Dear all

As it's been quite a long time since we trated you to one of our long blog posts, we decided it was time to update you on what we have been doing. We are currently in Cairns, where we are going to be spending new year before flying to Singapore on the 2nd January. The last few days have been really hectic, we have been fitting in all our last bits of australia sight seeing in and celebrating christmas.

After we left the Whitsunday Islands we went to a place called mission beach, a days bus ride north of Airlie Beach. Mission beach was very pretty but there is absolutly nothing there - it literally is just a beach with a few hostels! We managed to stay in quite a nice hostel there though with a swimming pool, and I spent two days there chilling out, trying to sunbathe (although was impossible due to the humid heat - I managed 20mins before having to jump in the pool!) and generally catching up on rest, and Phil joined me for one day of that, and spent the other day going white water rafting. He really enjoyed the rafting, and says that it was a nice day away from me! LOL

After leaving mission beach we made our way to Cairns, which has been our base for the last two weeks. As Phil was learning to dive he spent the first two days in Cairns in a swimming pool learning how to use dive equiptment and how to swim in flippers, and I spent the time cafe hopping and christmas shopping! Again, Cairns is unbelievably humid and it's too hot to sit outside, despite our hostel having a lovely pool nad there being a huge lagoon in the town centre. instead of enjoying the water, I've been spending my time searching for the next air conditioned shop! On christmas eve morning we started our trip to the great barrier reef. We were picked up uber early by the dive company, and driven to the boat where we were given breakfast and our briefing about the next few days. There were about 30 passengers on board, which was alot more than our whitsundays trip, but it made for a really great atmosphere. We spent christmas eve, christmas eve and boxing day out on the reef doing lots of dives (well, snorkels for me!), eating lots of food and enjoying the boat. It seemed to be that every time we did a dive or snorkel, we were immediatly fed as soon as we got back on board - for us backpackers it felt like luxury! i surprised myself and really enjoyed the snorkeling, and Phil loved going diving. We saw loads of different fish and coral - the fish on the reef are huge and so colourful, as is the coral. We managed to see a turtle - I saw mine on christmas day which I was so happy about, and we saw things like giant clams and Phil even managed to find nemo, although i only saw fish that looked like nemo. On Christmas day night all the certified divers did a night dive. As I couldn't join them I wantched from the upper deck of the boat, and just as they were getting into the water the skipper and I saw about 5 reef sharks circling the boat. I was so scared for the divers - if it had been me theres no way i would have gotten in the water, but the divers didn't seem to mind, infact after they were raving about how cool it had been to dive with the sharks! On christmas day I also had a go at diving, by doing an 'intro dive' which Phil got me for christmas. Despite my initial reservations and fears about diving, I really enjoyed the dive - it was great to see so many fish and corals, and I was so proud of myself for finally doing it!

We arrived back on land on boxing day evening, and after a quick shower we went out with the passengers and crew for an end of trip dinner in town, followed by some dancing on the tables in one of Cairns many dancing spots. We had a really great eve, it was a lovely end to the trip and I loved finally being able to go out and dance! We got up early the next morning as we were going on a trip to cape Tribulation (the rainforest just north of Cairns)and the Daintree. We met some friends on the trip who had been in our hostel in 1770 with us, and then had been on the dive boat over xmas with us, and ended up having a great time with them. Our tour took us to Cape Tribulation via the Daintree, where we did a river cruise and saw some crocodiles, and then did a rainforest walk which was good, we saw some huge spiders and giant trees, and about half way through our walk it decided to rain, which we thought was very apt! We spent two nights in cape tribulation in a hostel which was on the beach, and spent one morning doing a walk in the rainforest and onto the beach, and spent the other day in our resort as there was another rainstrom! Phil nad the friends we met also did a thing called 'jungle surfing' where they swung on ropes over the rainforest canopy which they said was good fun.

We're now back in Cainrs and are planning to celebrate the new year this evening by going out for a meal adn then heading down to the lagoon in town where there will be some bands playing, some entertainment and fireworks. We hope you all enjoy your new years celebrations, and we'll write more in 2009!

Love Cat and Phil xxxx