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Hello from Tropical Queensland. Cairns.
So we are officially on holiday!! Spending our last couple of days soaking up the sun, swimming in the hotel pool, drinking fine wine, and buying our last souvenirs. Its really hard to believe our trip is just about over, our stint in Australia is over.
Anyway, we arrived in Cairns, at 7pm'ish and checked into our room, it was a beautiful room, facing out to the harbour and was over the swimming pool, the only problem, it appeared there was blood all over the place, this creeped me out, so I had us move rooms, this time to an upgraded ocean front room.... it was smaller, a worse view as before, and DIDNT have a bath! The minute we checked into the first room and found a bath, we were both over the moon, neither of us have had a bath since Vietnam, 9 /10 months ago!! So to have it taken away from us was near to heartbreaking! We asked for the blood room backbut minus the blood, so were told we could have it back the following day, so we settled for the day and had an early night. The following morning we got up. And had a walk around Cairns, its such an awesome little town, it doesn't have the vibe that comes with places like Byron Bay, or Melbourne even, but its just relaxed, slow paced and a holiday town. Its just ace!! We came back to the hotel and sunbathed by the pool and swam in the pool, your typical holiday things!! Later we checked back into the better room, and had a lovely dinner on our sea/ pool facing balcony!!
The following morning I was up early, I was out the door by 7.30, I left Luke behind in bed, and I went to go do something terrifying.
The dive was from Innisfall which is an hour south of Cairns, originally I had booked it, as it was the only skydive which landed on the beach.... but apparently, the beach I had booked to do it on... was swept away in the cyclone, so could only do it at very low tides, which wasn't today! So I did it with the rest of them.... We had a quick briefing of what to do then were soon harnessed up. And before you knew it I was in the tiny plane! I was the last into the plane ( therefore the first out!)
The plane grew to 14,000 feet, then the door opened... It wasn't as scary as I imagined. I think it might actually have been too much for my brain to process so I just went with it....So I was sat on the edge of the plane with my legs over the edge, looking through clouds to the ground, it was totally surreal!! Because it was a tandem skydive, i didn't really have to do anything, so the instructor - Greg, who was strapped to my back, he pushed me out, so he could get on the ledge of the plane, I thought this was skydiving... I was thinking 'Oh My, this is actually really nice,' but I hadn't even began my decent at this point!! Ok, so as soon as Greg jumped, (out of a perfectly functioning plane!) I felt my stomach being left behind, and obviously my mind, because I don't know if I screamed, I don't actually remember this freefall!!! I couldn't work out where the sky was and the ground was, I was all over the place, and upside down, And for what seemed like only 10 seconds, but was actually 1 minute, I was free falling to Earth!
I dropped, 9000 feet in 1 minute,
That's 150 feet per second!!!
Although I think I was told it was 2000 feet a second, for the first two seconds, then 100 feet each second after..... thats just crazy!!
Then when we reached 5000 feet, Greg let out the parachute, I felt a huge thud through my harness and in an instant everything was silent, and I was able to gather my thoughts..... OMG!!!!!! Only at this point did I realise that my ears were throbbing, and I was in agony!! I tried to pop then by holding my nose, but Greg had different ideas, and started spinning the bloody parachute, so I was looking down to earth, and watching the whole earth spinning around and around.... I couldn't even bring myself to tell him to please stop.. my mouth was so dry, I was petrified, and my brain wasn't functioning, so I just had to ride the storm!!! So about 6 or 7 minutes after leaving the plane, we were landing, I knew I had to kick my feet out in front of me, just to help Greg land carefully, But I did that and remembered watching something on TV where Cheryl Baker did a skydive and because she had tensed her legs forward she broke her legs... so I panicked and moved my legs, I don't know exactly what I did.. but we landed uncomfortably, I don't have any skin now on my left ankle, I have scratches all over both legs, upper and lower, bruises on my arms, where the straps rubbed and my white shorts are now green & brown (from the grass and the mud........!) Greg apologised, he said that he misjudged the level, and thought we had longer before we landed than we actually did, so basically it was a blooming terrible landing, im thankful I haven't broken any bones, but I will be saying goodbye to my white shorts!
Getting untangled, composed and cleaned, I was then told that the DVD didn't work on the freefall.... So I was offered two choices... Either come back tomorrow, do a 2nd skydive free of charge, or just get the photographs, and not have to pay for them - No DVD....
