Cairns

Hello!

We have had an absolutely AMAZING time in Cairns, I think its a beautiful place! Our hostel was round the corner from the sea front and all the locals seemed super friendly.

I can’t believe how much we squished in to two days! On day one, we were up at 6:30am and headed of to the harbour for our boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We saw the sunrise over the mountains on our way there which made the early morning start a lot more bearable!

We booked the trip with Cairns Dive Centre and it really was fantastic. The staff were great, very jokey and fun. We were on the boat for about two hours before we got to our first snorkelling spot called the fish bowl! We put on some very not so flattering sting suits and headed into the 24 degrees water...which you would think would feel a lot warmer than it did!

We were on a mission to find Nemo and it didn't take long! He was sneaking around in the coral and we got pretty close!

We saw lots of rainbow fish which are so bright and big, lots of star fish, a few Dory’s and some tiny little electric blue fish !

After being in the water for about an hour, we were called back to our boat for lunch. We were ready for something to eat as snorkelling out there can be hard work as obviously you cannot stand on the reef and the water around the reef was VERY deep, so once you had started swimming you can’t really stop! The food was great, chicken curry and bread rolls, we even got some cake!! 

After lunch we headed of to the second snorkelling spot which I can’t remember the name of, this is where Nick saw a reef shark and Flute fish!  It was incredible, the world under the sea is fascinating! I have no idea how many different species we would have seen, it was so fun!

On the way back to Cairns we stopped of at Fitzroy Island which reminded me a lot of the islands we stayed on in Fiji! And then headed back to land. The sea wasn't too rough thankfully but apparently the sea can be quite rocky around the Coral so it is a good idea to take lots of sea sickness tablets first!

The next day, we had a little lie in! We were picked up at 10am and taken to the Sky Rail to start the 5 mile journey through the Rainforest to Kuranda! The Gondala ride was awesome, there was just a sea of green underneath us and we had two stop ofs where we could do short jungle walks and admire fantastic views over the rainforest and onto the Baron Falls.

Kuranda is an awesome little village, right in the middle of the rainforest! Apparently a lot of hippies live  there which is pretty evident for the quirky shops and fashion up there. We went to the Koala Gardens, which was an awesome experience. We fed and stroked the Kangaroos and baby Joeys for about an hour. They all had their own little personality’s some were really shy while others couldn't get close enough!

  

After that we held a Koala!! He was a male called Henry, weighing 8KG and he STANK!! Super cute though and very soft! You can’t hold them for very long but it was nice to have even a short cuddle! You get a complimentary photo as a souvenir as well and I would definitely recommend doing it if you ever get the chance, they are just so cuddly!

   

When we had finished in the Gardens we had an hour to chill out in Kuranda before heading back home on the 200 year old Scenic Railway. So we went to a Gem and Fossil stone museum, which was SO COOL! For those of you who don’t know me I am a little bit obsessed with Gems and Crystals so this was awesome! It was pretty cheap to get i,n just a donation and then I obviously brought a few souvenirs!

  

The Scenic Railway home was very good, and very informative! A lady is talking the whole way about how it was made , how long it took and how many men died in the process, who were then apparently buried under the railway lines! Spooky! We got some awesome photos, the views there are spectacular and we stopped of at a few points to get a better look.

On that evening we went out for a Pizza and then treated ourselves to a VERY LARGE chocolate ice cream, it was our last night in Australia so we thought we would go all out!

We are in the airport now, waiting to board our flight to Singapore! 

Sarah xxx