Category Archives: Travel

Day Four – Cairns – Living the Rainforest Dream

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I woke up at hourly intervals all the night before and that combined with a hangover wasn’t well welcomed by an early morning start but the others seemed to be having a tougher time than I so I sucked it up and got ready.

I went down to meet my group to go to the Uncle Brian’s tablelands tour. We hopped onto the bus and got going with a rather enthusiastic guide. It was nice because it got everyone involved and introduced. We played games, sang songs and it was pretty fun making me feel like a child again.

This whole day I was barefooted, ‘going native’ as they say and it was so nice. Donna turned to me and said she could feel the electricity from the earth through her feet and I kind of know what she means. There’s a certain warmth you feel from feeling bare feet on bare ground.

The first place we went was a river with boulders in it where we jumped off the rocks into the river it was so lovely and so natural. After that we went to a natural rock slide in Josephine Falls where we were able to climb up and slide down the rocks. Next we went to lunch which was pretty nice lasagne.

After lunch we headed to Millaa Millaa Falls which is the place where they filmed Peter Andre’s mysterious girl video so we all had a go doing the famous Peter Andre hair flick. This was pretty hilarious because our guide, Sid, a really cute, slightly overweight, middle-aged guy properly briefed us on how to flick our hair.

After capturing the perfect hair flick picture we swam in the falls for a bit before heading on to see the curtain fig tree. It’s a pretty cool tree which plants it’s seed in another tree then as it’s vines grow around the other tree it pushes it over and kills it before moving onto another tree creating a curtain effect with its vines.

After the fig tree we headed to a section of the river popular with platypuses. I’d been there before and not seen one so it was pretty exciting when we saw one pop it’s head out of the water a few times. After this the day was coming to an end and we headed home. We stopped at a hostel for toilet breaks and such. It had a really nice garden where we all played table tennis and it was so nice to see the bus all getting on so well. I felt that if we spent more time together it would have been really nice. This has got me pretty excited for the kiwi experience which involves a lot of bus journeys with the same people.

After this I came upstairs to drink with the boys again. There were so many people in the room and also a lot of goon. The room has now been christened the goon room and ha become famous. Hannah from England and Donna from Mexico, two girls from the trip today joined us and we had pre drinks. As soon as we went downstairs into the club I lost Hannah. About 15mins later after looking for her I saw her come onto the stage as the pole dancing competition starts. She had the support of the whole goon room behind her and of course she won the show giving her 50 dollars on her car tab. The rest of the night was pretty blurry but I can safely say it was fun. We move onto the Woolshed and spent the rest of the night dancing away on the tables. It’s days like today that I know I’m not wasting my life away.

Day Three – Cairns – Diving the Great Barrier Reef and Jelly Wrestling Girls

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Woke up at 6.30 this morning for an early start to my diving. It wasn’t too bad because everyone else in the room had to be up at 7 anyway. I went downstairs and met the Tusa team to take us diving. I met two nice guys from Cardiff, Jack and Andrew, on the bus so got chatting proving a good start already.

The boat was pretty massive and I was surprised at the number of people on it and how tightly the operation was run. I can kind of see why they are able to charge such high costs. Once on the boat I helped myself to breakfast and filled out the forms signing my life away.

So after a quick briefing I was buddied up with two guys one Swedish, Nick and the other Danish, Chris. I was a bit panicky at first because of the nerves of not diving for a while and the sea sickness got to me. I was hoping for a comforting buddy who would calm me down so I wasn’t too sure how I felt about being paired with two young guys. However, they were so nice, constantly checking my gear, staying close by and seeing if I was alright. It really calmed me down and I didn’t struggle at all. I even stayed down till the last group cause I was economical on air, very unusual for me. I think the Great Barrier Reef is a pretty good place to dive if you’re feeling nervous or a first timer because it’s so shallow so there’s very little to worry about.

The dives were good, a little trouble with buoyancy and my mask but by the third dive I’d cracked it. Unfortunately visibility wasn’t great and we didn’t see anything too exciting but it was fun and I’m definitely glad that I can say I’ve done the Great Barrier Reef in my life especially when it’s under such threat.

I spent the boat journey back chatting to Jack. It was so nice to talk to someone about things rather than the same old questions of where you’re from and where you’re going to. It seems funny that these are the first questions we ask people when we meet them. And it’s funny that everyone has answers. It’d be nice to meet someone with no answer to either of those questions and instead we might ask them what their opinion is on something.

When I got back to the hostel I showered, chatted to Rob for a bit and also the new roommate, Robin from Hannover. I then went down to dinner to meet the guys from my dive trip and spent a few hours chatting to them over a few drinks.

