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We arrived in Cairns and were quite surprised as to how it looked. We had imagined a totally different place after hearing lots of stories about rainforests, lagoons and sunshine. To me, Cairns is like a typical 'old fashioned, australian' town. I thought it was a little run down too to be honest, there wasn't too much to do!
Anyway, we visited the tourist information place to find the best campsite for us. We stayed in 'Cairns holidaypark' and it was lovely. It had a proper kitchen area with fridge/freezer, toaster, microwave, (things we hadn't seen in a while due to being in a campervan!). There was a tv room with cable tv and dvd's and the showers/toilets were very clean and roomy. We were really pleased as we were staying there for 4 nights.
It was a really cloudy day and it started to rain as soon as we parked the camper to have a walk around - typical! We headed to the bottle shop and bought some alcohol for a night in the camper. What a laugh, I would recommend doing the whol 'campervan' experience. I loved it!
The next day we were up early and guess what....it was pouring with rain, like proper Scottish rain!! We decided to do what we had planned anyway and that was to drive to 'Atherton Tablelands' to visit the waterfalls in that area. We thought the weather would be ok there since it was a couple of hours drive in the camper - but no. The further south we went the heavier the rain went. There was no point in visiting the waterfalls in the puring rain as you wouldn't be able to see a thing in the photos. So we turned back, made a visit to the internet, got ourselves a chippy (nothing like home) and started on the alcohol again for the evening. We were a little dissappointed as there was nothing we could do in that kind of weather - it was horrendous! But we didn't let it get us down, why should it, we were still in Oz!
The next day the weather was a little nicer - thank god! It was warm enough to wear summer clothes and quite humid but was a little cloudy. No rain though so all was good! We decided to go on the 'Sky Rail' over the rainforest. It was beautiful. Again not what I expected though. I thought we would see lots of colours, different kinds of trees and plants but all the trees were the same and they were all green - still nice to look at though. We saw a few waterfalls aswell which was really nice. We got off at the end for a pie and a cup of tea, (just like the other old grannies on the trip) and then headed back on the 'Sky Rail' to the camper.
We then drove to 'Port Douglas'. Wow, it was a really classy/upmarket place with spectacular views. The weather was warmer there too which was a bonus. We drove up to the lookoutpoint and you could see for miles. Very relaxing!
It was them time to head home before it got dark, we popped into pizza hut for some food as the thought of cooking on the stove in the rain, (yup it was raining again), was not appealing atall! When we arrived back at the campsite we saw another 'Jucy' campervan so we went over for a blether. We had watched our free dvd's by now and so swe wapped then over with the other couple. Perfect! It was yet another night in the back of the camper with some alcohol and a good dvd - loved it!
The next day we woke up to no rain - woohoo. We were desperate to go and visit the gorgeous waterfalls that we had tried to see the other day and so thought we would go see them today. As we were getting closer.......the rain started! Tough - we wanted to go so we ended up doing it in the rain! The waterfalls were well worth it. We had our bikinis on as we wanted to swim in the waterfalls but it was way too cold because of the cloudy wet weather, so we just quickly took some photos and then drove to the next waterfall.
We were really looking forward to that night as we had planned a night out with Oscar (he is in some of my photos from Surfers, Marisa's friend). So we headed back to the campsite and packed our stuff to go to his apartment. He let us shower and get ready at his which was amazing - loads of space, lots of plug sockets, mirrors (not like our camper). We had a few drinks at his and met some of his work colleagues and then headed into town. We were going to the two pubs that everyone and their dogs had told us to go to in Cairns. The first place was 'The Rattle n Hum'. It was more like a restaurant than a pub so we were a little dissappointed. However, Oscar works in Cairns and gets free drinks in most of the pubs, so guess what...Emma and I didn't spend a penny. We had vodka, wine, snakebite, shots - you name it! Then we moved onto 'The Woolshed' - a place we had heard was amazing and so lively. I don't know if it was just the night that we were there but we were not impressed. It was dark and dingy and everyone was so drunk that they could't even stand! We stayed for a little and then said our goodbye's to Oscar and his mates and headed back to our wee home, (Sheila).
The next day it was up early, (not so good after a night of free drink), to pack and then hand back the campervan. It was quite emotional saying goodbye to Sheila - she had been an ace campervan!
We wondered if the weather had been nicer then maybe we would've enjoyed Cairns more but to be honest it wasn't my kind of place. Glad I experienced being there though.
We checked in at the airport and guess what..............my suitcase was 37kg.....eh???? When I left home it was 32kg (the maximum limit) and since then I've thrown away quite a bit of stuff but I suppose I've bought alot of stuff too. So I had to take out 5kg as 'no airline in the world would accept a suitcase that heavy' - so I was told! It was a nightmare, I ended up chucking a lot of toiletries away, but I managed to get it down to 32kg!
We flew to Melbourne and I stayed at Emma's for two nights. Had a great time there. We did a lot of shopping!! The girls from my work at home sent me some birthday money so I bought a lovely pair of Ugg boots with it - thanks girls! I also bought a nice warm hoody and a scarf and gloves as I knew they would be well used in New Zealand.
We were walking past a cafe at one point and I nearly had a heart attack. Guess who I saw.........hot Dan, the teacher from neighbours! Wow he is so lovely, very nice on the eye. He was about 50cm away from me and I so desperately wanted to talk to him. He was eating though and it was awkward to get to him so I just gave him the biggest smile ever! Oh and then when we walked back again he was still there - aaaggghhh!
We had a night out on Chapel Street which was really nice and I was able to use up the rest of my aussie dollars. It was then an early night as I was to be up at 5am the next morning for my flight to NZ.
After 3 hours sleep, (the early night didn't work), I was up and ready to go to the airport. It was really weird knowing that the 'Australia' part of my trip was over. I had such an amazing time in Oz, met many fab people and have learned so much about the country. Thanks Australia - I've had a ball! xxx
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