Tag Archives: Cairns

Day Six – Cairns – Contemplation and Revelation

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Today was even lazier than the last. I woke up late then went down to the lagoon for a swim and a walk and then went out in the evening.

While I was at the lagoon I took a little time to sit on the sea front and contemplate my trip. I always think that the sea is a good place to think of the future. It was so nice to sit there and just think and feel. After so much time spent with anxiety and depression, it’s actually nice to be able to sit at the waters edge and be alone and feel happy. This really is the first time in a long time that I actually am aware that I feel happy. I don’t think enough people actually sit and ask themselves if they’re happy. It nearly makes me cry just thinking about it, I don’t want it to end, I don’t want the people to leave. But it has to come to and end and that’s the key, just don’t let it get sour before it does.

Day Five – Cairns – A Lazy Day in Cairns

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Today was a pretty lazy day. I woke up late actually not suffering from a hangover at all. I headed into town to buy myself a SIM card so I could get internet everywhere and call people. I also did a food shop and looked around the shops for some Christmas shopping.

After I’d set everything up I came back to the ‘Goon Room’ and chatted to Rob and Owain for a bit before heading down to the pool with them. Cheri, Tash and Jack came and joined us for a bit before it started to get cold and I had to go back up.

I showered and got myself ready before going to make dinner with my food I bought earlier. However when I went to the fridge to get the food the cleaners had thrown it out as I had forgotten to label it. Not only was I annoyed because it was a waste of money, I was also starving. So Rob and I went to go get a burrito from down the road which was pretty good.

By now it was time to get ready and start the’Goon Room’ ritual yet again. And so the night went from there. I feel so lucky that I have such a good group of people who actually want to go out and have a good time because I’ve met some really quiet people here. I’m starting to feel like it’s home here and these are my friends and I couldn’t ask for anything more.

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.