Cairns

Ahhh, tropical Cairns!

Its a little embarrassing, no, scratch that, extremely embarrassing, how little I know about Australia. I have heard of the Great Barrier Reef, but I never knew how huge it was... And I have to admit that the reason I even wanted to go to Cairns was because that was where I thought the Great Barrier Reef was. Oops! It's not the only place that's near the reefs, so we didn't have to go so far up north. Although it wasn't a big deal that we did, the money-conscious side of me would've preferred we didn't have to pay so much in transportation, especially in airfare.

Our first night was brutal. Actually, I was fine, but the princesses I was with did not enjoy sleeping in an airport. The blame was not fully on me at this point because we we're going broke when booking everything a week before, just fyi. Ever since my first time studying abroad in England, I can fall asleep anywhere. I have yet to find the bad in this situation, other than some mornings waking up with back pains and realizing that my body is older than I thought.

We woke up around 6 am and took a shuttle to our hostel, Corona Backpackers. This hostel was top notch. After being in Manly, though, anything would have been better, except when I was in Pheonix Hostel in London... *shudders*

After checking in, we decided to walk around, and I don't know if it was the heat, or if we were too damn tired. This was the first time I've ever had a two week break in the middle of a semester, and honestly, at this point, I needed a vacation from this vacation.

We booked two tours for the week. I don't think I have ever even been on a tour... There tours were enjoyable and I highly recommend them when you are short on time.
Endless breathtaking scenes and exciting first time experiences would prove to be worth the 7 am mornings and the $250ish I had to pay.

Since I have become extremely lazy, I will let lists and pictures tell you about these tours.

Cape Tribulation Tour consisted of:
- an awesome tour guide
- Mossman Gorge w/ local tea (Daintree tea), coffee and Tim Tams
- Daintree River Crossing
- Alexander Range Lookout
- Maardja/Jindalba Boardwalk
- lunch at Cape Tribulation Main Beach
- Daintree Ice Cream Company
- Daintree River Crocodile/Wildlife Cruise
- driving tour of Port Douglas
- Rex Range Lookout

 

 

 

   

 

  

Diving Tour consisted of snorkeling and scuba diving. Both of which were my first time, and I got to do it at both reef locations. I could live without snorkeling, but boy did I love scuba diving. I kneeled at the bottom of the reef, touched a sea cucumber and every other sea plant I could, and saw a sea turtle and almost got bitten by it.

 

 

 

 

On our free days, we walked through the city, went shopping, which Dennis despised Rachel, Justine, and me for, and relaxed. Each night consisted of getting full off $8 steak, which we ordered everyday because of how cheap it was!, sleeping early, and recalling the stinky shoe story of the day (obviously an inside joke that Dennis would probably kill me if I kept telling other people haha). And we did a lot of nothing.

(Photo by Rachel.)

On our last night we were across the street to meet the other students on holiday at Gilligan's. As you would imagine, being with the SAME people, EVERY second, of EVERY day for TWO weeks, can get annoying. But after getting passed the tense situtations, the night turned out to be pretty good. This crowd was... different, but nonetheless, it was entertaining. Chris Kirkpatrick look-a-like was pulling up his shirt and dancing on me, tried to put in head in his shirt, and at one point told me to lick his nippleIf only we weren't all at the point of choking each other before we got there. I imagine as an outsider reading this, you would probably think that this guy was a creep. On the contrary, he was very entertaining. Haha.

The next morning we had a 6 am flight, so it would make sense to to be there around 2 hours before and wake up an hour before to get ready. Daylight Savings made us push back an hour and we waited outside for our shuttle at 4:30 pm and started to panic when it was late... Silly us, Queensland doesn't follow Daylight Savings! We were outside at 3:30 am and had another hour. -_- Let's just say the shuttle service was a bit angry at me for bothering them in the middle of the night... Oh man, the things you learn. Haha.

Cairns was very different from the other two. Its so much smaller and I was not expecting the tropical climate. Coming from New England and hating humidity, I was surprised at how much I actually liked it. This spring break trip was worth the money and the stress in planning.


Here's to new experiences, good friends, and unforgettable memories!