Hello and welcome to our first blog!

We are presently waiting for our boat to depart to spend 2 days and 2 nights sailing around the Whitsunday Islands...there has been a huge rainstorm and it's only just stopped, but it's already sunny again so bring on the tan!! Apparently we can help to sail if we like. We shall see! Don't know if either of us would make such good sailors!

So, going back to when we arrived last Friday...we flew into Cairns on the North-East coast of Australia. Spent a bit of time looking around and went to the lagoon...because there's no sand in some of these port towns, they have this huge outdoor swimming pool thing instead! So sat there for a bit then spent like 3 hours (was so annoying!) booking the next 10 days worth of stuff - was worth it tho cos we got a really good price :).

Ended up going to bed at 6pm and sleeping right through!! Our hostel was called Gilligans - it's the party hostel of Cairns, even all the residents of the town go out there cos there's a bar and club attached...and we had a balcony where all noisy people sat till like 5am...anyway, that night we slept through all of it cos we were so jetlagged! But woke up at 6am and had to make ourselves wait until 8am till we let ourselves eat breakfast hehe. Walked around in the morning again, then it came to lunch time. Wanted to make Kiddush but had forgotten to buy any juice, so we used a rehydration sachet mixed with water! No idea if that's correct but oh well. Then the kosher crumpets we found for challah were mouldy...eew!! Alissa and a French girl from our room went to sit by the pool, I lay down and woke up 4 hours later!!

Later that night we went out with some girls from our room cos it was one of their birthdays. Ended up in an Irish pub of all places.

On Sunday we did our first tour. It was called "On The Wallaby" and took us into the rainforest. It had been so so hot everywhere so it was nice to get to the rainforest where it was actually cooler. It was absolutely gorgeous...and learned lots about trees etc - geography in action!! Love it! Stopped at a lake for lunch where we went swimming in it. Then we moved to a waterfall where we also went in - the water was freezing, but worth it to get some good photos lol. It was where Peter Andre made his 'Mysterious Girl' video, and the Timotei advert was filmed. Aparently the most photographed waterfall in australia. We also went to see this huge crater that had been created from something to do with volcano lava meeting cold water - I think the pressure eventually got too much so it exploded and created a crater...which is now filled with water but has a thick layer of mould on it - was pretty cool though!

The next day (Monday) we went on the 'Ocean Freedom' boat to the great Barrier Reef. Couldn't stop taking photos! The water was literally turquoise! STUNNING! Me and Alissa went diving woo!! They gave me a cheap price cos I'm certified (get in!) and I got to swim alongside Alissa and the other girl who were with the instructor. Alissa nearly didn't do it so we are very proud of her!!! AND we saw: a turtle, found nemo (!), sea cucumbers, and 2 SHARKS!!! Cue jaws music. But they were only like 6ft and really cute, minding their own business. I went on a second dive a bit later.

Then we went on a glass bottom boat to this other place on the reef called Upolu Cay - it's basically a sand island in the middle of the oceasn! You can stand on it and everything. We went snorkelling aound there, was pretty cool too.

Got the overnight bus to Airlie Beach, which wouldn't have taken nearly as long if it wern't for the 2 hour-long stops he made! Oh well. Sat in the bar of our hostel with some people we met on the bus. Walked around a bit and found the lagoon here - it's even bigger than the one in Cairns. Imagine like 4 swimming pools put together in a shape that's meant to look natural lol. Went to order some alcohol to be delivered to our boat...had no idea what to pick!! It was st Patrick's Day - everywhere had green balloons outside and everyone was wearing green! It's surprising how many Irish people we've met. So last night we went out to a pub thing called Shinanigans with the people from the bus. There was a band playing music instead of a DJ (like in the clubs they go to in the OC!!). Was really fun. Came back and checked for bed bugs - killed a few other insects but don't think they were bed bugs!

And here we are!!! Wish us luck on the boat - I hope we don't get seasick! But Alissa has sickness pills so if all else fails...