anyway, the zoo was cool, as we got to walk through some enclosures, one was the kangaroo enclosure and we got hand feed them. Kanagroos arent as cool as i first though. I thought they alwasy hoped around they I saw on cartoons but they crawl more using their excuse of arms, although everytime a kanagroo did bound past us it kept me amused for a good 10 minutes.

The biggest thing we did in Cairns was go on a snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef. The first thing we were acknowlged with when we arrived at the boat was that it would probably be best if waited until an other day as the captain had just been issued with a severe weather warning, we told the girl we were leaving the next day, she then said ah dont worry everything will be fine. We were going to be snorkelling at 2 different sites. So we set off to the first site, once we left the safety of the harbour we found out what a severe weather warning was like, it was rock, but it was ok, apparently the waether warning had been dropped but it was still a weather warning. To combat any sea sickness i might have got I went to sleep, which i have found works a treat. I was awoken at our first snorkel site, i looked out to see a choppy sea and well nothing else. This is not what i was expecting. I was hoping for some calm waters and some fish gently jumping out of the water, maybe for the next site. Anyway with a giant foam pencil to aid not drowning i got washing into the sea and off i went snorkelling looking for Nemo. Since the waves where so bad and the weather was crap, visiblitly was poor and i didnt see many fish or much coral. So I decided to head back to the boat. SInce i had kind of been washed out to sea i wasnt aware of charlottes progress, there wasnt much. I informed her that there wasnt much point in going out as it was crap. But her pride and stubborness wouldnt let some big waves stop her from looking from Nemo so after getting all the giant foam pencils possible and roping a member of staff to take her off she went, not for long mind but she finally made it in. It was a big step for her, mainly because a month a go she swore that she would never go snorkelling. So from that to getting into some pretty rough scary sea, is a massive step, and i am very proud!

Anyway we went on to the next site, which proved to be a lot clamer and had better visiblilty. So search for Nemo (take 2). Again charlotte took a bit of persauding but once she was in, she was off and went searching for that stupid fish. Unfortunately we never found him. But now at least we can say we have snorkelled in the Great Barrier Reef. To be fair the coral was really cool and it was amazing to see so many fish thatyou mainly see in fish tanks in the wild.

although the best part of the trip was on the way back, apart from the free wine and cheese. The weather was still pretty rough so i went back to sleep to avoid the sea sickness again. but i was woken by the boat nearly flipping over. Charlotte said it would be a good ideato take a picture to show how bad the waves were. I decided it would be better if i took a film as when you looked out the window it was nothing but sea, then nothing but sky. This is what my video kind of show. First of all it is nothing sky, then nothing but sky then nothing but sky then every part of my falling off my seat and being thrown across the boat. Everyone was in shock, I laughed a little and the crew ran over hoping i wouldnt sue! I found it the most funny as i was still filming and trying not to break my camera. Any way we got back to the mainland safely.