So after a pretty painless couple of flights we arrive in Cairns on schedule at lunch time. Now immigration is never one of my favourite parts of arriving in a new country as even though I know I am doing nothing wrong the on the spot questions always make me feel like a criminal. Imagine then my face when we get to the immigration desk and there is a lady waiting for us in order to "ask us a few questions" I could feel my blood pressure and stress levels rising by the second! We were taken aside and quizzed about where we had been, where we intended going in Australia, how long we were in the country for and the all important question how much money did we have! Having satisfactorily answered her quiz we were allowed to pass through to customs where having nothing to declare we passed through quickly. We had arranged to stay at a backpackers for our first night in Cairns before collecting our new campervan the following day. We booked into JJ's Backpackers where for ten quid you got a room, airport pickup, breakfast, dinner and a shuttle in and out of town as often as you wanted! It was out of sheer morbid curiosity that we booked it in the first place but as promised the minibus was waiting for us outside the airport. Our room in the hostel was fine, if anything a reminder of why we preferred campervans to hostels but it would do just fine and the bonus was that it had air conditioning. I cannot believe I have written this much about arriving in Australia and I have not yet mentioned that it is 30° and unbelievably humid making it feel so much hotter! It is a complete shock to the system and I fear we are going to be pretty uncomfortable for the next few days until our bodies adapt to this new found heat. We dump our backpacks in the room and head for the 2km esplanade which will take us from the hostel, along the beach front to the town centre. We had imagined that the Cairns beach would be the white sand and turquoise blue ocean you come to expect from Australia so we were very surprised to be greeted by brown sea water and soggy mud flats where the sand is supposed to be! We wander along the path discussing how surprised we are at the beach when we stumble upon a sign warning us not to go onto the beach or swim in the sea as there are salt water crocodiles living there. Even more surprising was that there was no barrier or fence protecting the path from the beach and I am pretty sure the crocodiles don't abide by any sign telling them not to come onto the path as there are human beings walking there! With so sign of crocodiles and plenty of people looking a lot tastier than us we continued with the walk to the town. At the end of the esplanade there was a an outdoor swimming pool with lots of people sunning themselves on the surrounding grass as an alternative to the beach. It was really strange to see lots of people in bikinis and speedo's all passed out on a grassy flat in the middle of the town! We had a walk around the town and got some information from the visitors centre about what there was to do in Cairns and the surrounding rainforests and great barrier reef. Armed with leaflets and a big bottle of water we headed back to the beach front for a spot of reading and some crocodile spotting. Whilst we didn't see any crocodiles it was very amusing watching one clueless tourist attempt to trawl through the knee deep sinking mud and attempt to enter the water! There were many gasps from the side as he entered the water only to get completely bogged down in the thick mud and have to instantly try to free himself before he sank even further into the bog. Whilst I am sure he would not have entered had he known he was bait for the local crocs but it would have been a great video for the blog had one come to shore to check him out! Eventually with the worst of the heat coming out of the sun it was time to wander back to the hostel to get showered before dinner. The free feed was courtesy of a restaurant called the woolshed who were also kind enough to send out a free shuttle bus to collect anyone wanting their dinner. The voucher entitled you to a free pasta or rice dish or an upgrade to something more substantial for a very reasonable fee. The food was really good and despite our reservations about booking this hostel as you get nothing for nothing in this world so far we had been pleasantly surprised by our choice. After dinner we had a walk around the town to check our the nightlife in Cairns. We were pretty disappointed to find that it was mainly backpackers pubs and before you say it I know that's what we are but past experience tells me that backpacker drinking establishments tend to have dirty glasses, disgusting cheap wines and almost always smell like sick and we wont even go into the condition of the toilets as some of you may be eating! We had a bit of time to kill before the shuttle back to the hostel was due to arrive so we had one drink in a bar before the 4am start and the extra 3hours we had to add on after our flight was starting to catch up with us so we headed back to the hostel for some much needed zzzzzzz!The next morning we were collecting our new campervan and were both very much looking forward to it. We were unable to get the same van as we had in New Zealand as they don't make the tiny Toyota vans with a toilet here so we had to upgrade to a slightly bigger van so that we had a toilet and the big plus was that it also had air conditioning which having had one day here was really a huge bonus as the humidity even at night is stifling. The queue in the rental shop was horrendous and we had to wait over an hour to be seen but eventually after watching the introductory DVD we were introduced to our new home and it was HUGE! I was expecting something the size of a transit van but this beast was even longer than that. It is a decommissioned Maui (the posh company) so it has all the nice fittings, proper cupboards, a large kitchen area with worktops and everything! We were both really chuffed if a little overwhelmed with how we were going to maneuver such a monster and to make matters worse having driven automatics for 6 months this baby was a manual so there were to be a few stalls before we were properly on our way. The