Our last week in Oz was the best yet! We spent three days chilling in Cairns and the other three days on two of the best trips of our lives...

Great Barrier Reef- We spent two days on a boat out at see on the Great Barrier Reef. There was 20 of us on the boat (5 crew) and everyone was so nice and loads of fun. The boat was lovely and the crew kept us well fed throughout our time aboard the boat.

It took about 3hours to get to the first reef and I was feeling pretty rough (even though I took a sea-sick tablet grr), the girl next to me was NOT helping as she kept rabbiting on in my ear about her life and all I wanted to do was curl up and pray. After about two hours Matt wasn't feeling too good either- not surprising as he was sat at the side of the boat looking out evwen though we had been told to sit at the front LOOKING AHEAD AT THE HORIZON! Typical! So he joined me at the front at felt very sorry for himself.

The further out the reefs the better as all the day trips go quite close to land. But when we arrived it is was beautiful and a bit daunting as we were the only boat around. Matt and I, plus some american dud and a Tazzy bride, did an intro scuba dive first. We got in with our kit after a brief 'how to' and he one by one took us down. Matt was second, I was supposed to be third but got half way down and had a little panic and went back up. The Taz tried and freaked out so got back on the boat but I was determined (especially as Matt was already down there). I did it fine and our underwater trip began... I t was so beautiful, the reefs are amazing but as we were so deep (well only about 10 meters) it was quite dark so the colours weren't as bright as Ithought. It was an amzing experience but I oculdn't help thinking a shark would appar out of the dark depths ARGH! And the Jaws sound track they had played on the boat just beofre really DIDN'T HELP! Altogether we were under for 25minutes, and as great as it was neither of us wanted to do another.

After moving on to another reef we did lots of snorkelling (Di and Bern will be proud to hear I didn't need a life jacket once, nor did I burn my booty hehe). The snorkelling in our opinion was much better than scuba as you are right above it and see so much more! THe reef and fish are so beautiful with the most spectacular colours and patterns. I really felt that I was in Finding Nemo... And we even saw a turtle (noone else did) and we swam with it for a while.

That night the Captain of the Ship got all his maps out and pics of fish and explained it all which was so interesting. However, as I pointed out "would it not have been better to inform us about the deadly shells, fish and plants before we had spent the day on the reef???????" We all survived the day though, phew! We later had drinks and the captain played his guitar and we all had a jolly good sing-a-long! Life at sea...

The following morning, after a nights kip on our tiny bunks we arose to have a yummy breakfast looking out on the great barrier reef... it really doesn't get much better than this- this is what dreams are made of hehe, pure cheese I know, but so true! The rest of the day was spent sunbathing aboard and plenty of snorkelling. All in all our trip was FANTASTIC!!!

Uncle Brian's Tour - Our last full day in Oz was spent on Uncle Brian's Tour. The company has been going for about 25 years and the tour guides (well ours at least) are experts on the rainforests, rivers and nature in the Cairns region. We visited four different locations in total and the tour lasted from 7.30am to 9pm so a long day, but so worth it. Whilst travelling to places he played games with us on the bus and told us all about Oz and Cairns.

Our first stop included a trek through a rainforest where he told us all about the plants (their defence mechanisms, poison etc), bugs (pointing out the BIGGEST spiders in the world ARGH) and told us all about the aboriginals and their stories/curses etc, it was absolutely fascinating. Our 'Uncle' took us to a place in the middle of the forest called 'Devil's Pool'. Where over the last fifty odd years around 15 'single' men have died... The place is cursed, according to an Oboriginal story which is hundreds of years old...

A young girl of one of the tribes was chosen to be the wife of an elder of another tribe (this was an honour for her and her family), however she fell in love with a young lad of the elders tribe and they ran away together. Trackers found them and took them back to their tribes where he was pinned down in the middle of the forest with spears left to die and her father threw her into a huge rock pool where her body was never recovered. Since then many young lads have died there (even though they should not cross the boundaries and get in the rock pool). The most recent a few years ago a young teen died there, when his two friends who witnessed him drown were asked why he had got in they told the police they had heard a young girl screaming... the lad had got in to find the girl and never got out again! Very spooky! Over the years many people have claimed to hear a girls scream AGGGRRRHHHH!!!!!

We then took a swim in a freshwater lake (no crocs phew) where he then told us about the spiritual aspects of the aboriginals and taught us breathing/de-stress techniques... something I have since needed to use but haven't eek!

Our next stop was FANTASTIC, a quick walk through a rainforest and then we came across the most beautiful river in the middle of the forest. It had small waterfalls, rapids and massive rocks which we could slide down! It was so much fun! We then moved onto a lovely little cottage for lunch on the veranda with gorgeous views of a dairy farm.

Third stop was at the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen! It was the waterfall used in the Timotei advert years ago and was also used in Peter Andre's 'Mysterious Girl' video. We swam through it and us girls did the Timotei pose where we flicked our hair overour head... not quite as good as the advert hehe.

Our last stop was at a massive lake 60 meters deep which used to be a volcano. We also did Platypus spotting, but the b*****s didn't come out for us. By this point it was very dark... I suddenly heard and felt a sloppy thwack on my foot and then it jumped off... it was a big frog! (I'm sure nanny will feel my horror!)