Hello from Australia!!!!

Yes i finally made it to Oz, cant you believe it?! i cant. Our flight was a long one, and we didnt get any time to sleep as we got kicked off the plain at 3am to catch a connecting flight at Darwin (which reminded me of being kicked off the bus at the side of the road at 3am, but at least this time peole spoke english!). The first thing we noticed about Cairns (apart from the several sniffer dogs at the airport, checking for food and shells and mud (which you cant bring into the country, they are really strict on it)) was the massive drop in temperature. Ok, i know if you are reading this in England then this is giong to sound strange (and probably a bit annoying) but we are finding it really cold here, to the point where we are shivering and wearing jumpers and complaining about the cold all the time. Yes it is 29C degrees, which i know in reality isnt cold, but compared to everyehwere i have been for the past 3 months, it is cold. I havent even sweated yet, and i only dont have my jeans on because everyone else is in shorts and i dont want to look like and idiot in my jeans and fleece jumper.

We didnt have anywhere to stay when we arrived, so we looked on teh map in the airport for somewhere to head to, then i saw a hostel called, 'Rosie's Hostel' so i said that we had to stay there. only to get there and find it had changed its name and was pretty minging, the dorms smelt of sweaty men, so we didnt stay there in the end, wsa very disappointed. now we are in a dorm that doesnt smell which makes a nice change! I spent the first day sleeping pretty much trying to get over the lack of sleep, then in the evening we went for a meal as all the hostels have deals with the local pubs, so we got a meal, pint and dessert for $10 (5 squids). we spent yestreday just wondering around cairns, and doing some planning about what we are going to do. We are thinking about hiring a camper van and doing a bit of a road trip further north and nto the outback a little bit. anyone got any advice? we also went to the lagoon, a man made, well, lagoon right on the sea front here, as you cant swim in the sea on account of the crocs that want to eat you. I have also been enjoying having cooking facilities, so i can mzke my own dinner and breakfast, soething i havent done for 3 months. will hopefully save some money too. It is muchos expensive here.

Today we went on a snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef, whcih was so so cool. i have been snorkelling lots before, but tis was definitly the best in terms of the beauty of the coral and the type and quantity of fish we saw, it was amazing. i saw pretty much teh cast of Finding Nemo, the turtle (a huge one, it swam slowly right underneath me, and i just swam following it for a while), clown fish (nemos!!!) and sharks. i forgot to mention i saw a blue 'Dorrie' fish (as in the movie) in Vietnam, so not doing too badly. will have to go and rent the film now!

throught my trip i have been slowly developing the international travellers accent, which seems to be something of a mix of australian, kiwi, and canadian. i am going up at the end of my sentences (ya know!!!) and adding 'eh' on the end of everything, and dropping my 't's' and turing them to 'd's', as well as saying 'no worries' a lot. oh dear. it is only going to get worse here.i tend to pick up peoples accents really easily. you reserve the right to make fun of me when i get home.

I have uploaded some pics of singapore. i realise i might look stupid in well, most of them, especially doing the 'peace' sign in the photos. this is because i have watched the chinese and korean tourists do this all over my travels so far, so it have become a bit of an ongoing joke. plus it beats just standing there.

Hope i havent just bored you all to death, is anyone still reading my blogs?!!!