Queensland, Con't (con't)

Otherwise known as part three...

Anyways, back to Cairns! (I wish I could go back, actually.)

The first night was kind of boring, honestly.  The next morning, we were to get up pretty early in order to go to our activities (those of us going, that is... a few people didn't go).  Most of us signed up for the Great Barrier Reef tour, but a couple signed up for white water rafting.

After a tired breakfast, we met up in the lobby and headed down to the Esplanade, aka: the harbour, in order to get our boarding passes and load the boat.  Shortly afterwards, we were on the boat and ready to go.

Fast-forward a bit (including safety instructions with the guy telling us the emergency exits... EVERYWHERE! and the scuba diving and snorkelling information sessions) and we're getting ready to just ship as we've arrived at the first of the two locations.  Since my new camcorder (which I bought specially for this trip, specifically for seeing the Great Barrier Reef) is water-resistant, I brought it with me and went snorkelling.

While I had been scared just before jumping off the boat, once I figured out how to do it properly, I really enjoyed the experience.  Such a better experience than the first time!  I turned my camera on just after entering the water and recorded most of the time I spent in the water, looking at the reef and the fish.  I only stopped when I got excited about seeing a rainbow fish, which I had to get a picture of.

I didn't hear when they called for the other dive group to return to the boat, as I was underwater when they did.  And then, everyone I had been swimming with was suddenly gone.  But soon I made my way back to the boat and once the first group was out of the water, out of their gear, and signed back in, they got us ready to go in the water for our dive (after they showed us how to do everything properly).

Annoying, I had a lot of trouble getting my ears to pop, so I couldn't go very deep.  But that was okay, the guy we were diving with didn't take us too deep (it was still pretty deep, since my ears were hurting a little most of the time...) around the reef.  It was incredible!  I was able to touch the ocean floor at one point.  Ah, it was awesome.  And he pointed out the clown fish coming out of the anemone!  NEMO HAS BEEN FOUND!  We saw a bunch of other fish, too, none of which I know the names of.

And then, when the dive was finished, it was lunch.  I swear, by the time I come home, I'm going to have had so much curry and the like that I'm actually going to like it.  haha, if you couldn't figure it out, lunch was curry....  Anyways, then we arrived at the next location.  And I went snorkelling again.  We had the option to go diving another time, but since I couldn't equalise my ears the first time, I didn't want to do it again.  Plus, I really only wanted to do it the one time to begin with.  (The whole thing really freaked me out the first time, it was incredible, and incredibly scary.  haha.)  A couple people went down a second time, but I was perfectly content with just snorkelling.

Which I did for more than thirty minutes.  It was amazing.  At first I had some troubles with my mask and snorkel, but then I got them adjusted properly and everything was smooth...snorkelling after that (I just had to remember not to do any more dolphin dives...like I had down at the first location...after getting a little excited and not thinking about the open end of the snorkel... haha).  It was gorgeous, and I was sad when I realised I was supposed to be heading back to the boat.  Occasionally, I would look down at how long I had been recording, and would think to myself, "okay, I'll head back in five more minutes."  And then that five minutes would pass and I'd still be there in ten minutes, and I'd repeat it.  At twenty-five minutes, I actually did head back, because we were supposed to be boarding the boat.

Anyways.  That was a lot of fun!  On the way back, the crew put the sails up and we went sailing on our return to Cairns.

The night that followed was our last night on the tour, so we were making the most of it.  We started off by going to dinner at a restaurant called "Rattle 'n' Hum," which was really good!  And then, we moved on to a bar called the "Whoolshed", where it was (surprise, surprise!) ladies night!  haha, that entitled us to free glasses of champagne between ten and eleven (it was even served by good looking, shirt-less guys ;)).  Anyways, that was followed by a 'Wet Jock' competition, in which two of our fellow travellers entered.  And won first and second!  haha, of course, there was only a prize for first, but he had no clue as to what he had won, hahahaha!  Anyways, soon after that, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel...across the square (City Mall).

In the morning, after breakfast, we loaded Matilda (the bus, if you remember) and made our way to Port Douglas.  We began our day trip by trekking through the water and mud barefooted and with spears, in order to catch our tea...  erm, no thank you.  It was really gross, but it was alright, I guess.  hahah.  Quite an adventure!

