Hello,

Firstly I'd like to do a shout out to my sister Lisa. Well done on popping my little niece out. Proud of you and gutted I can't be there to see her. Tina next too....

For our adventure we are now in a warmer climate in Cairns. We have been here for about a week and the week has been split in 2, thanks mainly to the weather.

The first couple of days we found out why it was called the wet tropics, both me and Lauren were pretty naive in thinking the 'rain' forest would be dry.... haha. Anyway, we didnt let this deter us and we went exploring.

Firstly down the Cairns esplande for a croc hunt... we didnt see any crocs though, think they're pretty lazy like all Australians. They dont have a beach here as this was one of the major bases for the US forces in WW1 and the beaches were dredged so boats could dock. As Cairns does not have a beach they have made a beach lagoon in the middle of the town so we ventured down to that and were met by bronzed fitness fanatics which made me want to keep my top on. So we just lay there fully clothed until the rain came again and headed back to the backpackers.

That afternoon we were chilling having a drink and got approached to do some work at Nitro Circus, 4 hours work, $60 and you get to watch the show. So both me and Lauren put our names down. The following day we heading to it, the sun was out when we were travelling there and we thought. Oh no. We've missed the only day of sun so far. Then it went grim and everything was ok again. Its fair to say I possibly worked for 10 mins max, building burgers whilst Lauren worked her butt off serving customers (although she did admit to making up some of the prices!!) Afterwards we got the watch the show. I'd never heard of nitro circus before, but it was great fun, them guys are loons. Picked up our $120 and headed back.

The place we are in at the moment moment is really cool, it has a Jamaican theme and is really relaxed. Feels like we're on a holiday....

So that was the first couple of days.

The next few days have been really nice weather and we have crammed so much in...I'll pass over to Lauren now..

Hey it's Lauren, congratulations Lisa and John!!!!

On Sunday we took a boat trip out to the Great Barrier Reef for an introductory scuba dive and some snorkelling. The boat ride itself was horrendous and most people, including myself, were seasick...gross! it was well worth the seasickness though because the reef was absolutely stunning. There was so much to see; fish, sharks, turtles, coral and a giant fish that the divers knicknamed Wally. He was bloody massive!!! We only dived to 12metres but it was good fun and it was very amusing watching Davie try and stablise himself, one minute he'd start sinking then the next he'd be floating away! After the dive we did some snorkelling, had some lunch then moved onto a second site where we did some more snorkelling. By the end of the day we were shattered but very happy.

Monday we did a waterfall tour called "Uncle Brian's" and we would quite happily say it was one of the best tours we have ever done! It was just a day of non stop fun. We started of in a place called Bibinda boulders (Devils Rocks) which were giant round boulders with water gushing down them. There is an Indiginous Romeo and Juliet story to them...a man and women from different tribes fell in love, couldnt be together, his tribe took him away, she drowned herself in sorrow and supposedly the gods felt her sorrow and raised the rocks to help her drown. Her spirit is believed to drag young men under the rocks in her search for her beloved. Really it's just young men who ignore the "danger, do not swim here" signs haha!

After Babinda we headed to Josephine Falls where we got to do some boulder sliding, this was sooooooo much fun, we basically got to throw ourselves down the lower level of a three tier waterfall and land in a pool of water.

After Josephine, we headed to Millaa Millaa Falls, which is the famous waterfall that Peter Andre filmed his Mysterious Girl video, shampoo adverts have also been filmed at Millaa. So we got in and flung our hair around (girls) to reproduce the hair ads and the boys did their best Peter Andre impressions! Its one of the only waterfalls where you can climb behind the waterfall then swim through it....it's pretty powerful on the back of your head but feels like a good massage on your back!

After Millaa we went to Lake Eecham for another swim. Davie did his best back flip from the pontoon then jumped out of a tree....it was all very safe, I promise! On the way back to Cains, Gus the Bus was rocking, we were all singing and dancing our hearts out including the guide. I was a little sad when it ended because it was such an epic day.

Tuesday we hired a car and headed out on our own road trip. First stop was Palm Cove, a beach town North of Cairns. We had our first BBQ whilst in Palm Cove whoooop whooop, it only took us 3 weeks!!! It was flipping delish! That night we lost badly at a pub quiz.

The next day we hit the road and headed out into the Tablelands to a town called Kuranda. Before we got to the town we headed out on a walk to the Barron Falls, the walk took us through rainforest and out to a viewing platform in the gorge where you could see the waterfall in all it's glory...it dwarfed all the other waterfalls we'd seen previously! It was absolutely magnificent.

On the way back from the waterfall we were just about to walk up a massive hill when a workie pulled over and asked if we wanted to jump on the back of his van to the top of the hill, we looked at each other then looked at the hill and said "yes please" so off we went clinging on for dear life all the way up the hill!!!!

After our walk we headed for town and had a wander around all the markets and stopped off for a much needed coffee (and cake for me), it was a beautiful little town but it very much catered towards the day tripper tourist.

After Kuranda we hopped back in the car and continued south west to Mareeba where we found a place called Granite Gorge. It's like a different world out there, it's not outback but it felt like it as there was nothing around us for miles. So we parked up and set up camp then went out exploring. First stop of the walk was a weir where you could go swimming so in we went...it was refreshing! whilst swimming we did a bit of turtle spotting.

The rest of the walk consisted of a lot of boulder hopping/ climbing oooooo and we got to feed wallabies..they were so cute, hopping up and eating out our hands. Anyway back to the boulder hopping, Davie loved it, it was right up his street. Me on the other hand, I thought the scenery was absolutely beautiful and I enjoyed it but I'm too unbalanced to just jump from rock to rock so I was crawling from rock to rock more than anything haha!

That night we had another barbie and toasted marshmallows over a camp fire. It was bliss and to top it off we could see millions of stars because there was no ligh pollution. I can honestly say I have never seen so many stars in my life, it was very beautiful.

So today we headed back towards Cairns via Davies Creek, it would have been criminal not to stop there! So we stopped, took a picture of Davie with the 'Davies Creek' sign, then had a splash around in the creek, did a spot of sunbathing then hit the road again.

Just before we got to Cairns we stopped off in Smithtown so that Davie could do a bungee jump. It was pretty epic! He won it as a prize in a pool competition....I was more nervous than him and it was him that had to jump! I caught it on film so I'm sure it'll be published on facebook soon.

Back in Cairns we are just planning our next adventure. The plan is to carshare with two others for a big road trip to Darwin, starting out on Saturday. We are meeting the girl (who's car it is) tomorrow and if she likes us (how can she not) she'll let us tag along, so fingers crossed we can charm her! If not then we'll be back on gumtree to find another carshare.

Right we're off to do another pub quiz, hopefully we'll do better this time!

Sending lots of love to everyone,

Lauren and David xxxxxx