Day five: August 12, 2010: Off to Cairns early in the morning, the start of a bad morning, our flight was at 6am. Unfortunately after getting off the train we went to the wrong terminal and ended up missing our flight. We got on another flight which was leaving from the international terminal (stopped in Cairns, continuing to Japan), so we had to take a taxi all the way to the other airport (the free shuttle wasn't running yet). Then Arthur's baggage was over weight, so we paid extra for that too.Then after check in they told us the flight was already almost finished boarding, and we'd have to hurry, so we ran through the airport to get to the gate- the flight was delayed… no one was even boarded yet. When we finally got to Cairns, I was having trouble with my visa, couldn't get any cash from the currency exchange ATM. Then the shuttle from the airport didn't go out to where we were staying- we had to take a taxi out. All this before 11:00 am!

Finally the day got better when we arrived at our accommodations. They upgraded us from a cabin to a villa, which has a lot more space. The park is gorgeous, palm trees every where. They said that today was the coldest morning of the year (+10 ºC) and it was probably about 27ºC out when we arrived. We went for a swim in the pool- the locals think we're crazy because it's apparently too cold out to swim.

After the swim we bused into the city to get some groceries. This place has kitchenettes in the room, so we'll save a lot of money cooking while were here.

It gets dark early, around 6pm, but it is still winter here!

Day six: August 13, 2010: Not much to say today. Went shopping downtown, didn't buy too much, Arthur was pretty lucky today a got a couple things. They have a very nice downtown area. Got back and had a burger BBQ and an after supper swim, then played cards in the evening.

Day seven: August 14, 2010: Today we went to palm cove beach. What a gorgeous place!Perfect day for it too, the sun was out, it was hot outside, and the ocean was warm. We did lots of swimming, tanning and a little bit of shopping. We took the city buses today, took a long time to get back to the hotel as our transfers never matched up. Did laundry and played cards in the evening. Tomorrow we are going snorkeling out at the Great Barrier Reef, can't wait!

Day eight: August 15, 2010: snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef was pretty much the coolest thing ever. The fish were so colorful (I never saw any Nemo fish, but lots of Dory fish) all the different types of coral were really neat. I saw a black finned reef shark, which was pretty cool, never got a picture of it though, it swam by pretty fast. The big parrot fish was pretty amazing- I got a picture of that one. The big mollusks were cool to see too. All the pictures I took turned out really good, but are no where near as bright and vibrant as the reef and fish and stuff actually are.

Arthur and Liz did introductory scuba diving, so they got to go a bit deeper into the water than Victoria, Sue and I. I didn't want to scuba, and have to spend time learning at the first dive sight, I just wanted to go out and swim.

The tour group we went with was really good too. They fed us breakfast, lunch and wine and cheese for a snack on the way back. We went out to two different reef areas one after breakfast and one after lunch- Hastings reef and Breaking Patches reef.

We didn't do much afterwards, just dinner and cards. We were all pretty exhausted after 6 hours of swimming out in the ocean. Last full day in Cairns tomorrow, we are going out on a rainforest tour. I'm gonna hate to leave this place.