Katie had a good feeling about Cairns and she was right! It's not a very big city, not all spread out and sprawling like Sydney, but it still has the hustle and bustle of a major city and great night life. We got off the bus and found our hostel in no time. Our room had sea views as the hostel was on the esplanade which is the main road running along the seafront and lagoon. We got in about 8pm and by 10 we were just about ready to go out (we'd had to throw in some washing and wait for it to dry as even between our rucksacks we had no clean clothes to go out in!) The famous Gilligans is where most people go but clearly this wasn't the case on a Monday as there was no one there so we headed to the Woolshed, another bar we'd heard lots about . We found some people we knew and jumped on the tables for a dance, it seems to be the done thing in Australia! The atmosphere was good and Katie got some more photos in sombreros to add to the collection as it was Mexican night. They had a mr and mrs backpacker going on too! The next morning we had a nice lie in and then went to explore in daylight. We had our priorities though and picked up our welcome packs from Wicked (the tour company we had booked Fraser/Whitsundays with) before anything else. It was because we knew they included a free McDonald's voucher but there was some other good stuff in there too like a free meal at the Woolshed; no prizes for guessing where we spent our second night. So after a sunny afternoon by the lagoon we went to eat at the woolshed with 2 friends from Fraser. The food wasn't that great but it was free and they were celebrating St George's day with 5 drinks for 10 dollars! Seeming as we had forgotten it was st George's day (it hadn't even clicked when we were greeted at the door by a guy dressed in armour standing beneath some English flags) we felt it was only right to redeem ourselves by celebrating it big! We did however leave the Woolshed for a brief spell to catch the jelly wrestling at Gilligans, it's embarrassing what people will do for a free bar tab! Had a last drink with Mark and Dev (the American guys) and thought we'd better call it a night at 3am as we had Captain Mattys Barefoot Tours picking us up at 7:30 the next morning for our rainforest tour! So after a mere 4 hours sleep we headed out into the Atherton Tablelands. Some girls we knew from Magnetic island were booked on the same tour which was nice, although we had been excited to meet captain Matty himself, our guide Emma was great. She greeted us with a hug and was so enthusiastic, she asked some quite awkward questions at the getting to know you session though and the non English speakers didn't quite get the toilet humour. We visited a number of sites where we could swim including the famous Millaa Millaa falls where Peter Andre filmed the video for Mysterious Girl, perhaps thats why its apparently the most photographed waterfall in Oz. Emma made us all recreate the herbal essences advert which was also shot there, so you can picture us all flicking our hair around in the middle of a rainforest for the group photo. Between sites Emma would tell us about species found in the area, we didn't see many of them though just a couple of poisonous spiders and a cassowary. In the afternoon we stopped at a banana plantation to sample the local produce and whilst we were at the last site, a natural water slide, a huge afternoon tea was being lovingly prepared. We got to try lamingtons and Anzac biscuits, amongst other goodies which you see all over Australia. It was a long day, the tour was 13 hours long and after 3 hours sleep the night before we just had a quick look round the night market before we crashed. This didn't take long as a good half of the stalls were offering massages and the rest souvenirs that we don't have room for. At 4:15 am the next day (yep, another night of very little sleep!) we were up and waiting outside our hostel for something we had been longing to experience, a hot air balloon ride! We dozed most of the way there and back but the actual ride itself sure woke us up, it was amazing. 3 balloons were being launched that morning hoping to catch the sun rise but unfortunately we were 5 minutes early and only caught an orange haze, but we flew over the rainforest and Colette spotted a kangaroo so it was a nice ride all the same. After landing they attached the balloon to their van and drove off making the basket we were all still in fall over on to it's side, we reckon this was purely for the laughs as there were footholds in the basket we could've used to climb out. Before we headed back to Cairns they got us to help fold the balloon away too, all part of the experience. We were back just in time to catch the 9:30 anzac day parade. Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, and it is similar to Rememberance Day which they also have here. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and then decided to use one of the deals the hostel gave us - five dollar meal with free drink, splashing out as it was our last night in cairns. The food was delicious but of course the best part about it was that we had to spend the evening in an Irish pub. On our last morning we decided we needed a little culture so we got the bus to a place called Tjapukai. Tjapukai means people of the rainforest and is a centre where you can learn about how aboriginals lived and to a certain extent still live. They showed us some of the plants used for medicine and how the weapons, such as the different types of boomerang, worked. We got to have a go at throwing boomerangs and spears, it's a lot harder than it looks! They performed music and dance as well, it was nice to finally hear someone play the didgeridoo! Anyway we have to leave the lovely city of Cairns now but we're sure this will be one place we both return. We've absolutely loved our time here! Heading back down south to the west coast and perth, for our last few days in Australia.