Which do you think I took?
I took the free photos, I doubt the video would have been any good anyway, looking at the photos, my cheeks have ripples in, from ,my throat... its so disgusting!!!! Some of the photos i have im actually gurning!!!!
Im in agony right now, so don't want to go through the landing EVER again, the straps were digging into my front so much, it was very uplifting!!! Ha! So overall, I didn't rate it to how I expected to, yes it was unreal and out of this world, and the closest to the edge I will ever be (probably).. But I just don't think I will be doing it again...
Ok, nightmare over..... I got home early in the afternoon, had some lunch with Luke, then we went out together to do a spot of shopping. It consisted of buying our very own snorkelling gear, heaps of bandages, savlon cream, tape, waterproof dressing and other first aid things for my war wounds, and another snorkelling trip tomorrow. Snorkelling is my favourite pastime now... No more jumping out of planes!
But saying all this about skydiving, it hasn't deterred Luke, I think he is a little envious that I have done it and he hasn't, so watch this space, Luke may be jumping out of a plane in New Zealand!!!!! ( Not the Air New zealand flight taking us over to NZ... FYI!)
Anyway, The next day, we got up early and got the boat over to Green Island, which is the closest island to Cairns, in the Great Barrier Reef. Its around here where its the best part to scuba dive / snorkel in. So as we have a new hobby, we went snorkling, unfortunately, my wounds were still seeping so it stung in the sea, I persisted, but the flippers were rubbing so I had to retire! Luke spent ages playing underwater though, he snorkelled for the team!! I just soaked up the sun!! Which I wont pretend wasn't any good... it was awesome, it was really peaceful (apart from the constant ringing in my ears from yesterdays freefalling!) When Luke was ready to get onto dry land we took a little walk up the beach.
Green island is a stunning little island, although its full of tourists, its really like a castaway island or something! Its just beautiful!! We only spent a half day here, as we've a few things to sort out before we leave Australia, so we got the boat back to Cairns, the journey was on 45 minutes, so we had some lunch then went to sort our 'holiday currency' our tax back, because we've been working in Australia, and have been paying Tax, we are eligible to get back the tax we've paid, so we sorted this out, sent off our pay slips etc, so hopefully our bank balance will be nice and healthy on our return to the UK! After these chores were done, we started to pack our bags...... For dinner we went to a restaurant along the esplanade, I ordered Emu Medallions, Crocodile and Kangaroo fillet!! I've been itching to try croc for a while, and just haven't had a chance, so thought, why not? Its our last night in Cairns, so treated myself!!
The Kangaroo was cooked Medium and it was just really soft and tasty, all the other times ive tried Kangaroo its been really chewy and tough - but it was just live a very strong tasting sirloin steak! The Crocodile was not very strong tasting, I cant really explain what it tasted like either... But the Emu - Totally delicious!! I was amazed with it - There wasn't too much meat, but it tasted like a really juicy Roast Beef!! I most definitely would recommend this! So we went to bed on a full stomach, after having a few Aussie beers to help the dinner digest!
Our last day in Cairns, we were picked up at 3.30pm from the hotel to go to the airport. But during the rest of the day we ran around doing some errands, My wound is getting worse so visited a Doctor, whos told me ive sprained my ankle, and my wound is infected.... so spent a fortune on medical equipment to help me get around...... then for the rest of the day, Luke made the most of the gym facilities in the hotel, and I made the most of the sun!
So our flight to Sydney from Cairns, is to catch our connecting flight to Christchurch, We have a but of a stop over so we hired a car,so could visit our friends for the last time!!
So Australia,
I have learned that it isn't as 'sunny' as its made out to be. From the day we arrived in Perth, we were told "oh the weather is unusually cold for this time of year" and then in Sydney "its usually really hot by this time of year," "its because of el nino the weather front!" "weve just come out of an 8 year drought!" Blah Blah Blah! The weather has been very hit and miss... and not as perfect as I was lead to believe. Yes it does get hot, too hot in fact, but the sun doesn't always shine!!!
We have both had a wonderful time in Australia, and are both very sad to be leaving!!
But on a positive note, we will be leaving with the greatest souvenir... a great tan!! xxxxx
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