Sat 23rd Oct - Sat 20th Nov

So after managing to score an earlier flight and seats with extra leg room on the plane we finally touched down in sunny Cairns and headed straight to our sharehouse. The humidity hit us straight away and it felt like we were back in Singapore! Bit of a change to Sydney! We got to the sharehouse and our housemates were a mix of Germans, Canadians, English & Aussies and all seemed friendly enough so far!

Cairns was going to be where we settled for a while and got some work....however it didn't take us long to decide that there was far too much to see and do in Cairns and wanted to holiday for a bit first and then work later on....so thats what we decided to do..tanning priorities! (after all we had saved up and worked for all those months to make this trip happen!)

The first trip we book was a trip to the Great Barrier Reef (a must for any tourist). We booked with Passions and after an early start we boarded the boat and set sail towards the reef. A journey Alex would rather forget as she forgot to take her travel pill! Whoopsie! (Yup the fish loved it!) We soon arrived at our first island - a small island half covered in birds and half covered in tourists. As everyone on the boat started to get into their bright blue stinger suits, the boat started to resemble a scene out of Avatar, much to the crews amusement, but it is stinger season after all so better to look like a giant smurf then be stung...i guess!? We spent the afternoon snorkelling around parts of the reef spotting different characters out of Nemo and even managed to spot a few turtles! So cute! More snorkelling and more sailing followed then back to Cairns we went. Although this time it was Jo's turn to feel the brunt of the sea and spent the remainder of the journey home sitting with the flippers feeling sorry for herself. It was safe to say we were both very happy when we returned back on dry land!

Cape Tribulation was another amazing trip where we explored the rainforest and tried bush tucker in the form of Green Ants, wierd looking fruits and other delights (eat your heart out Gillian McKeith). We also enjoyed a very chilly swim in Essman Creek, very refreshing although bit too cold to spend too much time in there! We also facepainted with the rocks on our faces. Going proper native!

We also took a trip to the Daintree Rainforest. We stopped off at Port Douglas then took a Croc spotting cruise along the Daintree river - we must have been on the cruise on the right day at the right time as we spotted 2 crocs..shall we say...having sexy time - something even our guide had only seen once before in his career history - aren't we the lucky ones! The afternoon was spent visiting Mossman Gorge and beautiful lookout points on the way home.

Tablelands Waterfalls was another trip that we couldn't resist as this one consisted of a trip to Milla Milla Falls - the waterfall where Peter Andre filmed his Mysterious Girl video - so yes we couldn't resist a swim under the waterfall doing our very best Peter Andre impressions! You could tell we were the Brits a mile off! We also visited Josephine Falls, Babinda boulders, went platypus spotting (although only just about saw ones head) and a trip to a chocolate factory (yum!) Where we bought chocs for the mothers...though we thought it was best if we ate it instead as we know its coming up to christmas :)

Kuranda was by far one of our favourite trips in Cairns. We took the scenic skyrail through the rainforest and past Stoney Creek (nice waterfall) and past Barron Gorge (even bigger waterfall) to Kuranda (cute little village in the rainforest). We spent the day looking round their markets and exploring the town - perfect weather for it so was nice to soak up the rays over lunch - which we had made ourselves, so it was like a proper school trip!

We spent many a day exploring Cairns on foot soaking up the sun (and trying not to get too sunburnt) and spent alot of time nosing round the markets and night markets. Lazy days by the lagoon were a must (no beach because of the crocs!) and a cheeky refresher at our favourtie Gloria Jeans!

Wow..after 4 weeks in Cairns it is safe to say we definately managed to see the most of it, as we quote well..."we walked the crap out of that place!" and although we didn't work as planned we had an amazing time on the trips and boy did the time fly. Now it's time to head down the East Coast for more fun and adventure - with hopefully enough funds to get us to Brisbane for christmas!!