first stop was the supermarket to get supplies as due to customs you are unable to bring in food from outside the country so we had given what leftovers we had from New Zealand away. $116 later and we had enough for 5 dinners including BBQ supplies and hopefully all the basics we needed. By this time we were just desperate to get to a campsite, unpack our things and get properly moved in. The campsite was really nice and we just spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out at the swimming pool before having our first BBQ dinner which was delicious and was definitely the first of many.We discovered over the course of the previous evening that we had forgotten to get some bits and pieces and we also had to go to a diving office in Cairns to collect our qualification cards that had been forwarded on from Fiji. One of the things on our wish list of things to do was diving on the great barrier reef. We had looked at some of the literature from a number of different companies but with so many to choose from and everyone offering something different we were struggling to decide. When we got the diving office the girls who work there were all certified divers and were kind enough to recommend some of the better tours and we eventually chose to dive with a company called Ocean Free on a boat called Ocean Freedom. With our choice made and our places booked for the following day we spent the rest of the afternoon in a large air-conditioned shopping mall before heading back to camp for a well deserved dip in the pool.It was a very early start the next morning as we had to report to the marina at 7.30am for an 8am sailing. As per usual we were running late and after standing in wrong queue to check in for 15 minutes we boarded the boat just in time. The boat was immaculate with a capacity to carry over 60 passengers today it only had 40 so it was nice and spacious with lots of sun decks but also plenty of shady spots to cool off. It took about an hour or so to reach our first destination a small sand island in the middle of the open ocean miles from land called Upolu Cay. It is from here that a glass bottom boat takes you across to the cay giving us our first glimpse of the great barrier reef. As well as the ride in the boat we were also given a talk about the different types of coral and a bit about the underwater ecosystem and how it survives. Once at the cay we are then able to snorkel back out to the cruiser over some of the great barrier reef. This was our first glimpse of what we had come all this way to see and having learned to dive in Fiji it certainly had a lot to live up to. Having spoken to lots of people who had previously dived on the barrier reef and felt disappointed by it so we were keen to see what our opinion would be. On initial inspection all the coral looked amazing whilst it was no better than Fiji it was certainly no worse so we happily had about 40 minutes snorkeling trying in vain to catch a glimpse of a turtle. After the snorkeling at the cay it was maybe another twenty minute boat ride to the first dive location called the Wonder wall. It had been a couple of months since we had done our last dive in Fiji however it all came flooding back and after getting all our equipment on we were ready to go and explore the reef. One of the reasons for choosing to dive with this particular company was that you had a guide ie someone to take you around the reef and show you any points of interest. We prefer this kind of dive as you get to see all the good stuff without having to worry about navigation or maybe getting lost plus you know the boat isn't going to up anchor and leave without you! The dive itself was great the colorful corals were amazing and much easier to see than when we had been snorkeling. Whilst there maybe were not as many fish as in Fiji it didn't really matter as the coral reef was beautiful and I suppose that is what you are there to see! We had about 40 minutes and without realizing we had swam right around the wall and were back at the boat. The whole experience was very relaxed and compared to previous dives I was much more comfortable and really enjoyed myself and as usual Michael was the perfect dive buddy following me around wherever I wanted to look! When we surfaced we had lunch which was a delicious buffet of cold meats, seafood and breads and we had worked up quite a hunger so we didn't need an invitation to tuck in. After lunch it was time for our second dive to an area of the reef called "the jaws of death" and we never really found out how it got its name! This time rather than enter the water off the back of the cruiser we were taken in a small speed boat to the dive site. It was my least favourite type of entry as you have to fall off the side of the boat holding onto all your gear whilst making sure you don't knock yourself out on the side of the boat. Despite the massive weight of all the gear we made it into the water ok and were soon descending into the jaws of death. This was to be a drift dive where the current should drift us along the reef for us to surface back at the main boat. Again the dive didn't disappoint, much of the same coral and fish as with the first dive with the addition of a reef shark, some stingrays, the biggest cod we had ever seen and a few clown fish who are so friendly they actually let you tickle their tummies! Unfortunately we had been unable to see any turtles and that had been something we were hoping to come across however it obviously wasn't meant to be and before we knew it another 40 minutes had passed and we were back at the boat. Once back aboard it was a platter of fresh fruit before getting everyone back on board to head back to the harbour. We were just about to leave when Michael suddenly spotted on the surface of the water a turtle who had come to the surface to say goodbye. I couldn't believe it and we were both so happy to have at least seen one on the surface before we had to leave. He did a few tricks for us before disappearing back under the water leaving two very satisfied customers! The trip back to the harbour was very relaxing and the cheese, biscuits and then assorted cakes were the perfect end to a lovely day trip on the Great Barrier Reef!