First things first, we love Cairns! It's such a lovely place that suits all aspects, tanning in the day, partying at night =) We arrived at 8 in the morning because of our stupid flight from Darwin being at 5am, and got dropped off at a hostel Dani saw on the internet. However, when we got there it was all locked up and the numbers we had didn't work so we set off to find somewhere else. It was getting warm and our bags have for some reason got ridiculously heavy again, so we settled for the first place we came across, the only down fall was that check in wasn't until 1pm! So we left our bags in the luggage room and went and sat in the lounge area where we fell asleep. When we woke up we thought we'd better go for a wander, partly due to the fact people were looking at us confused as to why we were sleeping in the lounge so early in the day.

We went for a skeet around and after finding our bearings went back and checked into the hostel. That evening was spent watching continuous episodes of Sex and the City, which we think was the perfect way to have a lazy night so we could catch up on our sleep. There were a few of us watching it and believe it or not, the fellas out numbered the girls!

The next morning we checked out and moved a little further down the Esplanade to a Global Backpackers hostel, the fact that the lady was of no help and moody, combined with the fact our dorm went to bed at 8pm, was enough reason for us to move. We were put in a room with two Scottish couples that were really nice, up for a laugh and good drinkers! The only thing that wasn't good was nighttime when it came to sleeping, Gail would scream out in her sleep without realizing causing us to wake up panicking thinking something was happening to her, she could never remember in the morning which was hilarious! When we first met her she was drunk and told us how brown we both looked, yes both of us!! Sam was well impressed, she finally has colour! But this was only the start, since being in Cairns she has been told countless times that she is really brown, good times!

We did a few trips, but when we weren't we spent the day chilling by the lagoon. The beach in Cairns itself isn't up to much so there is a manmade lagoon/swimming pool along the Esplanade. Along with refreshing pool there are canopy and picnic benches to accompany the free BBQs that re around the park.

Kuranda - Kuranda is a small village in the mountains that we were recommended to see. We took the sky rail up to it, passing over acres of world heritage rainforest, before returning back to Cairns via the train. Although the views from the sky rail were very impressive, we couldn't help think that one tree looks like another and whilst up there, apart from spending money in the shops or at some of the attractions such as a butterfly park (what us backpackers can't afford), there isn't that much to do. Luckily, the views from the train on the way back down were impressive, yet we still managed to have a little snooze =s

The Great Barrier Reef- One of the must do's when in Australia and anyone who's been will know why... out of this world! We had to be at the pier for 8am and set off on the Ocean Spirit to explore. As we left the habour it began to rain and instantly we thought we'd made a mistake, but that was just the weather teasing us.. it was a gorgeous day! We sailed out and anchored just off Michaelmas Cay. Here, we were took over to the beach with snorkeling equipment and told to explore. We had fun using Dani's new waterproof camera, trying countless times to get pictures of fish and ourselves. After awhile we went back to the boat for a lovely lunch before starting our prepaid introductory dive. Dani had tried it years ago in Turkey but found it very difficult and Sam had never done it before, so it was going to be interesting. It took us two attempts to master the equalizing part, but then we were off! We went under the boat and instantly seen some pretty large fish, then swan through coral seeing the famous Nemo fish along with a variety of others. On the way back our guide pointed out an Eagle Ray, and we ended up in a school of fish, it was amazing! On the way back to Cairns we had a guy singing whilst we lay sunbathing, drinking champagne, paradise! It wasn't until later that evening when we spoke to Thomas, the guy we booked the trip through, that we realised that we had been upgraded to a different boat in the morning and had saved nearly $200, the dive alone was $100 compared to the $25 one we had initially paid for... Nice!

Port Douglas and Mossman Gorge - As with Darwin, some of the trips to see the famous sites are very expensive for what you get, so we decided we would hire a car for the day and go exploring ourselves. We drove along the coast past some beautiful beaches and scenery, white sand and turquoise blue sea, up to Mossman Gorge where we had a picnic and walked along the public footpath admiring the large boulders in the river. Despite three evil birds trying to get us whilst we were having our picnic, it was very nice. We stopped off at Port Douglas on the way home and had a look at the small town that attracts lots tourists.

We met back up with Danny and Sean, the lads from Halong Bay, when they arrived in Cairns and had a few nights out with them. Danny's Uncle lives here and owns a restaurant in the Cairns Tropical Zoo, and one day offered to pick us up and take us out. We went for a look around the zoo then got dropped off at a nearby beach to spend an hour or so whilst he did some jobs. When he picked us back up later we went and got his wife and little boy and went to Palm Cove, which was a lovely setting on the beach where families can relax having drinks and food, knowing the kids are in a safe environment.

Cairns seemed to be a good meeting place. Not only did we meet back up with Danny and Sean, but we met the lovely ladies Faye and Aimee who we were at the Full Moon with back in September! It was great catching up with them and we spent the afternoons having a few drinkies =) We also bumped into Tracey and Joe from Darwin whilst wandering around so arranged for all of us and the Scottish lot to have a BBQ at the lagoon, it was a brilliant night!

As big as Australia it is mad who you bump into. On the first day in Cairns Sam bumped into her friend Karen who she went to uni with, then a few days later bumped into another three girls from home.. madness!

The pub crawl was one of our favourite nights. It was run by the hostel and for $15 you got a pub crawl t-shirt to customise, 5 free drinks and pizza. On route around the pubs there were lots of games played where you could win prizes varying from a jug of beer to a bungee jump. One of the games the girls and boys got put in pairs and on command had to get into three positions: knight (girl sat on the boys knee), cavalier (girls got carried by the boy, the way you would if being carried over the threshold) and viking (girl got on the boys back). These commands were shouted in random orders at fast pace so you were constantly swapping and changing, if you were too slow or got it wrong you were out. It also got more interesting when other positions were thrown in =) Other games include a piece of bubblegum being fed up one leg of a guys trousers and down the other by a girl, who had to blow a bubble at the end to win, and dancing competitions. As you can imagine it was a messy night.

Leaving Cairns is now the lead up to Christmas. We will be travelling every couple of days until we get to Becca's in the Gold Coast, and we're really excited!! The next part of our journey is Mission Beach... and the skydive!!