So the first couple of days in Australia have been really good so far. Arrived into Cairns on the 4th and spent the first day just chilling out and acclimatising to the heat. The weather at the beginning of the week was really strange - baking hot (it is Australia after all) but thoroughly pissing it down constantly due to the cyclone at Darwin at the moment. Very strange, but probably helped get used to the temperature quite a lot.

Once I'd plucked up the courage to brave the rain (torrential doesn't really cover it) and the mozzies (back in a mosquito country again, sigh), I headed out on tuesday to the botanical gardens (very rainforesty) to do a self-guided tour in the rain. Quite understandably, it was probably the quickest tour anyone has ever done of the gardens, but I think I should at least get brownie points for having walked 45mins in the rain to get there! Took myself off to the cinema in the evening, then moved all of my stuff (now seem to have an incredibly full, very heavy rucksack full of other people's discarded clothes - don't judge me) to a different hostel, to meet Tom and Harry and get settled in for the next few days.

After a middle day spent mostly at the gym, on Thursday I booked onto a tour out to the Great Barrier Reef. I got catamaraned out to the GBR in the morning, then had an introductory 20 minute SCUBA diving lesson. The diving was amazing, in that I got to see some really amazing fish etc down in the coral, but I couldn't stop thinking that I could quite possibly die at any moment, and couldn't get used to breathing through my mouth constantly. Think I'll happily leave the diving to Kat in the future. After the dive I spent the rest of the morning snorkeling, before a huge buffet lunch (not very bikini friendly) and another snorkel in the afternoon in a different part of the reef. Unfortunately managed to fall asleep in the sun for a while after lunch, so now very burnt and very British-looking. Day was brilliant all in all, and got to see giant clams, sea cucumbers, sea turtles, puffer fish, etc etc - amazing!

Today was move on day, so Tom, Harry and I dragged ourselves out of bed at a ridiculous time and made what felt like a marathon-length walk to the bus, which was taking us to Mission Island. First stop of the day was a rainforest walk at Babinda Boulders (mozzies again), and then we headed to Issafail (spelling?) to go to a crocodile farm - all very Australian. Got to see and hold lots of crocodiles, kangaroos, wallabies and dingos, and even got to see some cassawaries (very endagered native emu-like bird). Very touristy, but thoroughly enjoyable! Tonight we're planning on headeing down to the beach once the day has cooled down a bit, before heading back and cooking something (hopefully) amazing and cheap for dinner. Tomorrow we're all back on the bus again and heading to Magnetic Island.