Click here to see the first blog of this series!
Hello!
Hopefully you have arrived here after having read my first blog post of this mini series which you can find on the link above. If so, please enjoy the second section of my trip to Australia!
After visiting Sydney and all it's wonderful sights, my family and I headed to the airport via a shuttle bus. We endured three hours on a very bumpy flight - the turbulence was so rough that even the air stewards were struggling to stand up and serve refreshments - and finally arrived at the Cairns Colonial Club Resort, a beautiful apartment hotel surrounded by palm trees and Australian countryside. We were very relieved to jump into the chill of the pool to be refreshed after being in the warmth of the sun.
In the evening, we headed out to a local League Club where we experienced the local culture and tasted some fabulous foods in the buffet such as Roasted Pumpkin and a lot of prawns!
Our first full day in Cairns was another chance for me to fulfil one of my life long dreams - snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef! We boarded a boat down by the harbour and were given our flippers and snorkels.
Here's a slightly gross tip for snorkelers: if you want to stop your goggles from steaming up in the water, rub your spit on the lenses and then dip them in the water. The spit on the lenses will improve your visibility because of its properties! Thank me later...
The boat trip took us out to a reef about an hour and a half away from the shore. At this point we realised how scary the reef snorkeling would actually be. We were literally in the middle of the sea with no protection from danger except from a couple of the boat crew looking out for sharks. There was virtually no briefing on how to snorkel apart from the obvious, breathe through your mouth! The sea was very rough and the waves were as tall as me. Our adrenaline was through the roof. Stepping off the boat was like leaving your parents on the first day of school; no one knew what to expect, we were all nervous and no one really enjoyed it.
After our first reef experience, the boat continued to another reef. Fortunately this experience was a lot better. We were told how to use the flippers and the sea was calmer which of course meant that we were calmer! My Dad and sister were very quick to jump off the boat and start swimming to the reef about 20 metres away. My mum and I took a lot more convincing, especially me as I was worried about drowning! However, the fish were beautiful. They were absolutely incredible and I could not have been happier to have snorkeled over the world's greatest aquarium.
Moving on from the reef experience, the second day was by far one of my favourites. This day was made up of a ride on the Kuranda Scenic Railway, a stunning ride up through the mountains, into the village station at Kuranda - aka my future home town. It was a really pretty hippy village, with the most wonderful looking people. Everybody's hair was dreadlocked and their style was totally unique. The culture was incredible. At one of the shacks I even got a dreadlock of my own in the under layer of my hair which remains while I am typing this up almost a month later! In addition to the train and the village, we also floated across the skies in a 7km long series of cable cars, some of the tallest and the longest in Australia. It was a day spent filled with good fear and excitement. I would definitely go back!
Finally, our last day in Cairns came, another that I had been looking forward to. We started out day by clambering onto the bus at about 7am. After the hotel pick ups, we travelled along a spectacular scenic road for about an hour or so, taking in the views of the coral blue sea. The time flew by and we soon stopped off at a wildlife park near Port Douglas. Walking through the entrance, we were met by an abundance of friendly wallabies and kangaroos, along with koalas, crocs, birds, lizards, butterflies and so much more, all of whom where wandering free in the park. (Don't worry, the crocs were under a bridge that we walked under and so were not a danger to anyone). Next, we took a stroll through a forest and enjoyed lunch in a treehouse cafe near the beach where I'm sorry to say that I ate a kangaroo steak (BUT IT WAS SOOOO GOOD!).
Lastly, we floated down the Daintree River searching for and finding crocodiles with the people from the bus, before returning back to the hotel.
Watch this space for my next instalment of my little Australian Adventure series!
Arizona
