Our flight from Darwin to Cairns was great - I've never been able to properly sleep on a flight before but I fell asleep before take off and woke up again at landing - perfect!

We were searched by quarantine on our arrival to check for traces of soil we might have taken with us from South East Asia, but were given the all clear and made our way from the exit. Everyone in the airport was super friendly and helpful, we booked a shuttle bus for $9 (no more 14p buses in Aus!) to town from a British expat who told us that to eat cheaply we could buy some meat and BBQ on the free BBQs by the lagoon - how Aussie!

The shuttle bus dropped us at our guesthouse, Corona Backpackers, which is $9 a night - apparently very cheap for Australia. It even includes a free dinner at a nearby restaurant/bar! Vick and I freshened up and went for a walk whilst we waited for Hannah to arrive. Cairns is so quiet and seems almost empty - it's nice! We stopped at McDs (cheap!) where I had a small strawberry milkshake and a salad. I don't actually like salad but I really want to like it which is why I ordered one. I managed about half of it but I may as well just go and pour some dressing in my garden and go and graze - it tastes like grass. I tried, but I don't think I'm at the 'I'll have a Caesar salad' stage just yet - pasta is much tastier.

We went back to the room (a four bed dorm which we're sharing with a Japanese guy - I resented sharing at first but he is actually quite sweet) and fell asleep - I woke up when Hannah knocked on the door!

We put on our bikinis and headed to the lagoon. The beach here isn't particularly nice and there are jellyfish and stingrays, so the lagoon is a humongous swimming pool with an artificial beach on one side and surrounded by nice grass and trees for shade. It is also right next to the beach so it is really nice. We spent a while in the lagoon and sunbathing before heading across the road for a drink in a coffee shop.

Back in the room we had a nap for a few hours, and I tested out my new vacuum bags that Hannah brought out for me, before heading to the Woolshed for dinner. There was a choice of spag bol, veggie spaghetti and chilli con carne, and you could pay 50c for extras - we all had spag bol with cheese. The portion was a good size so dinner for 50c was great!

The place ended up turning into a bit of a nightclub, so we ended up having some two for one drinks and a really good night! We met a stag do (bucks party is the Aussie name). The stag, Tim, was wearing a T-Shirt saying 'I Am Tim' and the 15 guys he was with all had different T-shirts saying stuff like 'I am Tim's Limbo Talent' (his brother) and 'I am Tim's Stylist' - there were some better ones but I can't remember them all. It was a good idea though!

We were still tired from flying so we went back at around midnight, but we had a really fun first night in Australia!

xxx