Cairns Holiday Lodge

... br><br>Any way, we decided to chill a bit today and do some souvenir shopping and sit by the lagoon (yes Cairns also has a fab lagoon over looking the sea, but this time not cos of stingers but crocodiles and sharks instead). I brought myself a dijarido (which I am hoping to learn to play Wednesday night) and a boomerang that was too expensive to throw. <br><br>We also did a big food shop as the kitchen here is nice so we can make our own breakfast and dinner. Jam and ...

... the day sunbathing and the evening reading and hanging out in the TV room at the hostel (some guy chose to watch the history channel all night zzzzzzz)<br><br>Sunday I joined the Gilligan's gang for a brief sunday session... a few drinks at Gilligan's then down to the marina....<br><br>Monday I was gutted - last day in Cairns and we (some of the Gilligan's gang) were supposed to catch a boat over to the nearest island to do some free snorkelling (thus saving $100 by not ...

... Men noen bra bilder ble det da, de ser dere her.<br><br>Takk for naa :D Jeg er i Sydney, tilbringer siste natten her og imorgen ettermiddag (saann ca. naar dere kommer paa jobb) setter jeg meg paa flyet hjem igjen. <br><br>-------<br>Cairns is not a town to make a big fuzz about, it's a tourist town, a place for swimming and bathing. But you can't swim in the sea here because there is sharks and other scary stuff swimming around ...

... beautiful lake we have ever seen. It was too acidic for animals to live in and so it was completely clear. It was a completely clear, blue lake that was unbelievable. Then we did the 11k walk back. TIRING. All up and down sand dunes. VERY tough on the legs. Then we ran to the sunset!!! Missed it though...then we got the best pizza ever which was huge and went to sleep. <br>8th June - Got the ferry back to the mainland. On the way to Surfer's Paradise we ...

... us to check out the possibilities for scuba diving. We are lucky to find two available slots with an operator that runs a liveabord to the outer Great Barrier Reef. The reefs we are diving are north of Cairns and remote, hence we will live and dive from a boat i.e. liveaboard. The outer coral reefs are more pristine and even better - there is a good chance we will be alone on the reef. The trips leaves in the afternoon, hence we ...

... I saw a shark, a huge clam, and a great big sea turtle. I met some great people as well. While walking down the esplanade to the pier I was able to capture some amazing morning lighting as the sun came up over the mountains. Every single day I'm in awe at just how beautiful Cairns is.

... in their shark tank exhibit. Several times a day they let divers have the thrill of hanging out in the tank and observing the marine life up close. Though hardly challenging it was a very cool experience to swim among the large fish and even pet them. The most dangerous fish in the entire tank was not a shark at all but rather a territorial Maori Wrasse with a bad temper. All in all it was a very interesting way to spend an hour and it got me mentally prepped for diving later in ...

... back to Cairns. At Cairns we boarded the bus to take us to the Skyrail terminal. The Skyrail is a "ski lift" type system hooked up that runs from the terminal, 6 or 7 kilometers from Cairns, up over the bush covered hills to a small town called Kuranda. The ride is scary but amazing and you can see for miles in all directions. On the way there you see the second largest money maker for Queensland growing in all of the fields, sugar cane. The export all of it ...

... told to find a hat our size. a surprising number of people didn't bother. Whislt you obviously look a lot cooler without a hat, you look a lot cooler if you don't dribble constantly or display other symptoms of someone who fell off a horse and landed on their noggin, so we decided to aschew coolness on this occasion. My horse was called Blackie, but I called him Snackie since he paused ...