Hey hey... well...we flew out of Alice Springs because we didnt want the 2 day journey on a bus (this country is huge and you don't realise it until you are here!!!) We arrived in Cairns after a nice Quantas flight - which included a nice curry! And checked into the YHA we splashed out and got a double room as we needed sleep after the exhausting Rock tour.

Cairns is a nice tropical place. Easy to walk around but seems full of 18yr old gap students wanting to get drunk a lot!

The reason we had ventured that way was simple... to see the Great Barrier Reef!!! We booked onto a tour with Cairns Dive Centre for 2 days which included a night onboard there livaboard boat. We met some cool Mexican guys on the way out to the boat who had been in Melbourne, got drunk at 2am, and booked a flight and tour over the internet!!! They were hilarious and kept us entertained throughout. We were going to do a scuba dive but to be honest the guy that was going to teach it us could hardly speak English and so we opted out and stuck to snorkeling!!! The snorkeling was good... Andrew saw a big Turtle and claims to have seen a shark (although and to quote "it was probably just a big fish" haha) Emma liked the Parrot fish and was generally amazed that you just popped your head underwater to see a whole underwater world! The experience was completly different to snorkeling in Fiji and the Cooks. The water was a lot rougher - you really felt in the middle of the ocean and the coral was further away from you and so visibility wasnt as clear as in Fiji. That said we really enjoyed out time there. We hired an underwater camera and will hopefully upload some pics soon! The food on the boat was delicious and our cabin was ensuite - Emma had fun in the shower when the boat kept moving from side to side!!!

Job Done seeing the Reef we decided to move on and go down the coast... It has been a dream of Andrew's to hire a camper van in Oz and so when we spotted a re-location deal offering a van for $1 a day to take it to Brisbane we jumped at the chance!

The van was a Wicked camper and so was spray painted in a theme, ours being Billy Idol!!! We shall update soon with how our driving adventure goes!!!!

Love and Hugs xxx