Cairns...hmmm, it's difficult to take to a place when you turn up to the worst floods recorded in the last 40 years. There is nothing you can do but wait for the rain to pass and hope you can get out of the place as soon as possible. The weather was so bad that we never thought we would be able to visit the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and this was the main reason we had gone there. Gutting, I'm sure you will agree. Our plan then was to leave this place and head further South as soon as possible. But the floods had cut off all the roads going south meaning we were stuck there! Oh well, we made the most of it and eventually got to visit the GBR!

We went on the skyrail, a cable car, over the Daintree Rainforest, which was nice. We got to see a pretty waterfall that was overflowing from the floods. It was a nice day and the rainforest is great and all that but we had to pay an awful lot for the priveledge. The less said the better to be honest.

We had a visit to Cairns Zoo one day, the weathe turned out to be quite nice while we were here and I even got to hold a Koala for a few seconds before he was prized off me and placed onto the next paying customer. He was so cute and soft though was Jack and I wished I could keep him! We got to hand feed the Kangaroo's and they were so cool. They just ate right out of your hand! They were pretty big though and a bit scary when they started to jump all over the place...I could remember being told that they could "kick a hole through you"! Yikes! I saw my first Aligator and didn't believe it was real! There was another one that sat with it's mouth open for about half an hour during the croc show. I thought he just wanted some attention but apparently it is something to do with them regulating heat bla bla bla, I don't really know! It was a good outing and we were happy to have met the animals and the baby Joey at the main gate was so so cute!

So we finally booked a trip to the GBR and we were so excited. We hired an underwater digital camera and got ready to depart when the woman said..."Are you sure you want to go today as there is a severe wind warning. You could change it to another day, the wind should die down by tomorrow"....ahh, hmm, well "we leave tomorrow"..."then you have to go, come on it will be fine"! Well if they are sure. So we popped some ginger tablets for the sea sickness and were on our way. Now in the harbour it was fine but as soon as we hit open water we were in trouble. The sickness started and people were being sick everywhere. A couple of hours later we stopped moving and we were finally at our first snorkel spot. Everyone got in the water, I was last and found myself getting nervous ( I do everytime I snorkel, I'm a wimp). Barry shot off and I was left alone, I got in and realised how bad the water was. There were massive waves washing over my head pulling me down and I panicked and went straight back to the boat. No way was I going out in that alone. So Barry comes back (not to save m e but because his finns weretoo small and giving him cramp). I got in to try again with him holding me but I couldn't do it, the waves were too big! I told him to swim on and after a couple of try's decided to give up and wait to see if the next spot was better.

Thankfully the next spot was better and away I went...not without an instructor and life ring, they may as well have given me water wings, what a wimp.In no time, however, I was off on my own swimming around taking photo's and doing the thing that everyone wants to do in the GBR...find Nemo! Lord knows what people did before that film! It was a very exciting experience and I nearly sucked in the Pacific Ocean I was so excited! The coral was absolutely stunning and I enjoyed every moment of it. It is surprising how much calmer it is when you have your head under the water, you almost forget the waves dragging you out to sea! Well that trip was over and we got wine and cheese on the way home. I think I ate my weight in cheese and Barry drank both our weight in wine, good times!

When we finally booked our bus out of Cairns we were told by our hostel that we didn't need to confirm a seat there would be plenty and we could leave at 7 to be dropped to our coach, even though we asked to be there at 7..."you won't need to get there that early". When they drop us off it turns out we should have been there earlier and we should have booked a seat on the bus. Luckily we were able to catch that bus, I think my crying and winging "I can't stay here in this place anymore" helped secure us the seats. Who said crying doesn't get you your own way...when you find something you are good at you should stick to it, thats what I say!