Cairns!

We finally made it to Cairns! The end of our east coast journey! We've been looking forward to coming here, mostly because it's hot and sunny all the time. Though we've recently run into a string of really hot weather (and subsequently sunburns) so that's been nice. We only just got here last night, so we went for our free meal at the pub and watched the International Goldfish races. Canada lost, FYI. This morning we wandered around town, i managed to recognize the hotel i stayed at when we were all here 10 years ago (what are the chances that id remember?) and go shopping.

The last couple days have been spent with the arduous task of moving past our lost pictures. Ice cream was a large factor in this process. We spent a couple days on Magnetic Island, which is a 15 minute ferry ride from Townsville. It was so amazing. I wish we could have spent more time there. The whole island is a national park, and basically a giant koala sanctuary. There are different walks to take around the island, and you can see shipwrecks, koalas, and all sorts of beautiful scenery. There are like 10 different bays, and they all have beaches, so i rented snorkel equipment on our last day, and spent like an hour in the water. Ill have to just buy a snorkel, ive spent so much money renting them!

After Cairns we are flying to Brisbane and then back to Sydney becasue circus is LEAVING me! i literally have no idea what ill do once she leaves. You'll all see my face on the news "Canadian Backpacker Gets Lost; Blames Friend"

No seriously. its gone

so if anyone who reads this happens to be in Townsville right now and finds my camera in the Queensland Museum, could you let me know?

yeah thanks

Whitsunday Islands!

We have just nicely gotten back from our 3 day cruise around the Whitsunday Islands, which i will now lovingly refer to as Booze Fest '07. Our first day was spent on the boat (catamaran) getting to know one another. There were about 50 people on our boat so we had a lot of people to meet. We got to the island where we would be living for 2 days, had dinner and happy hour. Our capitan, Skippy Van Goonbag (not his real name) was more then generous. After a round of drinking games, we headed to bed early. Wake up call was 6 am and i sure didnt want to be seasick.

The next day we headed out to Whitehaven Island, one of the most photographed places in Australia. Its the picture perfet whitesand island. Even though it was overcast and not the nicest day the island is SO beautiful. The water is the clearest blue/green ive ever seen. Circus and i ventured over to a little stream at one point, which wasa big mistake. As it turns out thats the stream where all the crabs live! And not just little sand crabs. Gigantic blue, very fast moving crabs. Have you ever been charged at by a heard of crabs? I have never screamed so hard in my life.

Today (our last) we boated out to part of the great barrier reef and snorkelled for the morning. It was raining a lot which made it freezing but there were a lot of fish out so that was pretty cool. After lunch we started for home. It was SO windy the waves were completly insane. We stood at the very front of the boat and when the boat hit a big wave the whole front end would shoot like 15 feet in the air. It was so fun! except when that giant wave covered me head to toe.

So we're back in Airlie Beach for tonight then onto Townsville. From there we head to magnetic island and then Carins! Its hard to beliee we've almost made it to the top!

Airlie Beach

In 2 days we head off to a cruise on the Whitsunday Islands. We pretty excited about it. I thought id be all prepared and upload all my pictures to a memory card first. My guess was i had around 400 pictures at the most. Turns out i ahve more like 1400. yikes. needless to say this trip is well documented!

Great Barrier Reef

I was up at an ungodly hour this morning. i didnt even know there was a 630am in australia! It was worth it though, becasue i went on a catamaran tour to Lady Musgrave island, which is a national park/island about and hour and a half from 1770. Its completly surrounded by the great barrier reef, so for 4 hours i layed with me face in the water, poking fish and taking pictures with my new underwater camera (side note, i now have 5 cameras... excessive?) i wasnt sure if i would be able to do it, i have this fear of sticking my face into the water and breathing... its sure a strange feeling! I got up to it eventually and it was SO cool. I found a piece of coral where all the sea turtles go to get cleaned by strange underwater creatures, i found Nemo, and a piece of coral cut me! Its so easy to get carried away though, Id get into such a daze floating there that id all of a sudden be VERY far away from the boat! Im completly waterlogged now, but it was so great

1770/Agnes Water

With some level of difficulty (like the midnight bus that dropped us off in the middle of the highway.. thank god for shuttle buses!) we have arrived in Agnes Water/The town of 1770, so named becasue it was the first place Capitan Cook arrived in Queensland. in 1770 apparently.. the whole town has a population of about 80 people so its really cozy. We're in a hostel for the first time in i dont even know how long, so Im pretty happy about my new situation involving walls and electricity...

Prior to this we were in Rainbow Beach, which was really beautiful. Lots of coloured sands and dunes to run down (or up if iw as feeling REALLY motivated)

We spent 4 or 5 days in Hervey Bay, which was a little too long for our liking but we didnt really have a choice! It was really nice just to relax and lay around...

In a couple hours i am embarking on a sunset kayak tour and tomorrow im going on a great barrier reef snorkelling tour, which im pretty excited about.

Surfing!

We are now in Noosa, the "Hamptons" of Australia. It's pretty fancy, everything is REALLY expensive, but the beach is really nice and the weatherhas been beautiful! i Even sort of have a tan!

Circus signed me up for surfing lessons yesterday, i was slightly apprehensive so it took a little convincing. She sat on the beach and took pictures of me as i fell repeatedly. But eventaully i got up! It was pretty exciting acytually, but im really sore today, and have a saltwater/surfboard rash on my legs. ouch.

We're onto rainbow Beach tomorrow, camping right on the beach. im pretty excited about it. i imagine there will be a LOT of laying on said beach.