Hi everyone Well we made it to Cairns in one piece after our final greyhound overnight bus- but unfortunately we arrived at 6.35am and our hostal won't let us in until 2pm!! so after 11hours on a bus we were set to wander the streets AGAIN!!! Not having much luck the last few days! We have run out of steam at the moment so i thought i would plonk myself in an internet cafe and tell you about my Whitsundays trip! We got picked up early and taken to a very flash jet boat in the harbour- we were originally in a tour group of 12 but ended up with around 50 as they joined two boat groups together- so it was fairly busy and unfortunately they didn't have a deck to chill out on so we had to spend the first couple of hours inside with no views of the islands ( i was too short to see out of the windows!!). Eventually Claire and i found a nice spot on the back of the boat ( avoiding sea sickness- but we burnt in the process! oops) where we could see the islands and the sea and it was lush! We were dropped off at this tiny beach to take a bush walk to a look out where we looked over the most stunning scenery i have seen so far- if you are on the East coast you have to go there- amazing. Claire has awesome pictures i will try and get up on here to show you- turquoise water with pure white sands in this amazing swirly patterns surrounded by the lush islands!! Then we got dropped off on Whitehaven beach which was also like a tropical paradise and we got to sunbathe and chill out for an hour or so there before having a yummy lunch back on board. After lunch Claire and i had a private scuba diving session down by the reef. I'm not usually a scaredy cat but i have to admit i was actually pretty nervous about the dive- all the breathing and water pressure sounded a bit scary. We had a lovely instructor who took us round the reef- which was absolutely stunning and apparantly the best visibility he had seen, but to be really honest i didn't really relax the whole time because i was still pretty freaked out about the breathing, which made me feel almost panicked for breath because its quite shallow and tight and i seemed to sink a lot under the weight of my tank so i was a bit paranoid about shredding my legs and arms on the reef. Really glad i did it, but not sure i'll be running to dive again- think snorkeling is more my bag! But it was a realyl great day- although i like the idea of lazing on the islands a bit more or on the front of a nice yacht! ha ha . Next time!! So we have a few days in Cairns now, we're trying to decide about heading North to Cape tribulation or Port Douglas but we have done a lot of bush walks and national parks recently, so not sure we want to spend out on more trips like those when we have South East Asia and its jungles to explore......we'll see! Will keep you informed!! tasha x