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Ok for some reason it won't let me type in a blog for 1770 an Airlie Beach so i', just going to have to include them in here! Before i start though just thought i'd mention how great the weekends footy results were ... 7 -1 hahahaha i wish i was in the pickle for that!!!
1770
My start in 1770 didn't exactly go as planned! When I got there on the night I had to start changing everything I had planned due to the cyclone that was going to hit! I phoned up beaches who i had booked my whitsundays sailing trip with an they told me it was cancelled which i was a bit gutted about, but oh well these things happen! I changed my buses round an just stayed an extra night in 1770 an planned to get to Cairns a day earlier. The next day i just chilled out during the day and had a look round the town an the beach to see what was about. The weather was quality despite it being a bit windy so for the afternoon I booked onto a Scooterroo tour - basically you fly round the streets of 1770 on these twist and go chopper bikes! The start of the trip didn't go too well, lets just say i forgot to turn, i'm sure you can work out the rest ... (i didn't crash into anything though which was a bonus!!!) Anyway after finally setting off we started to fly around the streets. It was a bit stop start to begin with which got a bit annoying as we had to wait for the others who were to scared to open the throttle - whats that all about! After about 50mins we had our 1st stop so we could take pictures of the wild Kangaroos. So the instructor tells us to walk over slowly andyou can get right next to them - it's amazing how some people just can't understand simple instructions as about 20 people went marching over as quick as possible an scared them all off, pure top 10's!!! When we got back on it was a lot less stop start as he just sort of let us all at the front go for it - this was quality we were flying down the road at over 80Km's per hour, the bikes were at full pelt!! After another half hour or so the blue skies suddenly turned black as we caught a storm off the cyclone and it absolutely hammered it down, after about 2 minutes i was chompletely soaked through! A times as we were flying down the road barely able to see, which wasn't the best. Because of the heavy rain our trip got caught a bit short but i'd still had a quality time, plus i got to try it in the sun and rain, bonus!!
The next day i couldn't really do a lot as the winds had really picked up so i just chilled out at the hostel watching a few films while waiting for the bus which was going to take us straight into the middle of the cyclone as it hit - maybe adding an extra day in 1770 wasn't the best idea! When the coach driver saw us he told us we were all mad, an when he mentioned that the cyclone had actually built up to a category three i had to agree with him ha! The bus journey wasn't that bad it was just really windy an throwing it down with rain! We had to stop at a station for a couple of hours at one point as the weather was that bad but other then that we didn't have any major problems!
Airlie Beach
As we got closer to Airlier Beach the worst of the cyclone had passed an there were trees everywhere! We stopped at a petrol station which was pretty battered however it was the only building that was really damaged so I reckon the bloke was planning an insurance scam! When we arrived at Airlie Beach it was still hammering it down which but the bigger problemwas that there was no power, you couldn't even pick up a phone signal, it was like going back to the dark ages! Of course there wasn't exactly much to do, all the shops were closed bar subways who must have made an absolute killing, they had a que round the block all day!!! Towards the afternoon the storm cleared and the weather was pretty decent so i went with a couple of others from my room and just chilled out at the lagoon. When we got back to the hostel we were told the shop was giving out free ice cream so we headed over there! We headed round to the back of the shop and then it all clicked - there must of been about 30 - 40 backpackers getting ice cream an ice lols etc out the trash can at the back which the shop had thrown out! We'll if you can't beat um join um, so we all jumpedn to get out what we could, there was loads in there it was ridiculous!! Most people go to airlie beach to do stuff like sail the whitsundays - i went there to loot for ice cream, good times haha!! We headed back to the hostel with tubs of ice cream in hand and had a few games of cards before getting fed up with using torches an calling it an early night! I got the bus out the next morning an the power still wasn't on so i was pretty glad to be leaving!
Cairns
The bus was a pretty long slog to Cairns, i got on at 9:40am an got into Cairns at 8:40 - it dosen't look that far on the map!!! When i got to the hostel i through my bag in the room and headed to the bar to meet up with Laura an Boona from Fraser Island and have a few drinks with them. The next day it was Boona's birthday so in the morning we sorted out all our refunds from our trips that got cancelled and I booked onto the great barrier reef overnight snorkel trip that they were on. When all that was sorted it was time to start the drinking!! We got a load of strongbow from the bottle shop an played a few drinking games in the room. Ricky an Jamie who were on my Thailand tour also met up with us so i got to catch up with them as well which was pretty cool! We had a few more drinks in the hostel bar before heading to the Woolshed (a club in Cairns)! I think our plan to get Boona wasted went a bit to well as we'd been there for about an hour an a half when he decided to call it a night because he was to hammered - probably something to do with the whiskys I kept buying him, sorry mate haha!!! The rest of us stayed out an i the end only me an Laura were left so we headed back to the hostel!
