The time has come to say goodbye to Asia and I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty happy! The flight to Cairns via Darwin was fairly painless - immigration was a little hairy. A guy was waiting behind passport control to speak to me, my disorganisation in applying for my visa just six days before landing made them a little suspicious...I was taken aside and asked about my plans whilst in Australia, I've never felt so guilty in all my life. Convinced I wasn't planning on making a life here he wished me safe travels!

Onto a bus to Gilligan's, the party hostel of Cairns! Checked in, freshened up it was time for my first Australian backpacker experience - Goon. For those of you that don't know, Urban Dictionary describes it as "the cheapest possible cask wine". The ingredient list makes for interesting reading including fish, eggs and meat extracts. It is packaged in a box and a silver bag - the goon sack. It wasn't half as bad as I'd expected to be honest!

My second day was spent with Jodie, my lovely travel agent at Peterpans. She managed to get me to part with £455! This covered me for a trip to Fraser Island, a Skydive and Scuba Diving on the Great Barrier Reef.


I made a really nice group of friends and with the lack of activities in Cairns it was a good thing! Night two was eventful, we managed to get an invite to see a strip show in some guys dorm room - a very strange experience, not to be repeated!



A ridiculously late night ensued followed the next morning with a hideously early start to go diving. Remarkably hungover I hauled myself out of bed and ran to the marina. Rachel and I boarded Ocean Freedom just as the boat was pulling away! We lucked out with beautiful weather and I met with my Dive Master - here on in known as 'Sweden'. I had two dives on what is known as the "Wonderwall", it was incredible. I saw heaps of turtles and even lucked out, despite an irrational fear and instructions to Sweden not to point any out, I saw a sleeping reef shark! She didn't actually notice it at first, I thought she was just being nice. I'm glad I did spy a shark but I did keep my eye on it for a good while!

Diving done, the boat cruised to Upolu Cay - a cay is the name given to the first stage of reef island. We snorkled in the vicinity and Sweden showed us some cool things, I stroked a sea slug and a giant clam - eugh! Very satisfied we walked home where I bumped into some friends who convinced me to book onto the "Ultimate Party". A pub crawl in a double decker bus, now considering all of the bars in Cairns are less than 500m apart, it was pretty pointless! Not such an Ultimate Party it must be said!




My time in Cairns was pure party time really but I've met some nice people and enjoyed my time there!