Finally we have landed down under!!

Well first impressions were'nt so great as the sky was black and it was pouring down with rain, alongside this we had to sit in the rain waiting for the shuttle to pick us up. However it didn't takelong before this all changed.

We were staying at Global Backpackers on the waterfront. As we pulled up it really was not at all what we expected. The esplanade along the front of the ocean was full of lovely bars and restaurants, directly across form our hostel was a gorgeous lagoon (you cant swim in the sea beacause of crocodiles so its a man made beach for swimming and sunbathing)

We were in a 10 bed dorm and everyone in our room was really nice but all foreign except Tom who was Scottish.

Becasue we were so tired we just went for a walk round the town, checked out the supermarkets and spent forever in Wiked travel putting together our trip which got us both so excited.

On our way back we noticed what looked like a dark cloud, closer look it was hundreds and hundreds of bats there every where and are about a meter wide.

With the hostel we got a $5 food voucher t P J O'Brians so we headed there for food. It was honestly like walking into a pub at home, the menu was pie, sunday dinner, burgers ect plus free beer or wine. Lovely = )

Being so tired we were hoping for an early night as we'd not been to bed the night before with our flight but ended up drinking in our hostel with a few of the lads.

Day 2

That morning we were up bright and early and went and paid for our trips, not a bad price, $1300 for everything including our buses all the way down to sydney.

That day we went for a walk around the harbour checking out all the amazing yachts and then chilled out by the lagoon for the rest of the day.

For tea, Janine who booked our trips gave us a workers discount card for the woolshed (another pub) We got there expecting the free hostel meal they give out, but it turned out we could get any thing on the menu so had the best and biggest meals yet, yummy! From there we headed back to the hostel to get on with our first box of goon. We sat for ages in ourhostel with the lads before heading to the woolshed to party on the tables....GREAT NIGHT.

Day 3

First experience of a goon hangover = not a pretty sight, not usual you see James looking a bit pasety but today he did. I cant really remeber much of that day we we're pretty lazy, however we did get some really really creepy guy in our room. That night we all went to bed with one eye open.

Day 4

We we're up at 6.30am ready for our day trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We headed down to Calypso to collect the underwater camera we had hired for the day and then went and checked in with Oz sail for our boat.

Beacause we we're qualified divers we got a the vip section of the boat so a small group of us got luxury for the day, I was happy with the free coffee and biscuits.

Unffortunatly the weather was not as good as we had expected so the boat ride was really rough. I think wth the amount of boats we have been on in the last few months, our little group of divers, we we're all fine so were sat all chatting at the back of the boat whilst EVERY other person on the trip sat hugging their sick bags. Honestly everywhere you looked someone was throwing up and everyone looked extremely pale.

At one point some poor little asain guy threw up, his bag burst and went all over the floor opposite, not long after a girl sat next to him, shew threw up, the bag split and went all over both of them. Its funny now but at the time it was just vile, but we all kept laughing at them so felt pretty bad that we looked all perky and happy.

Finally it was time for our first dive but not how we imagined the Great Barrier reef, with the weather we could easily of been in Blackpool. Down we went and it really wasn't as impressive as some of the other dives, BUT FINALLY i got to see my shark, it was a white tip reef shark and about the same lenght as me. I got a bit too excited and scared it off after a while but yey we had our pictures and my shark hunt was now over. After 22 minutes though I checked my air and I was on 30bht. This was not good, the dive master gave me hisd regulator and had to swim me to the top. I was really annoyed and after we we're all on the boat the realised they hadn't turned my air tank on properly so I would have had to breather harder meaning my air drained much quicker. It did ruin it a little bit but I soon forgot as I was so happy seeing the shark.

The rest of the afternoon was spent snorkelling at various snorkel spots, At one there was a huge barracuda so in James went and the guys were throwing in bits of food so it was swimming right up to his face, got some really good pictures of it.

The fod on the boat was really good aswell, for lunch we had salads and sausages or steak, fish ect and then in the afternoon on the way back to the harbour we got cheese and wine which was so nice.

Day 5

Up early again we hired a car to spend the day driving up the coast to Port Douglas.

There were a few look out points that we stopped at on the way and the views were just incredible. We both loved getting to drive aswell. I was a bit scared at first that I would have forgotten how to drive but I hadn't.

In Port Douglas we went for a alk around the town and the harbour. Its such a nice place and so quite, everywhere you go you feel like you need to whisper.

We went into Coles (a supermarket) and got some nice bread, humous, sausages roles and crisps and had a nice litle picnic in the park behind the beach follwed by an hour of sunbathing on the beach.

From here we drove up to Mossman Gorge, part of the Daintree national park. It was about $5 to get the shuttle bus up and from there we went for a walk and a swim in the waterfall. By now I think its clear that James love a good view so he was happy snapping away all day.After our walk we headed back to our boiling hot little red car to drive back down the coast to Ellis beach.

Of course he claims that Ellis beach is his beach so he was walking up and down like some sort of king. We expected it to be a town as well as just a beach but its literally abeach in the middle of nowhere.

Next stop was plam cove. Again another little beach in the middle of nowhere, but it did have a campsite behind it and a couple of shops so there were more people.

We walked down the pier to see everyone fishing but know one seemed to catch anything whilst we were there.

When we got back into Cairns, we had an evening bus down to Mission beach but the stupid guy had left and shut the car rental place even though he knew we would be back by 5.30. Luckily there was a very nice lady in the hotel next door that let us leave the car in the carpark and the keys with her.

Next stop Mission Beach!!