It's fair to say the next morning we all felt pretty terrible and to make things worse we had to be up proper earlier to get our boat out onto the reef! We had to get a small boat out to our live aboard boat! The one bloke saw that we looked a little worse for ware an saw our woolshed stamps so told us we should definately invest in the sea sickness tablets! The journey out was crazy as the sea was rough due to the winds from the cyclone. As soon as we got on Boona went straight down to the bottom end of the boat as he felt terrible. I was sitting laughing at Laura who was pretty scared at how this boat was flying all over the place - well i was for the first hour until karma kicked in an i started to feel proper sea sick! Luckily i got there without throwing up which i more then i can say for about 30% of the other people on the boat!!! When we got on our live aboard boat we had our lunch and a quick breifing before being taken out on a guided snorkel. I struggled at first to get the hang of the breathing, partly because I thought it would be a good idea to bite my snorkel! When i finally got the hang of it and recovered from the cramp - trust me cramp in the middle of the great barrier reed is not good - we saw some amazing sites, it was like something that you'd have as your screensaver on the computer it was awesome! When we got back on the boat we heard the news that you probably wouldn't want to hear. One of the instructors had been stung by an Erikangee (I don't have a clue how to spell it) Jellyfish, so they had to get a helicopter to pick him up an take him to hospital! Luckily before our next snorkel we changed dive sites. On the second snorkel I went out with two of the others as Laura and Boona were doing an introductory scuba dive - I was proper jealous after i saw the video of it!! Unfortunately they couldn't take the camera down that we hired - we only got to use it once so couldn't get any decent pics but one of the other girls took a load so shes going to send us hers. On the night one couple did a night dive and actually saw sharks, apparently these one's don't attack you though but i'm pretty glad i wasn't there at the time!
The next morning over 1st snorkel was at 6 in the morning which wasn't the best! Laura didn't bother so i jumped in with Boona and the camera, but the sea was that rough we couldn't really see much so it wasn't really worth us going out at all. We all decided to skip the 8 o'clock dove after breakfast and went back to bed which was a top shout! At 11 we had our last snorkel so i went out with Laura as Boona had decided to do another scuba dive! Our trip out didn't start to well as i saw a massive jellyfish so we both swam like lightening in the opposite direction!!! We managed to get to a really good site where we saw loads of different fish as we got to a dive site where there wasn't as much coral. Back on the boat we chilled out for a couple of ours before we had to get the boat back to land! The journey back was nowhere near as bad we even managed a few games of cards. On the night we had a few drinks at the hostel and entered the quiz which we were actually winning, until with two rounds to go the STAFF table managed to make a miraculous come back and beat us by 2 points - what a fix!
The next day we were up pretty early again to start our Cape Tribulation trip which was a complete disatster! I absolutely hammered it down with rain all day so we couldn't actually cross the road to Cape Tribulation! We still manage to go to the Habbit, which was just a zoo, Mossman Gorge and the Daintree river! On the Daintree river we did a croc cruise but didn't see any as the weather had kept them underwater! We did manage to see a few snakes though but that was about it. On the way back we stopped at this ice cream place where i tried Rasberry, Mango, Soursop an Wattleseed ice cream - before you ask i have no idea what the last two are, they definately need to be googled! We had a quick drive through Port Douglas before getting back to the hostel. As it was our last night together we decided to get on the goon an played a few drinking games. We were going to go out but no one could really be bothered so we just stayed in drinking Goon!!!
The next day they left pretty early to get their flights to Melbourne (Boona) an Sydney (Laura) so i just chilled out in th hostel before i had to get my flight to Brisbane. There were some quality views on the flights - I couldn't get any pictures though as they just kept blurring! I've just been round the city in Brisbane today and chilling out as tommorow I get my flight to New Zealand! I can't wait to get there i start my kiwi experience pass the day after i arrive which is supposed to be quality so i'm really looking forward to it! Anyway I guess thats it for now, i hope your all well an i'll update you on how things are going in New Zealand when i get chance! Speak to you all soon
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