I took endless amounts of pictures flying
into Cairns, it was just how I imagine Hawaii would be; clear blue water, various
coral reefs bordered by huge green mountains. The thing that amazed me the
most about these mountains was how underdeveloped they were; in America, houses
would cover the mountains, but in Cairns, there were NO houses on the
mountains. What a rarity! And when I say mountains, I mean MOUNTAINS. They
weren’t the Rockies or anything, but they were just like the Smokey Mountains
except they were right next to the ocean. I have never seen anything so beautiful.
Australearn’s two, super-hot
representatives, Jimmy and Brad picked us up at the airport to take us back to
our home for the next couple of days: Gilligan’s. Once we arrived at our hostel, I got my room key and meet my new roommates Grace, Kristin, Emily, Sammy,
and Pam. Just as the jet lag and lack of food hit, I had to sit through my
first info session on Australia: it was miserable (on the plus side, Shane, our
speaker, was a typical Australian lifeguard if you know what I'm saying ;) ).
After dinner at the Pier in Cairns (they put pineapple on their veggie pizza,
try it though, it’s super yummy), we strolled around downtown Cairns.
Since
the reef is so close to Australia, it sort of blocks the water from coming
inland to the shores, so instead of seeing a picturesque white beach with
crystal blue water, I was staring at rocks and lots of dirt mixed with sand in
stagnant water. After years of tourists coming to Cairns and thinking that
they’d be close to a beach, they built the Lagoon to mirror a beach
environment. We got to walk past this along with the night markets, where I
boldly tried Kangaroo jerky (it had a nice smokey flavor, but being the
meat-phob that I am, it was a little hard to swallow), and this bar called the
Salt where the tables were surrounded by water almost like little islands, it
is known as one of the most beautiful venues in Cairns. Jet lag was in full
force when I passed out at 9 o’clock that night.
After
grabbing an amazing Aussie breakfast at Rydges plaza the next morning, we were
back for our second info session with Shane. It’s almost overwhelming, how
different Australians are from us; people like to generalize and say they’re
basically the same, but they are very different in a million little ways. Once
we finished our session, we headed out for a tour of Cairns with B-rad for a
quick hour before grabbing a bite to eat at a local café in Cairns. After
having my first Australian salad, the owner of the store while clearing off our
plates noted that, “Carrie Bradshaw knows good sex, but we know good food”. And
good humor! Next was our afternoon trip to Green Island.
After I survived the rocky boat ride to Green Island, I threw on my stinger suit, fins, and
snorkel. After making our way across the pier and throwing all of our gear into
a locker, we headed out to the beach. There wasn’t much coral, but I did get to
see a sea turtle swimming around and a rescue by one of the Australian
lifeguards. Once we were exhausted from swimming, we took a lap around the
island before we had to go back to Cairns. That night, Australearn planned a
fun contest for us with Mojo Surfing; the two finalists, Frank and Lauren had a
dance off… Frank had some stellar dance moves (my favorite was the “break
dancing”). Finally, we ended our night with dinner at Gilligan’s where I tried
kangaroo meat (it was WAY too bloody for me) and hit the sack early to rest up for our day
on the Reef.
If
you think you get seasickness, then, believe me, the boat ride out to the reef
would definitely prove you right. I only had to be inside the cabin for five
minutes, but that was enough to leave me feeling a little queasy. After 2 hours
of bouncing up and down with the ocean waves we arrived at our destination with only
water surrounding us. After I got my gear on, I hopped off the edge of the boat
to explore Paradise Reef… It was awesome! Even though I just about died after snorkeling
for an hour (it can be such a workout to stay above the water), it was
worth it. Finally, after what seemed to be forever, we were served lunch, but
by this point I was so dehydrated and famished that it was hard to eat. Once I
forced myself to eat and drink, I perked up just in time to explore our next
stop: Michaelmas Cay. This was the best snorkeling site ever; I was so close to
the coral that it was hard to not kick it with my fins on. The entire island
was covered in birds; literally, they could have filmed Alfred Hitchcock’s
movie “The Birds” here. The island is
extremely limited for tourists, but as long as you don’t step on the island
outside the ropes, you can go wherever you’d like. After we touched one of the
giant clams, almost stepped on a sting ray, and touched the anemones, it was
time to head back to the boat.
We
arrived back on solid ground around 5, but the boat feeling lingered for the
next couple of hours. After grabbing a bite to eat at the Woolshed (the chicken
tandorri was delicious!) we started off ladies’ night at Gilligan’s where beers
were 2 for $4. As you can imagine, by the time we got back to the Woolshed for
some table top dancing, we were all feeling pretty good. Thursday night was by
far my favorite night of all. I miss Cairns :/
On
our first morning we got to sleep in (Friday was the only day we got a late
start), we started it off the right way: we hit up the fresh fruit markets.
Sorry America, but you’ve got nothing on Australia when it comes to its fruit
markets; everything was crazy cheap and locally grown. Grace and I bought our
new favorite Aussie treat, passion fruit, for the day’s journey to the
Rainforest. After a gorgeous drive up
the mountains surrounding the countryside of Cairns, we arrived at Rainforestation
where I got to hold a koala bear, pet a kangaroo, hold a snake, attempt to
throw a boomerang, watch Aboriginal Dreamtime, and witness a crocodile demolish
a chicken. But the coolest thing of the entire day was this: the miracle
fruit. First, I tried a piece of lime, so that I recognized that it tasted
sour, then I rubbed the miracle fruit all over the inside of my mouth, and
tasted the lime again, but this time it tasted sweet! The miracle fruit
actually changes your taste buds and lasts about two hours! How crazy is that!
Miracle fruit!
My crocodile video
Kristen on the didgeridoo
After
we grabbed a bite near Gilligan’s we grabbed some gelato (there is gelato
EVERYWHERE in Australia), and called it a night; we had an early flight to catch
to Sydney J
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