Sunday 9th was a fun filled day chilling in the morning before heading out to the town centre to watch the Iron Man. It was a great event and we ended up cheering the contestants on all afternoon. I admired every single competitor there, weather they were competing or simply doing it for a challenge because it's incredible to achieve something like this. Just think, a full marathon at the end of a 42k!! I did some shopping for New Zealand with the help of Stefan. We also went to the market to buy fresh fruit and veg which is so cheap! We went to watch Fast and Furious at the cinema and then headed back to the finish line of the half marathon where after 15 hours people were still racing! There were lots of Chinese/Japanese and they were so happy crossing the line, jumping about with the biggest grins on their faces ever, it was such a buzz to see them so happy that they had achieved something so impressive like the half marathon. I'd like to see their faces the next day when they woke up - I'm sure it would be a different picture! Ha. I admire them all though, good on them, even if it did take them 15 hours...I haven't completed one so who am I to judge! To take on a challenge like that takes something, so that's awesome J

Monday 10th was a perfect morning waking up to blue sky and palm trees blowing in the wind...and on a comfy mattress too J Had to take two, I thought I was still dreaming! It's so peaceful where we're staying, really quiet and relaxed and the hostel feels more like a shared house as the decor is very homely, cosy and vintage style. It's really cute. We moved to the sister hostel as the Travellers Oasis was fully booked for Monday night, but it's just as nice in the sister hostel with nice living room, sweet little pool, grass area, pool table and hammocks to chill in too. Plus free internet, which is a big bonus for Australia hostels! After some yoghurt and museli, we went on a 2 hour walk to the botanical gardens and returned to have a quick shower before heading into town on the free shuttle bus to meet Lisa. It was lovely to meet her and have a quick catch-up. She filled me in on her new-to-be travel buddies...quite stressful trying to find 3 other people to join her for the next road trip from Cairns to Darwin but she has had plenty of replies from Gumtree so lots of options! Then I headed to the harbour to check out if I could do some volunteering on one of the boats...and I'm so lucky they do have space! Yey. So volunteering requires me to do a bit of cleaning, food preparing and washing up dishes....in return I get 2 free dives and some lunch! What a bargin...thanks to the hair dresser for telling me about it! That evening Stefan and I joined in with the hostels $12 BBQ deal so we could try some proper Aussie food. We ended up with Kangaroo, Emu, Crocodile and Barracuda on our plates and all were pretty damn tasty if I can say so myself! None of them had very strong tastes at all, and I think the Emu was just like beef. It was nice to have tried something different though, and there was plenty of it too with second and third servings on offer as well as some fruit to finish. We met some cool English guys at the BBQ so joined in with the bar crawl in town that night. It was a good laugh and lots of people were out because of the Iron Man the previous day so it was all happening that night. You could tell who had competed in the Iron Man as they were all walking like robots, they were all so stiff! Haha.

The following morning we had a very chilled day. We moved back to Travellers Oasis and then met Jen for coffee as she text me to say she was in Cairns now! It was great to see her and catch up on her time in Airely Beach. We also got her signed up with this volunteering on the boat too so she was pretty chuffed with that. Back at the hostel, we cooked a very healthy vegetables and rice!

Wednesday 12th was diving day. I was all ready in my work t-shirt at the harbour for 7.30am...Stefan came with me too even though he could have had an extra half an hour in bed as he was a paying customer so wasn't allowed on the boat until 8am. The day went so quick and all I did was prepare some salad, move some tea and coffee, rinse plates and stack a dishwasher...I got free lunch and 2 free dives. It was my first ever time I went diving without an instructor. I was partnered with a German guy who was really nice and luckily had been diving 16 times before so he was slightly more advanced than I. He looked after me well and checked I had done everything right with my kit. The diving was incredible - the visibility was outstanding, you could see for miles and the colours of the fish and the coral was breathtaking. It was by far the best dive I have done so definitely worth going to the Great Barrier Reef! I was apprehensive at first as I wondered if it was another real 'tourist' thing to do that was made out to be incredible but really no different than diving elsewhere, but I was proved wrong J, it was great. For some strange reason our air ran out pretty quickly though so we only had 25minutes for our first dive, but then I went off snorkelling with Stefan anyway which was good fun. We arrived back at 4pm so had time for a bit of fitness - Stefan went on a long run, training for the 11k Sydney run he had just signed up and I decided to do some in the room as my foot still wasn't feeling 100% and I had also cut my big toe on the boat that day, so my toe wasn't in great shape either. As soon as one cut heals on my foot I manage to get another one! We decided to have a lazy night in the hostel, so ended up on the internet for a bit and then we watched half of a film before falling asleep.

Thursday was a crazy fun day...so we decided to get up at 4.30am to climb a mountain before sunset. We set off at about 5.30am after filling up on some porridge. Stefan may have taken us in the complete wrong direction for the first 3k so ended up walking an extra 6k overall, but it was all good because I ended up teasing him for the rest of the day as he was previously laughing at me that I didn't know which direction the beach was J! Hehe. The walk was awesome. We walked along the beach front and took some photos from there and then carried on up Mouth Whitfield along the red and blue path. There were only fitness freaks jogging along the beach and up the small red path but once we made it to the blue path we were literally alone for the rest of the walk weaving in and out of the trees. We were proper hikers, with sticks too! And we took some boiled eggs as snacks as well as some apricots and crackers. Living the dream ey. After 23k and 7 hours of walking we were back at the hostel ready for some proper food...curry it was! We had a full afternoon to relax in the hostel, book accommodation for Sydney (which was surprisingly difficult and expensive), and then met Jen for the last time to give her my diving t-shirt so we could share the cost rather than both buying one. Stefan and I went back to the hostel and made some delicious nachos, with tomatoes, cheese and a beef and vegetable can. It was tasty and so easy to cook! We pretty much demolished them in no time so headed out for another walk to digest the food and explore the night market. The market was very much like a small, less enthusiastic Asian market, but it was still good. I managed to get a waterproof cover for my rucksack in preparation for New Zealand for about $18 and also bought my first travel bracelet ever...it was about time after 8 months of travelling.