Sunshine Tower Hotel Cairns

... you above the river and trees of the rainforest.  It scared me A LOT! I was alone in my little cable car and the wind was blowing and it was swaying back and forth a bit! EEK! Needless to say, I was glad to be back on the ground! Once we got down, we went next door to the rail station to the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park.  They tell historical aboriginal stories and do dances and there was tons to learns there! They had lessons on ...

... and I put them up around the garden, along with all the balloons and everything else. We eventually got everything finished in time and at about 6 in the evening we all started getting changed into our outfits, LJ looked pretty freaky dressed as an evil clown and hers was pretty quick to put on. Mine was even easier going as the family butcher, I had to put on an apron and my mask and I was done except for the fake blood that ...

... clean, spacious.... bigger than the towns I'd seen up the coast so far.... find the lagoon (every ozzie town seems to have one!) and found that they do free exercise....<br><br>So at 0730 on my first day in Cairns I do yoga meditation for the first time in my life... then at 0830 I'm doing aqua aerobics in the outdoor lagoon (also for the first time ever!) - Random! <br><br>Finally checked in to the massive backpackers hostel, Gilligan's.... by then the partying had started ...

... however she tried snorkelling in the Maldives, but did not enjoy it too much, she said she was going to give it a go here, but chickened out in the last hour, the fear consumed, poor thing :-(. There were all sorts of equipment to stay afloat including a life jacket, which many people used, but she was still having none of it, I am a little disappointed in her but didn&#8217;t want to push it as it was a massive step for someone who has stay away from anything ...

... Cairns is a very small city and not to much to do. But its very hot and the nightlife is good.<br><br>When the weekend arrived we all went camping up to Cape Tribulation where the sea meets the rainforest. It was great here and had fun doing night walks through the jungle where I saw snakes and even held one. Many spiders and crickets aswell as a striped possum. We also went jungle surfing which was lots of ziplines through the trees. The beach ...

... is really windy.<br><br>We topped the night off with a beautiful home made omlette (cooked by John) and decided not to head into the casino cause its just so nice and cosy here in this Kombi.<br><br>Tomorrow we are heading off (even though we could stay in Cairns for a month!) to Palm Cove and Port Douglas. Not sure where we are staying yet - could be either of these places of into Atherton.

... but ive promised myself to be good!!<br><br>Oh and one last thing. Barry the origami plate, bowl and cup have had thier use this week so thanks for that! and Lynda and Issy, i have used just about everything u got me including the sewing kit to sew up a rip in my new shirt :'( Also to Iss and Mike, the Hat has had good use so far and will have even better use when i head in land and up north!<br><br>I will update you all in a week or two's time.<br><br>Take care all!<br><br>Smoody

... pretty good and this is coming from me - fussy eater of the year!) or rice and some form of gloop on top (can you tell which I normally go for?!) then we'll head to the Heritage. The free food from them for the last 2 weeks has been a sausage and a bun! Thats it!! Thats why we have two free meals!!! Then we'll go to a bar for happy hour or since recently now Im on a tight budget, we'll go and watch tv somewhere. Its a tough life, but it is getting very repetitive. Its the 21/5 ...

... the day browsing the shops before we had to take Jess to the airport to fly home. It was pretty tough saying goodbye cuz we'd spent about two months together & she was such a lovely, bubbly person, but she had run out of funds & had no option but to fly home. The next couple of days we spent up in Port Douglas & Cape Tribulation, checking out where the rainforest meets the ocean, before heading back to Cairns where Marijke went back to ...

... bloody awful. I was met by the hostel rep who is a thoroughly nice Welsh fella and turning out to be a breath of fresh air in a very pushy touristy town. Cairns is to be quite frank a bit ****. But, due to it's ideal geographic positioning, it really is a must on the trail - it's the cheapest place to access the Great Barrier Reef, the hinterland Atherton Tablelands, Cape Tribulation and Kuranda and all the surrounding rain forests. So even though ...