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.