# lis is me #

badness and madness

Friday, September 05, 2008

I went to Cairns!


As the title says, I did go to Cairns!

  • Day 1 - Thursday
Flew to Cairns with my excellent friend Beth from Perth, she left little Saj at home with her dad. Got to Cairns about midday and headed to the motel/dive - Comfort Inn City Sheridan. Ah, who cares - $3 happy hour spirits! Good enough for me. And a fan. Extra good. Also the shower was quite good. Fresh towels each day - hey, that's better than my place! Headed for a walk through town for some lunch, ended up down at the pier at an Italian restaurant for a pizza and wine. Then went to Bellavista for more drinks/cocktails. Before we knew it, was late afternoon. Headed back to hotel for more drinks! Then out to Paddywacks for a good feed :) And a drink at some pub. FUck it's hot/humid.

  • Day 2 - Friday
Up early down to Tusa 5 dive to take us to the outer reef for some spectacular diving at Millen Reef and then to Oasis. SPECTACULAR!! except for the highly unflattering full-body wetsuit. And hugely uncomfortable fins. I guess it's better than not being quite so buoyant and speedy. Maybe a touch of seasickness on the way there...but we managed to hold that in. Can't say the same for another girl. Eww. Saw eel, shark, turle, tons of coral and beautiful fish. Seriously, i used to be the crazy one of me and Beth. Now it's her! touching the coral (which i don't recommend), we swam like 1km from the boat... she kept seeing all the good stuff first! i don't know what's happened. ah well :) So We were knackered by the end of the day but managed to drag out matty-hair asses down to the pool for a swim and happy hour/s drinks and then to a cheapo cafe for food. Cairns has more restaurants than Melb and tourists are 60% of the population.

  • Day 3 - Saturday
Up super early (like 3.45am) to go hot-air ballooning!! Caught a bus to just out of town to a little paddock where they're blowing up about 5 balloons. So much better seeing them in person than watching them float past work at 6am. Didn't go over the town, just some paddocks/bush/kangaroos. Landed in some spare land. THen they bussed us to an open buffet shed thing where we ate a big brekky in preparation for our island adventure!
Off to Green Island for some great diving...where we found not-so-great diving. Apparnetly it was the second-lowest tide of the year. We took off from the shore...only to find we couldn't go far because the reef was out of the water already and we couldn't go any further cuz how coudl we get back in?? Had a go on the glass-bottomed boat. Pretty average. Overcast, rain. So plenty of time to drink cocktails while we waited for our boat back to mainland. And more hotel drinks!
My friend Eve who I hadn't seen since year 10 called and she's living in Cairns now, physio, and took us out for dinner and a drink. It was great catching up, she's a wonderful person, so beautiful and kind! She drove us around for the next few days, drank, ate, recommended all sorts of excellent things! Thanks, Eve! You're welcome in Melbourne any time!

  • Day 4 - Sunday
This was such a great day, maybe even better than the outer reef day! EXCELLENT. Beautiful boat ride out to Fitzroy Island, there isn't much out there right now because some dude bought the island a couple of years ago and is rebuilding a resort. Walked the rainforest track 600m to Nudie Beach where the beach is crushed up coral (not so great for soft feet!) Didn't look like very promising reef to look at, but had a swim anyway. There was a change in the colour of the water where the ocean drops away. Decided to dive out there where we found tons of coral, TURTLE CITY!! also a nice swim, quite calm. Walked back to the main area through the forest and to the other side where there was tons more coral and fish but very shallow and the tide was heading out so we didn't get much diving time. I did manage some cuts on my feet though. NICE! Time to chill out on the beach. It's the first time EVER i've sat and read on a beach/laid on a towel and slept (in the shade, i'm very conscious of skin cancer). The tree moved or the sun, whatever, and burnt my leg :( Anyway, more cocktails at the cafe, then back to the mainland. Cairns has a big sunday session so no time for shower or change, but straight to the Pier bar where Eve was! Had a bite to eat at a restaurant that the same dude that owns 2 places in melb owns 2 places in Cairns. Delicious food and cocktails. Then to Pier bar to meet Eve where Miss Indy 2008 was being judged. You know they weren't that great, I could have won it. No, not really :) So Sunday was a very big night including drinks, pool, dancing, smoking, kebab, arguments, blisters, kissing of wrong people, just overdoing it in general. Good fun, really.

  • Day 5 - Monday
Good day to catch a bus, feeling like shit. Cancelled our Franklin Island trip and got a tour up to Cape Tribulation. The tour guide was full-on. The whole day was rush, rush, rush, no time to do anything. And it was overcast and a little cold. Went to Mossman Gorge for a quick swim, a wildlife park to see some animals, ferry to other side where Cape Trib is, photos at some lookouts, stopped for lunch at a picnic bench and look at the water, then back home. On the way, stopped at a croc tour where we saw 2 crocs. Fell asleep and drove back to Cairns. Apparently they'd had THE nicest day of the whole week this day, 35 degrees, sunny, fucking hot - we missed it. :( oh well. Back to the hotel, drinks, clean up and met with Eve down at the Pier for a really nice farewell dinner at Waterfront Grill andBar or something like that. Very tasty. Then to PJs for a drink and some pool. Nice end to our holiday.

  • Day 6 - Tuesday
Next day was just bit of a sleep in, pack up, check out, walked around for an hour and some breakfast and then Eve took us to the airport. And that is the end of my holiday! Photos on Facebook cuz i'm too much of a dick to work out how to put them here.