After waking in our new hostel, Globetrotters international, we had our free breakfast. It was nothing compared to Darwin as all it comprised of was cereal. Over the next week we spent our time walking around Cairns. We had to wait in Cairns so that we could receive our parcel from the UK. We attempted to look for work but had no success. We asked around the marina, however, all of the work involved paying for a tour first, then working for free accommodation. Cairns was quite touristy with lots of tour shops, although it had a lovely esplanade with a man- made lagoon where you could swim. You couldn't swim in the sea due to jellyfish, crocs and sharks.

During our time in Cairns we ate at the Woolshed on a couple of occasions for free, and you didn't even have to buy a drink this time! We also went to the night market and treated ourselves to a strawberry ice cream crepe, Very tasty! For the first time since being in Australia we paid a visit to the cinema to see 'Let Me In', which Matt was looking forward to seeing as he'd read the novel. A couple of days later snuck in to see 'Red' as no one checked our tickets the previous time, hehe. The nicest thing we did in Cairns was to go to a market in the rainforest called Kuranda. We chose to take the local bus there and back. It costs us $16 whereas if we went as part of a tour on the skyrail it would have cost over $100. Utter madness!!! The town had a hippy vibe to it, with lots of market stalls. We took a walk to Baron Falls, which was a difficult walk. We really weren't looking forward to walking back but luckily the tourist train stopped at the falls. I asked an employee if we could get on and she said that we could as it was only 5 minutes on the train. Free train ride, woohoo!

On our 9th day we went to the local post office to see if our parcel had arrived. We went to the depot and the lady said that it was not there but after I told her it was a transfer from Darwin and that we had to pay she directed us to the shop. To our happiness it was there. The parcel had our new bank cards (we had money again!), new netbook, some clothes for Matthew and two little gifts for me from Judith and Martin. My gifts were a new purse and a book about backpacking in Oz. We spent the rest of the day planning what to do next. We went to Peter Pan's (Tour Company) and booked excursions down the East coast.

The first of our tours was a snorkel and dive tour on the Great Barrier Reef with HABA. The previous day we had been given our own twin room so that a group of 4 friends could be in the room we had. No complaints from us. The morning of the tour we were checking out and the alarm did not go off. We were getting picked up at 6.50 and we woke at 6.45, very big rush! We managed to get on the bus and made our way to Port Douglas (North of Cairns). We got onto the boat and had a morning tea and muffin. As soon as we began to leave the marina we had a diving talk, followed by getting kitted out for a dive at Opal reef. Matt had dived previously but I was very nervous. We had to do practice sessions 1:1 first, where you had to take the breathing apparatus out of our mouth under water. I managed it but it was very scary. We went in groups of 4 and spent approx. 20 minutes doing the dive. I still felt very nervous the whole time. Matt had to hold my hand but he was letting go which freaked me out. Anyway, the experience for me wasn't a good one that time, but I'll give it another go one day. The female instructor said that she did not enjoy her first dive either so there is hope. After the dive we went for a snorkel and saw some nicer fish in the coral. Following the snorkel we had lunch which was a cold platter of salad, beef, chicken and bread. In the afternoon we had another snorkel and one of the crew did a short snorkel tour where she explained some of the sea life and showed us sea cucumbers and clown fish (nemo fish). The afternoon ended with another cup of tea and some amazing flapjacks and fruit, mmm.

We got the night bus from Cairns to Townville that evening, arriving in Townsville at 5.30am. We waited around the ferry terminal until 6.30am where we got the ferry to Magnetic Island for 3 nights in the Base hostel. We were exhausted that day after the night bus so spent the day lazing around the hostel, spending the majority of the time in the 8 bedded small cabin.

The next day we got up early and got on the local bus which costs $6.60 each for a day pass. First stop was horseshoe bay (biggest bay on the island). We had lunch on a rock on the beach and saw a dead stingray. After this we went to do a walk called 'The Forts'. The walk took approx. 1.5hrs and involved looking at an old WWII base. There was some amazing views of the bays from one of the watch and gun towers. On the journey back to the hostel we stopped off at a place called Arcadia and had an ice lolly on Alma beach. We returned to the hostel and had our free burger, chips and cocktail, then helped a couple in our dorm dress the guy up in bin bags for a hostel competition, which he didn't win.

