Have our clothes shrunk or are we getting bigger????

We were starting to feel quite tired after a few long days and early mornings so were happy just to spend a day relaxing at the hostel and checking out the local markets for some presents to send back home.

The market was full of a range of Australian gifts, paintings, cards and clothing but didn't have the one thing we were looking for…an Australian bandana (which we wanted to attach to something we have bought to send home to Rich's parents). We picked us some other items before heading home to the hostel to attempt to fit our new presents in our backpacks which were already quite full.

After a quick laundry stop we were convinced our clothes had shrunk in Perth. Rach's long dress that used to touch the floor is now a good foot or so from the ground. This time we were really careful and put our clothes on a low heat setting to avoid our clothes shrinking any further to the size of kids clothes because then we will have no hope of squeezing into them.

How we ever managed to squeezed in all our stuff we will never know. Having wrestled with our backpacks for a good 90 minutes we rewarded ourselves with a nice Oz beer on the rooftop of the hostel to enjoy the Melbourne skyline for the last time.

Monday brought another early start. We woke at half six in the morning ready to make the short walk to the bus stop at the bottom of the road to meet a shuttle bus. This shuttle bus did a few hostel and hotel stops before heading to the local depot where even more people were waiting for the main shuttle which was massive bendy bus. It only cost $16 dollars one way so it's really good value plus you get a range of vouchers for both the airport and Melbourne city centre (which would be useful if you were travelling from the airport). The shuttle bus leaves every fifteen minutes and takes approximately the same amount of time to reach the domestic airport and then a few minutes more means you reach the international terminal.

The journey is broken up by a video about other destinations in Australia so we got a few more ideas of places to go.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and hoped to get checked in quickly so we could explore the airport before our flight. However, this would not be the case. The new check in system that had worked so well in Perth was absolute chaos in Melbourne. The computerised check in was simple enough but then you had to wait in a massive queue for the bag drop. Only four members of staff were on for all flights. Gone are the days when each flight has their own desks to check in.

We were faced with a 45 minute queue lugging our bags round different posts. The man in front of us asked us if the airport was always this chaotic-we certainly hope not. To make matters worse, due to all flights being in the same queue, two members of staff were calling out different flight numbers that were due to leave soon so people at the back of the queue were pushed through the queue to the front so they would not miss their flights. You just had to squeeze in and let them through. It was a very frustrating system.

Luckily for us we had guessed that we needed to print off our boarding passes at the machines before we joined the long queue. Unfortunately others weren't so lucky and they had to leave the queue then re-join it. People were unsurprisingly annoyed by this. The four staff were all working as quick as they could but two were having to answer phones at the same time. It was madness.

By the time we had dropped off our bags (which had each gone up by 3kgs), there was only ten minutes before we had to board so Rich ran off to get a coffee and a few postcards while Rach stopped at a shop to get a present for her friend Steph.

The plane was really spacious and we had two seats on the right hand side of the plane. Lunch consisted of stir-fry chicken and vegetables, cheese and crackers, toblerone and cornetto icecream. As it was a domestic flight we did not get our own entertainment system. The film that was showing was called 'Dinner with the Schmunks' which was quite strange and involved a character who made models out of dead mice!

The flight from Melbourne to Cairns was just over three hours but it flew by and before we knew it we were approaching Cairns airport. The captain told us that people on the left would get great views of the Great Barrier Reef when the plane swung round towards the airport. We were on the right so we settled for fantastic views of the rainforest. Even from far away, it looked incredible and we could not wait to explore it up close.

We headed to the luggage carousel to pick up our bags and sort out our free transfer to our hostel. Rich noticed that his book had fallen out of his bag but we were quick to spot it on the carousel in between other peoples' luggage.
We gave a quick call to our new hostel and the guy on the phone informed us that he would pick us up in ten minutes. In the minibus we met another girl who was staying in our hostel that had been travelling in Thailand and was hoping to find work out in Australia. The staff all seemed friendly so we were hopeful that we were going to enjoy our stay in Cairns.