Our flight to austrilia was terrifiying as usual and we had 2 take offs and two landings as we had to stiop and refuel in darwin which i didnt appreiciate one bit! We found our hostel pretty easily but were shocked to see how much like a prison it is! There are 8 beds in a room the size of my bedroom at home and one bathroom (with a door off its hinges and cold water!) to share but its ok cos the people are nice in this one and its only 7 pounds a night! Cauirns is wonderful, the weather is great even though we were told that at this time of year to expect bad weather and to get worse the further south we get but so far it has been scortching- 29 today it was! Im finally bronzed! Cairns is smaller than i thought, frilled with palm trees and an outdoor swimming lagoon on the sea front which we have made use of! We spent the afternoon exploring, sunbathing, swimming and meeting the very friendly aussies (i love the accent and the random words they use!!) We had a cheap tea out in town followed by an ice cream tub which was lovely i had almond and pineaplle flavours. We looked round some of the shops with all the kangeroo, alligator and koala merchandise and saw some crocodile tail meat to eat but we resisted that one for now! We saw toad racing which is a traditional hobby here, we wanted to place a bet but missed out on time. We went back to our prison cell for an early night so we could get up early for our trip we booked to the great barrier reef, it is very famous and is considered one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It was amazing! We travelled there by boat, relaxing on deck before getting in out snorkelling gear at the beautiful oyster bay where we swam in the middle of the sea which was daunting, no land in sight, ive never done that before there has always been a beach or a cliff nearby! There were sharks in the water but not man eating ones- i was brave even so!! The water was very choppy due to the wind so i wore a life jacket but it was amazing looking down into the water at the coral below. Next we braved it and did a deep sea dive after a mini course on saftey on board the ship, we learned how to equalise our ears and what to do to keep our lungs safe underwater. We went 10m under the sea it was scary trying to breath through the mouth peace slowily and not panic but i did quite well as i have done it before in france. We saw lots of colourful fishes, an electric blue starfish and shells, no sharks but they hide under the coral and are shy thank god!! The water was clear and we took photos of the nemo fish under the water with our underwater camwera! I was hoping to see a gisant sea turtle but we wenrt lucky enough to see one that day but i did hold a pineapple sea cucumber which is a creature which filters the water and keeps the sea bed clean by eating sand- it was soft and wriggly- check out my photo under cairns!! I will never forget it was long as i live! The boat crew provided us with a delicious tropical buffet with king prawns, salad, bread, fruit and rice then we went to another stunning location on the barrier reef xcalled upolu cay for more snorkelling, this is where i saw the starfish. No seahorse though (one day maybe!!) On the boat ride home we sipped on a glass of champagne on the deck, most people got seasick including gemma as it was that choppy so i had her glass- poor gem! This was a first class day i love cairns! We booked an extra night in the same hostel to save moving our stuff even though it is a prison, plus we get on ok with the people in our room, mostly german people and one or 2 english.Tomorrow we get the bus to mission beach- speak soon! mwah xxx