Hey, It is our last day in Cairns today before we head off to Uluru/ Ayers Rock. It is officially the start of winter here today which is very strange because it is still baking hot and we have spent most of the day sunbathing by the pool. We have had a really good time in Cairns. The first day we didn't do much apart from sunbathing and shopping. Bought the most gorgeous little skirt which is quite short - Caroline laughed when i questioned whether I was too old for it so I hope it is ok!! On our second day in Cairns we went on a boat trip to the reef. The weather was beautiful so there was a nice amount of sunbathing on deck on the way out. We sailed out to Michaelmas Cay which was our base for the day. It was a beautiful sand island with the most gorgeous colour water I have ever seen. Our first adventure for the day was a introductory dive. We got all suited and booted and arrived on the beach for our lesson. The lesson was very short and just involved proving you could use the equipment under water, equalize your ears and taking the regulator out of your mouth under water and putting it back in. Easy stuff - apart from they forgot to turn my oxygen on so I thought I was going to die!! Then we went off on a very quick swim underwater to see if we liked it and away we went. I was really enjoying the diving at first and looking at the reef and the fish. Then we had to go up to the surface for someone else to sort out their mask and then it all started to go a bit wrong. When we went down again I couldn;t get my ears to equalize and then I started to panic. I think I needed more time to get used to diving because even though i loved being under the water I wasn't quite ready to spent 30 minutes straight underwater. That fear coupled with the fact that the instructor shouted at me for going back up to the surface made me decide to abandon the dive. Was quite gutted because I really wanted to do it but I suppose you never know how you are going to react until you try something. Was feeling a bit sorry for myself but then I went snorkelling and it was really amazing and i saw loads of the reef and some amazing fish so that made up for it. Though Caroline did see a Nemo on her dive so I was very jealous! After that we went on a semi submersible boat trip. It was really fun as we went sitting in a little part of the boat that was under water and there were just big windows at either side of us and you could see really clearly. It was really cool to see the reef a bit further out and there was a marine biologist on board who told us all about the reef and about the different things we saw. We saw a few turtles too and they were massive so that was cool. After that we went snorkelling again which was fun. Although Caroline got bitten by a fish twice so think she wasn't too keen on it! Aparently they are called White Damsels and are the most territorial fish on the reef. The next day we had another early start as we went off to Cape Tribulation which is the rain forest area north of Cairns. The drive there was beautiful as it was all along a coastal road and the views were stunning - it definitely gave the great Ocean Road in Melbourne a run for its money! Our first stop was a boat trip along the Daintree river which was great because it was a crocodile cruise and we saw 3 crocs. They kept telling us stories about people being eaten by Crocs which was a bit scary but we were perfectly safe in our boat - i definitely wasn't tempted for a dip! We saw two tiny baby crocs and a full size one which was sunbathing at the side of the river so that was cool. After that we drove for a bit more, the drive was completely differnet after that as we were driving along rainforest so it was equally stunning. We then went for a rainforest walk which was really interesting as the guide told us all about the different plants - though i kept gettting bitten which was a bit annoying! After lunch we stopped at Mosmans Gorge which was a lovely (and croc free) Gorge where we had a nice little paddle! Though it was very cold so having my feet in was about all I managed. On the way back to Cairns we had a quick stop off at Port Douglas which was a lovely little town and it had a gorgeous beach. Although we had two busy days in a row we had to experience the Cairns night life last night! We met up with the girls that we met in Surfers and who we have met up with several times since. We had a good night, although slightly drunken as normal but it was good to see them. The place we were in was called the Woolshed and was appropriately given the name a real meat market but we had a good dance so it was very fun! Feeling a bit hungover today so have had a nice relaxing day by the pool. All in all though Cairns has definitely been great fun xxx