Cairns 23/10/04 We went to pick up our campervan and left Cairns in the first rain we'd seen in Oz. It was heavy rain, rainforest rain in the rainy season. The 'Campette' is a small transit convert (a bed stuck in the back) with all the camping gear with air con. It runs well but it's no Delia. We headed straight up along the coastal road to Port Douglass. It's a really nice place with a small town hippy feel to it. Unfortunately it rained most of the time s...

We went to the harbour to check out the boat, and were a little dissapointed to sea how small it was and how old looking but we thought never mind its the diving that matters. We boarded that evening and met our comrades, Andy the kiwi instructor, Alicia our american Divemaster, mark the skipper and kieren the cook (well sort of). There were a few americans, dave the alaskan with dreads, Daniel the belgian who was so direct and at the same time naive, Some Dutc...

G'Day We arrived in Oz after only a 3 hr flight, to brisbane where we met up with Ste' and Zarina, we had lunch and a chat and then got another flight up to Cairns. We chose to stay a little out of town in a quiet small hostel called Ryans Rest, it was really nice, the owner is great and it has a little pool to cool off, the temperature is up in the mid-thirties and very humid. We spent a few days wandering around town, they have built a lagoon which is a b...

We drove back to Auckland and went to the pub with Cov and Sam when we got there and had a good laugh but appalling quiz result. The next two days we spent selling Delia at the car market, we sold her to a bunch of English kids for $1600 more than we bought her for which was great! We went out with Dom and Lisa who we met in Fiji, to their area, mission bay for some latte's and a chat, it was really good to catch up. The rest of the time was spent generally ha...

We met up with Jane and Doug in the 'stinky city'. We stayed in a lovely Motel with its own hot pools which we spent lots of time in, they were so nice. We walked around the city where there were clouds of steam coming from people's gardens and in the parks etc, very eerie but amazing to see. We went for a day trip where we took a walk down to mount Tarawera we walked past amazing coloured pools and rivers and to steaming lakes. The colours were reds and gree...