The following day we had a free breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. We were debating going snorkelling but got a bit scared due to it being jellyfish season so decided just to go sunbathing. We got the bus back to the beginning of the Forts walk but took a different walk down a very steep hill which continued up and down for the majority of the walk to Florence bay. We spend a couple of hours on the beach, it was very relaxing and there were not many people there so it was very peaceful. After relaxing, Matt went for a climb on the rocks and I dipped my feet, being very cautious of what was around me. We were not looking forward to the walk back. We began to walk but a car came past so I decided to put my thumb out to see what happened and the guy stopped. I was so happy, not only did I not have to do the walk but I also had my first hitch hiking experience, yey!!! Back at the hostel we managed to get another free meal, compliments of a guy in our dorm who did not use his, we had nachos.

We got the morning ferry back to Townsville and checked into our hostel, Reef lodge. We had a walk around the town however due to it being a Sunday most places were closed. The next couple of days were spent looking around Townsville although there was not much to do. The things that you could do were very expensive. We walked along the esplanade and treated ourselves to a gelato (ice cream). I got a green apple one and Matt got a crazy cookie one.We met a nice Irish guy who we talked to quite a bit about travelling and gave us a recommendation to stay in the Bush village at our next destination in Airlie Beach.

We got the greyhound to Airlie Beach at noon and completed the 3.5hr journey, spending the time catching up on blog entries. As recommended we checked into the Bush village backpackers, which was in the next village along from Airlie Beach. We were in a 6 bedded cabin with its own kitchen, bathroom and outside seating area, very nice. We spent the evening relaxing outside the cabin, Matt spent some time in the hammock and we treated ourselves to a couple of $3 beers each.

We had our free breakfast the following day (toast, cereal, fruit and muffin). It rained all day from getting up for breakfast to going to bed on the evening so we spent the whole day at the hostel, we had the cabin to ourselves. We watched a film in the communal area, 'Rock n Rolla', and in the evening decided to get a takeaway pizza that was delivered to the hostel.Despite the weather we had a very relaxing day.

Checked out of hostel for our 3 day Whitsunday tour, we did not have to be at marina until 13.30 so we checked in and walked around Airlie Beach for a couple of hours. There was not much there, just the usual tour and souvenir shops. We bought ourselves some goon (wine in a box) and headed to the marina where we saw some dolphins. We boarded the 'Condor', which is a maxi sailing boat that was built in Cornwall. It is one of the most famous sailing boats as it has won all of the Australian sailing competitions twice over. We had a short briefing and were introduced to the crew- Ian, Erwin and Nelson. Matt and I got our own cabin although it was very compact. We helped to put the sails up and sailed to our first stop to snorkel - Hook's Island. On the evening we were given chicken, potatoes and salad for dinner and had a few glasses of goon with other passengers on the boat. We had a very sweaty night sleep in our cabin.

We were woken at 6.30am for a breakfast of cereal, warm bread and fruit. We sailed from Nara Inlet where we slept for the night to the Whitsunday Island. We anchored at Tongue bay and had a short walk across the island to Whitehavenbeach. The beach was pure white soft sand which felt amazing to walk on. We spent 1.5hrs here, Matt played catch with some of the others then we went for a short walk. We returned to the boat and saw some turtles whilst having lunch (bean salad, cheese, bread, ham). Next stop was the Haymen Island. En route Ian and Erwin whistled really loud and an eagle flew in from a nearby island. They threw meat in the air and the eagle caught it. We had an afternoon snorkel then sailed to a beach island (it looked like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean) and had a tug of war competition against the 'British Defender', a rival boat from the same company. We lost but it was not much competition as they had some big guys on their side. We left the island earlier than planned as it began to rain. We returned to the boat and sat under the canapé they had put up and ate nachos they had prepared, which was very nice. This was followed by dinner of steak and potatoes at our anchor point at Blue Pearl bay. Matt chose to sleep on the deck that night by himself. I couldn't get comfortable so went to the cabin.

We woke early the next morning and went for a morning snorkel where the boat was anchored before sailing back to Airlie Beach. Matt helped to hoist the sails, which took three of them to do although the day before Ian did this all by himself. We sat on the high side on the return journey, it was raining quite heavily so we all sat with yellow rain coats on. Very sexy!

Hope everyone is well

Emma

xx