15th - 24th August - Cairns, Kurunda, Great Barrier Reef trip and Cape Tribulation

So we finally made it to Oz, it still hasn't sunken in. We had a great time in Singapore Changi Airport before boarding plane bound for Oz. When we arrived in Cairns we checked into our hostel called Gilligans which was fab, its known as the ritz of hostels. It has 6 bed dorms but they are modern and have a ensuite, and a huge balcony. Each floor has a huge kitchen and tv room with loads of computers, theres a gym, a swimming pool, pool bar, nightclub, pizzeria, arcades, etc etc. It was great there and we all soon nickname dit the Big Brother house, more why later. The place was huge with over 400 rooms.

Anyway we just got our bearings that first day and got to know our room mates, 2 irish girls elaine and ann-marie and 2 italian lads called Paulo and Christian, who could speak little english, more on that later too!

The next day Si bumped into Graeme Leahey who he used to play rugby with at home. Graeme was also staying at Gilliagans with his girlfriend Kelly and they were also staying on the same floor as us. We decided to meet up that night at Gilligans nightclub for a few drinks, we had a great night, Kelly is a scream. We got there in time for Power Hour where you pay $10 and you drink as much as you like in an hour.

Kelly and Graeme are also working and travelling in Oz for a year. They had been in Sydney for 6 weeks before coming to Cairns as Kelly's sister Laura and her friend Louise were joining them in a few days.

We eventually stumbled back to Gilligans after going to a few more clubs after power hour and this was where we met all the irish girls and lads that have become good friends. Rowan one of the irish lads carries a guitar with him everywhere so we went up to the kitchen to carry on drinking (they were all staying on the same floor too) and have a sing song when we got moved on by the Mauri security guards so we went back outside to then be moved on by the police (the shame) so we all headed back upstairs to the irish girls room until 5.30am with the security guard!

We did have a good night but i wished we hadn't stayed out so late when my alarm went off the next morning for my pre-booked hair appointemtn to finally fix my hair!

That night we all stayed in as Kelly and Graeme had to be up early to collect Laura and Louise up from the airport and we had a boat trip to the Barrier Reef booked. The irish all went out thought, although thats nothing new, they ended up doing 11 nights out straight! They are all mental!

The next day we boarded the boat Passions of Paradise and went to Michealmas Cay on the Great Barrier Reef. I went snorkelling and Simon did 2 dives. The weather wasn't that good though so Si was abit disappointed as he only had 2metre visibility on his first dive. It was a good trip but it wasn't as amazing as i was expecting, it certainly didn't look like any of the postcards.

When we returned we met Laura and Lousie and then got ready for another big night out! As usual it started off in the kitchen with drinking games before we all headed out to PJ O'Briens for Coyote Ugly night! There was Si, me, Graeme, Kelly Laura, the irish girls and the irish lads Kevin and Rowan, and our Italian roommates Paulo and Christian.

We ended up calling Gilliagans the Big Brother House because none of us ever seemed to get out of there, we stayed in Cairns alot longer than we intended as it was just one big party with everyone running into each others rooms, none of us wanted to leave. It was great fun and we made some fantastic friends, luckily we are travelling the same way and should all get to Sydney around the same time.

The irish girls were fantastic, I'd lost my voice on the first night and it never came back and was rapidly getting worse. They are all nurses so they ended up prescribing me tablets to take which worked straight away...thanks again girls!

So back to Paulo and Christian, theywere hilarious. They had both come to Oz speaking no english. Paulo was rapidly picking it up, Christian on the other hand only knew the following words, "lets drink,!" "let's go,!" "Let's dance!" He was so entertaining despite the language barrier. I quickly nickname him the Tazmanian Devil as he used to rip through our room every 15mins through the night trying to get you to, "dance" or "drink" He spoke like that one from Police Academy who had the speech problem, can't remember his name!

Anyway time wittled away in the Big Brother house with us all occasionally going down to the man made lagoon and going the supermarket for food when Kelly and I decided we needed to get to see the area so we went on a day trip to Kurunda to see Baron Falls, we then booked a 3day 2night trip to Cape Tribulation to get us finally out of the big b house! The irish lads Kevin and Rowan came with us too.

We had amazing weather and stopped off to have a cruise along the Daintree Riverto spot Crocodiles followed by a boardwalk through the Daintree forest. This is where Si licked his first green ant's bottom, and yes it really does taste lick lemon sherbet!

When we got there we checked into PK's jungle Village and all headed to the beach. Cape Tribulation is where the rainforest meets the Barrier Reef so we spent the rest of the day and the next there, with nights playing cards and a having a bonfire on the beach with a singsong from Rowan and his trusty guitar. We also had a local man play dance music on his didgeridoo which was entertaining!

On the third day we spent the morning on the beach again before heading back to Cairns. On the way back we stopped at Alexander Range lookout, mossman gorge, port douglas and rex lookout where you could see the nearby island where steve irwin lost his life.

Port Douglas was lovely we all wished we could've stayed longer there, its the marbella of oz apparently Tom Hanks was there filming a new speilberg film, but unfortuantely we never spotted him!