Owain fond a few friends to drink in our room including Robin, Rob and another new roommate named ‘T’ from Denmark, so I joined them for a bit making me one of the lads for the night as no other girls were out. It was a good night if not a bit laddy complete with jelly wrestling girls. Can’t say it’s something I’ve seen before or want to see again but it was entertaining to say the least and it was nice to be out.

Day Two – Osaka to Cairns – Hello, Goodbye Osaka

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The flight from Osaka was a glorious one. Three seats to myself, I made a bed and slept the whole way except when I was woken to be told that I had pre-paid for my food (I hadn’t) and was given one of the best airline meals to date complete with movenpick ice cream.

I arrived in Cairns bright and early at 5am and by 6am I was out in the terminal. The free airport shuttle didn’t start till 8am and the cheapskate in me decided to wait in the terminal for 2 hours. This seemed like a good opportunity to use the free airport showers to freshen up after two days of travelling in the same clothes. Only problem was there was no light in there and I conveniently forgot to put batteries in my head torch so with the use of an iPhone flashlight pointed to the ceiling I took an extremely nerve wracking shower.

Fresh from my shower it was now 7.45am so I sauntered outside only to be hit by tropical heat undoing all of the work I had just done in the shower. I lay down in the shade to await my shuttle bus.

So as I waited for 45mins for my bus I did my nails. I then got the the feeling a bus wasn’t going to come. So I walked over to domestics and surprise surprise a bus was there about to leave so I hopped on and took a short ride to my hostel. I was far too early to check in so I left my bag there and headed out. I started with some early morning shopping getting some apples from Cole’s and a beach towel from k-mart. From there I headed to the lagoon, lathered myself in sunscreen and checked out the famous lagoon Cairns has to offer. I spent the morning swimming and soaking up the rays before heading to the gallery cafe for some lunch. I chose the gallery because it was a place I had been to with my brother and his wife a few years back. It’s a little out of my price range but 3 days later and I still haven’t slept in a proper bed or had a proper meal so I thought I should treat myself.

By this point in the day I am starting flag and feel nauseous again so I headed to the hostel to check in. I made my bed, showered, re-sorted my stuff and got my head in order. There was only one other person in my dorm when I arrive and I only know this because his stuff was there. Instead of waiting around for more people to arrive, I decided to head down stairs and book a scuba diving day trip on the Great Barrier Reef. It’s expensive and I felt reluctant paying out but sometimes adventures cost. Actually, most of the time. Anyway I figured it would be a good way to meet people. After this I went back upstairs for another lay down before dinner.

I’d only lain on my bed for a couple of mins when the occupier of the bed came in, Owain, a rugby player from Wales spoke to him for a bit before another person arrived; a very excitable girl from Cambridge named Tasha. We got speaking and decided to go down to dinner together. Owain joined us after and introduced us to his friends Craig and Todd.

After a good steak we went upstairs and played ring of fire joined by three other girls the guys knew. I left pretty early because I decided to get an early one as I had to be up the next morning for diving.
It’s been a long day but a great start to my stay in Cairns.

Day One – London to Helsinki to Osaka – Only the Beginning

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They say the journey begins in the planning. So I should probably give you a little foreword to my trip. I’m going on this trip to Australia and New Zealand primarily to spend Christmas with my family in Australia and well New Zealand is just for a bit of an adventure!

The lead up to this trip has been a bit hectic as I haven’t really planned anything and for me this is a huge deal. I like to make an itinerary for most trips always knowing exactly where I’m going but the idea with this trip is just to be a little freer and to let the adventure take me. Despite wanting to be more relaxed about this trip I think that possibly the stress just got to me and it’s funny what stress can do to our bodies.

I slept terribly the night before the trip and woke up feeling nauseous, nervous an uneasy. I’m not sure what but there’s something about this trip which feels different to every other trip I’ve undergone. After saying a heartwarming goodbye to my mum, I boarded my flight to Helsinki and it was possibly one of the best flights I’ve ever had. I slept the whole duration and when I woke up I had a pleasant conversation with a lady who’s dad was a civil engineer and had grown up in the Caribbean. I felt like I was looking into a mirror of the future.

After a very short stopover in Helsinki I then caught my plane to Osaka, Japan. I cannot say the same for this flight as the one previous. Not only was the food inedible but I really struggled to sleep and awoke myself just in time to grab a sick bag. The lady next to me was not best pleased.

The Osaka airport is out on an island in the middle of the sea and the turbulence got the best of me. However, coming in on the plane and seeing the long highway leading only from the floating airport to the mainland reminded me so much of the road my brother had wished he could build between Grand Turk and Reading School to see his brothers. Despite holding my head between my legs I couldn’t help but smile.