After that, a little over half of us headed to the Wildlife Habitat Port Douglas in order to hand feed kangaroos and wallabies and cuddle a koala!  Lunch was first, and it was alright.  Would have been better with a fork...  Anyways, after that, we headed in to feed the kangaroos and wallabies.  And you know what?  They're incredibly cute and super soft.  It's a weird feeling to have the kangaroos and wallabies licking the pellets out of your hand like that.  I even had a random bird steal a few of the pellets out of my hand.  Ungh, I do not like those beasts.  (Which reminds me, we also saw Australia's second largest largest bird, the cassowary.  Google it and you will see the beast-osity-ness of that thing.  haha!  Also, you could look in my pictures, too, haha.)

This one time, when I was feeding this cutie of a kangaroo, one of the geese was trying to get the pellets from me, and it got between the kangaroo and me, and the kangaroo kind of pounced on it, and it landed (the bird) on my foot, which completely freaked me out.  haha, but it was alright, I just squawked and we moved on.  Obviously, the kangaroo wasn't impressed by the goose trying to take its afternoon tea.  :P

We saw a joey tree kangaroo.  Which was cool.  And we saw these huge kangaroos that I cannot remember the names of.  But they were very slobbery.  Haha.  And we were kind of chased down by an emu.  Which was just freaky.  THOSE THINGS ARE HUGE.  We saw a bunch of crocodiles, too.

And then we went and listened to the guy talk about Grizzly the cutie koala.  He was showing us Grizzly's bum and how it was white, and that woke the cutie, so it was picture time again!  Hahah, he was so cute when he woke and didn't know what was going on.

And then, we jumped in line, give our tickets, and got to hold Grizzly!  He was so amazingly soft!  And not very heavy.  Ah, I just wanted to cuddle him all day.

It was a great day and it was sad to see it come to an end.  After that, we headed back to Port Douglas and said our goodbyes.  Didn't realise we'd be seeing so many people afterwards, though, as I think the only people we didn't see were the people that we flying out that day, haha.

Anyways, that night, a couple of us sat around after dinner and watched the movie that was playing "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Since we started watching it part-way through, I was a bit lost...so I'll have to watch all of them again.  I'd been meaning to do that anyways, haha.

Anyways, after that, I talked with Mom on skype...but it was annoying as the hostel's internet was down and they were inconsiderate and couldn't tell me where I could find an internet cafe so I could use a computer.  Idiots.

In the morning, I found the mall (the real thing) as I had a dress to find and purchase.  Luckily, they had it, so I was very happy after that.  And, rather than the $15 I had seen it for at the store in Surfers Paradise, and the $20 that was on the tag, it was a very pleasant $10!  Woot!  Anyways, that day in Cairns was dedicated to shopping.  A lady at a souvenir shop decided that the price listed wasn't good enough and raised it when you went to make a purchase, so I told her to shove it and that she was an idiot and left, saving my pennies for someone who wasn't going to rip me off ($8.90 for one shirt, or $27 for three.  you do the math, my friend, you do the math.).  It was also my most expensive, as it was the only time I had actually really bought something.  I got a lot of stuff, too, so all was good.

I had a really yummy meal of chips (fries) covered in cheese and bacon (more like ham..) for dinner.  ah, it was yummy!  I wish I had been able to finish the cheesiest of the bunch, but I was sososo full.  After that, I headed back to the hostel, read some of one of the books I had bought in the Gold Coast (which turned out to have been Australian!), and called it a night, because I had to be up by four (FOUR!) in the morning to catch the shuttle to the airport to catch my flight back to Sydney so I could get back to Bathurst and school.

I did a bit of shopping while I waited to catch my train, and then we (Camilla and I) headed back to Bathurst, planning on ordering pizza once we arrived.  hahah, when we got to Lithgow in order to change to the bus that would get us the rest of the way to Bathurst, we realised Ida and Allen were on a other part of the same train carriage as we had been on.  haha, what are the odds?  We knew Ida was on the same train, and I had seen Allen in Sydney boarding the train, but we had lost them.

Ah, it was an amazing trip.  I was really sad for it to be over, as it meant having to go back to Bathurst and school and winter.  Bathurst by itself isn't all that bad, as it's home for the next while, but it's winter here (well, spring has reared its head) and it's school!  And who wants either of those?!  I surely don't.

I can't believe it's been a week seen the end of my trip.  It feels like longer and shorter all at once.  I would still like to be in Queensland, soaking up that sun!

Well, that's everything.  Talk soon!  xxx

ps; I realised the other day just how close Aussies are to eating poutine...  just change the cheese salt for cheese curds, and you've got our weird Canadian dish!  haha, Aussies also have gravy on EVERYTHING, it seems.  Not just the chips, but the main and all the veggies.  How interesting...and kind of gross.  haha, I'm getting the hang of telling them "just a little...ON THE CHIPS, ONLY!"  haha, it's pretty...different.  haha.  well, bye again! xxx