HOLIDAY - Cairns

Thursday, July 3 – We took our first airplane and made out way to Cairns! It looks a lot like Hawaii here apparently. We got checked into our hostel, Queens Court, then walked down to the main part of town. Cairns is pretty small, only about a 160,000 population I guess (but a huge place for tourism), so we walked to the Esplanade and ate Kebab and I got a mango smoothie after and mom got gelato and we came back and chilled because we knew the next few days were going to be busy.

Friday, July 4 – Happy birthday America!! We woke up early and got picked up for our river rafting adventure! I had never been, but the Tully River is a grade 4 river and it was a great day. It took us about 2 hours 40 minutes of driving from Cairns to make it to the top of the gorge where we started rafting. Our guide, Leon, is a legitimate hippie with crazy dreadlocks and he had an awesome hippie hat on in the bus that I wanted. Our raft had us, a guy from Cairns, a guy from Korea, and a father/son from Holland, so we had some good variety and lots of strength which was great. The rapids were fairly intense at some parts but it was way fun. I literally almost fell out once (my foot was wedged in somewhere but I was falling backwards but they grabbed me back before I could completely lose it – it was very close though haha). On one rapid Leon wanted us to fall out so he put us all at the front of the raft sitting side by side holding each other and we all flipped out hard. It was actually pretty scary for me because I ran into the rocks at the edge of the bank, hitting/dragging my elbow really hard and then once I was free of that I was twirling in the water for a bit before I could finally kick my way up. My shoes fell off too haha. But yeah, it was fairly intense for me and shook me up a bit. The weather was on and off sunny and cloudy and rainy, but I wasn’t really cold until after that because I was so stiff the rest of the way haha. Now my elbow has a grand bump on it and is already lovely shades of purple. We’ll see how it looks tomorrow. There was a BBQ lunch on the bank during the trip, and for dinner we went to McDonald’s again so we could get free WiFi hahaha. We felt very American and celebrated the 4^th that way. Fireworks will happen next year, but everyone at home will be having a fun night! I can’t be too jealous of that, because I’m in Australia.

These aren't my pictures because obviously I didn't have a camera with me, but this is the Tully River!! That's exactly what we were doing. Thank goodness for google images haha.

Some scenery on the drive back to Cairns from the river. I'm told it looks like Hawaii, there were sugar cane and banana trees everywhere.

Battle wound...OUCH

Saturday, July 5 – Today we walked down to the wharf and took the Big Cat boat out to Green Island. It was about an hour boat ride away from Cairns, and I believe it is the closest island to the city that you can go to. We got some snorkel equipment and when we got there the water was beautiful and clear and it was so windy when we first got off of the boat! But people were snorkeling with and without wetsuits, so we figured it couldn’t be too cold in there. The last time I snorkeled was at Eilat at the Red Sea which was a cool experience, but the water was clearer here and it was bearably chilly. We snorkeled in two different spots and saw lots of fish and coral! I think when I pictured what it would be like snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef I pictured more of what it would be like scuba diving, so it wasn’t as colorful as I thought it was going to be, but it was still a cool experience! We didn’t find Nemo though haha. We ate lunch on the boat then went on a glass bottom boat tour for 30 minutes where we got to see a lot more fish and different kinds of coral that were farther from the beach, then we went back on the island and walked around on the beach and watched the birds dive bomb to catch fish which was hilarious. The boat ride back was nice as well and we went back to the room to get cleaned up before we went back down by the Esplanade and ate kebab again (Mom really likes kebab!) and went into a photography art studio by a guy named Michael Seebeck (I couldn’t get over the fact how similar it was to Michael Sobeck) and I bought a beautiful picture of a storm in the outback. I love it and I can’t wait to have my “wall” someday in my future home! It will have my Western Wall photo, my Egyptian canvas, I’ll find a picture of Italy to print and frame, and I’ll probably put my flags up as well. J It’s going to be my travel wall and be bellissima!!!

Sunday, July 6 – Today was Daintree day! Our guide picked us up and we did many things today. It was a harder day for me because I wasn’t feeling too good but lots of fun things happened. Our first stop was the Port Douglas wildlife habitat place. It divided the animals into 3 sections (rainforest, grasslands, and wetlands). I found Peter, my new best friend. He’s a wallaby and the friendliest thing.  We also saw our first cassowaries and lots of other animals, many of which were sleeping. Next stop was Mossman Gorge, where we took a bus up into the forest and walked down to a river and a couple other points. This was our first intimate experience with the rainforest. It’s kind of depressing because pictures really can’t do it justice – they’ll all look pretty much the same but the forest is so dense and green and awesome!! Then we drove to Cape Tribulation which is way out in the middle of nowhere of the rainforest (I think our guide said it was around 135 km north of Cairns – on very windy roads). It’s one of only 2 places I think where the rainforest comes right out to the beach but also where the reef comes all the way to the shore. Pretty cool spot – we ate lunch there and then walked out on the beach for a bit and it was lovely. After that we drove back and found the Daintree River where we got on a boat and for about an hour we looked for crocodiles and other wildlife. The Daintree is a salt river and so there are saltwater crocs and bull sharks swimming in there, so you very likely won’t make it out alive if you fall in…yikes. We saw a few crocs (including a juvenile one and another one we watched climb onto the river bank…that was cool) and birds. After the river tour we drove to a lookout point and then finally back to Cairns. It was a very very full day and we were exhausted afterward. Even though we didn’t go to church we thought it was cool to see lots of nature. We walked back to the Esplanade after we got just to get some smoothies for dinner and then went to bed.

Cassowary - Port Douglas Wildlife Reserve

This is Peter :)

Mossman Gorge

Cape Tribulation

Juveline croc - Daintree River

Monday, July 7 – Travel day. Our flight from Cairns to Sydney wasn’t until evening, so we had a lot of the day but no major plans. We woke up early to watch the sunrise at the beach (I admit that I do like California beach sunsets better…you don’t have to wake up early for them!) and then I went for a run after. It felt really good to get some intentional exercise in, but I almost regretted doing that with all the walking we ended up doing the rest of the day. We walked super far to go the Botanical Gardens (the receptionist lied and told us was only 5 blocks…that was a loooooong 5 blocks!) The Gardens were really pretty but I didn’t really eat breakfast because I thought we were going to eat earlier and after running and walking I was hangry! Oh well, we made the long walk back and mom found a different kebab place that was close to our room and Pizza Hut was right next to it so I ate some pizza which I had been craving. We walked some more and saw a beautiful Catholic church that had huge stained glass windows, then down to the Esplanade one more time to get some souvenirs, then back to catch our shuttle to the airport. Mom left her jacket though and didn’t realize it until after we went through security, so that was a downer, but then we flew our way to Sydney! Didn’t get in until late so we didn’t explore, just checked in to our hostel Y Hyde Park.

Cairns is an awesome place!!! I enjoyed our time there a lot, no regrets! Next stop, Sydney!!!