We got to Cairns at 5pm and had to walk an hour in the boiling heat to our hostel as it was far out of town but didnt look far on the map :S . We bumped into a friend (ben) off the whitsundays trip and went out to a place called Rhino bar that night for a few drinks. There was a few games going on to win some prizes so we had a go and I managed to win a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef worth about 110 english quid....happy days! All I had to do was toss a empty beer jug and get it to land upright, who knew i was such a tosser! Turned out to be quite a good night.

The next day we didnt get up to much as we were ever so slightly hungover but we did manage to book our boat trip for the next day (also got upgraded to a even better boat because there was no space on the one i won) and go for a swim in the beachfront lagoon. In the evening there was a wildlife show at our hostel which we watched with birds + crocs etc.

We were up early for the trip to the reef and got on the boat at 8am. we set off straight away to the Upolu reef region and our 1st snorkell site. We jumped in and we just flaberghasted in amazement! The array of fish, colour and movement of the coral was immense. The reef is really alive in all senses. We saw a massive sea turtle, got to hold all sorts of sea cucumbers and of course we saw NEMO which made caz happy, ha! There was lots of moon jellyfish in the water aswel which was great fun as they are harmless and you can throw them at each other. We then did a short glass bottom boat ride where we learnt lots of facts: the great barrier reef is 2300km long and its the largest living organism on earth etc. Also the water temp was 29oc!!!! Felt like a bath. We then hopped back on the boat and headed to Upolu Cay which is a tiny sand bar in the middle of the reef. It was beautiful and quite cool that we were the only boat there.

After abit of bathing at the cay we headed to our 2nd snorkell site just off the cay. We jumped in the water and literally after a minute a 3 metre manta ray passed right underneath us and i managed to swim with it for a short while. It was the best thing i have ever seen in my life, it was so graceful and big you cant comprehend. And its so rare to see one which made it special. After that snorkell it was hometime. it was an a mazing day out which i would recommend to anyone as it is a wonder of the world and what made it better that it was all free :) .

Our last 2 days in Cairns we didnt really get up to much as we had spent so much in Oz already. We went to the cinema one night to watch Invictus and the other we watched Murray in the aussie open final. So that was it for us in Australia :( which we were both very sad about as it was our favourite country so far and we are already counting down until we get to go back someday.