Hello again!
Hope that you're all really well, just thought I'd quickly update you on the rest of my time in Australia (seeing as my trip in New Zealand is nearly coming to an end!).
So…with a heavy heart I left Byron Bay and boarded a Greyhound destined for Brisbane airport. This was about a week after the floods and apparently many of the places directly above Brisbane were still fairly hard to reach. I was also running out of time so I decided to fly straight to Airlie Beach, launching point for the WhitSunday Islands. The devastation of the flooding could still be seen as we drove through Brisbane city centre, the river was still gushing with brown silty water and a HUGE mound of debris was being searched through (with a crane) for people's belongings. We also drove through a tunnel which, as the driver informed us, up until a few days previously, had been full to the ceiling with flood water.
Airlie Beach is basically one little strip of bars, sailing booking agencies and fast food places with a very pretty Laguna to splash around in on the seafront. I stayed in a really cool backpackers a little way out which screened movies outside in the evenings so I had a few chilled nights there. You can't go to Airlie without testing the nightlife though so a Swiss girl 'Susanne' and I tried it one night, we ended up in 'Mama Africa's'; basically Fibbers with zebra print on the walls, ha. The sailing trip of the WhitSundays was, without doubt, the highlight of my time there. Absolutely beautiful and even though it briefly rained whilst on Whitehaven beach (one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, 99% Silicone sand!) and the tide was in I could still completely understand why the beach is held in such high acclaim. I snorkelled for the first time during this trip (wearing a very attractive all-in-one stinger suit may I add) and it took me a little while to get used to the whole 'not breathing through nose just mouth' idea but once I did I loved it! It was only on fringing reef but I had so many tropical fish swimming right in front of my face; I couldn't stop smiling through my snorkel!
After Airlie I made my way to Townsville to catch a ferry to Magnetic Island where I spent the following two nights. On the ferry journey over I decided to sit on the top deck to combat the heat, wrong move! It was really choppy and everyone up top had to hold onto the rails whilst being thrown around and splashed with huge sprays of sea water, ha. My beloved earplugs fell out of my bag and were washed overboard, nooooooo. I've only just got round to buying replacements even though they are essentials for dorm-living! The island is very pretty indeed; green and mountainous with lots of deserted sandy coves. I stayed at Base and met a group of very loud, very fun Irish girls whilst collecting our free welcome drinks on the first night. The island is very quiet and there's nowhere to really go out so we'd just stay at our hostel (it overlooked the beach, beautiful views at breakfast time!) and have a little dance, ha. On the second day we went to a Koala Sanctuary and yes, tourist in Australia, I held a lovely cuddly Koala! He was loads heavier than I expected and didn't smell too pretty but I'm glad I did it, very cute indeed. I'm most proud of the my small crocodile and snake holding abilities though, Matt would've died when that snake was passed around, ha.
Cairns was next on the agenda, again as expected very touristy but I had absolutely perfect weather and another beautiful beachfront lagoon to enjoy so I wasn't complaining! I spent Australia day snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef which was an amazing experience. Annoyingly my camera decided to stop working at this point so I only have a few pictures of the grainy underwater disposables which I took, a shame really as some of the beach banks we were snorkelling around were nothing short of perfection! I saw some beautiful fish darting in and out of the reef and a few others saw a sea turtle. Apparently it's not uncommon for the crew to see small sharks when snorkelling/diving, they were like, "Don't worry if you see one, happens all the time, they won't hurt you." Eek. Even though I was exhausted after a day on the reef, a couple of girls from my dorm and I went into town in the evening, it was Australia Day after all. We went to Gilligan's (basically felt like an international Liquid, one of those things you have to do whilst in Cairns though). We spent the following night in the Woolshed after another 'just one drink' situation and had a much better time, really fun. Not so fun for me in the morning though as I had to fly to New Zealand that day. I arrived into a FREEZING (about 15/16 degrees -I know, this is not cold but after 36 degree and ridiculous humidity you can understand my problem) Christchurch evening.
Will update on my time in the beautiful south island asap.
Loads of love to all of you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx