Cairns

Our first impressions of Cairns was of utter dismay, the place was dead, we had heard about all this crazy backpacker scene in oz, but this place was so quiet it was unreal. It was possibly because we arrived on a sunday and early in the morning but that was not the case. Our first day was spent mostly sleeping, to recover from our all night flying, without a single film on the plane, very dissapointed!!

However in the evening we found where everyone had been hiding the one lively bar in the city called the Woolshed. It seemed that just about every backpacker in Cairns was there and it made for a good night. We met up with one of Robs friends and his travelling companions to drink into the wee hours, a very stupid idea for me seeing as we were diving the next day on what we didnt know at the time was the fastest and roughest boat ride ever. The highlights of the evening were the goldfish races and the first decent western meal we'd had for 5 wks, I ate steak!!

The following day we had to be up at 730 to go diving, i had a muzzy head but otherwise felt fine, but as soon as the boat got up to speed, the day took a turn for the worse. 4 times was my agonising tally of hurling up a technicolour rainbow before we reached the reef. I had puked so hard my stomach muscles were killing and i cudnt do the first dive, great, id just spent over $150 to throw up all day. I did manage to do one dive, which i guess made it worthwhile but it wasnt the most enjoyable dive, did see a huge moray eel though. The return journey held just one instance of yawning. The rest of the day was spent sleeping agian.

Our final day in Cairns involved sunning by the lagoon on the beachfront for a few hours followed by a trip to the cinema to see TMNT, its a bit kiddie but i enjoyed it. CGI is amazing though far better than that Toy Story stuff.