Hello! So we left a very wet Magnetic Island and traveled up to a very hot and humid Cairns. Here we met up with Ross (Whitsunday's) Rebecca, Jay, Woody and Fox 8 (Fraser) for a good old night on the town. Cairns is a strange city - a tad run down and in need of a serious face lift! But our hostel more than made up for it, it was lovely & even had towels which is total bliss after 2 and a bit months without one! There wasn't too much to do here so we decided to head up to Cape Trib & Daintree rain forest with Ross for some chillout time. We stayed in the middle of the rain forest with all the creepy crawlies & even got a visit in the middle of the night from a rat. We named her Melanie (she was kinda cute!) We also saw our first wild croc here - he was huge! You can't swim in the rivers or ocean too much coz of the crocs & sharks, and if they don't get you the stingers, snakes & spiders will, but we survived and have become at 1 with nature!! We did a night walk thru the forest and saw plenty of big spiders, lizards and a fire fly. Had there of been some music we would have had a rave! We also headed to the tree tops to try tree surfing. This was wicked fun but like many things was over b4 it began! That night the rain started to fall and didn't stop for 24hrs!! We managed to keep ourselves entertained with cards and towels with a crazy dude called Christian - this guy could make a game from nothing!! After 4 days here we headed back down to Cairns. The day after getting back we had a flight over the Great Barrier Reef. What can I say? It was truly stunning and a definite highlight. Being by the reef we felt we should see it from under the waves and so jumped on a boat & headed out. I (kt) managed to do a 30ft dive which was awesome, but I still didn't manage to see a shark! But they were down there coz several people saw them. Our Gems did lots of snorkeling and loved every minute (apart from the jellyfish sting!) I think it's safe to say she loved it! Not many people came back from this trip with full bellies - it was very, very rough!! We left Cairns a few days ago and headed to Brisbane ready to fly out to N.Z. This city is good for one thing - SHOPPING! So that's how we spent our 2 days - LOVED IT!! So that brings us to N.Z - haven't got too much to say from here at the mo coz we only just arrived (it seems really nice!) I think I have bored you guys enough already so I hope you are all well. Lots of love Kate & Gem xxxxxxxxxxx