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Left Asia behind us for the sunshine of the East Coast of Australia. The flight from Singapore was on time and we arrived in Cairns 9:00 Eastern Oz time ready for a new adventure. Upon arrival we were greeted by an airport official looking remarkably like Alf Stewart from Home and Away - we thought the white long socks and short shorts were a myth! Unfortunately the airport security in Australia is a little tighter then that in Asia, or we just looked like a couple of narcotics smugglers, as we were stopped 4 times within the space of 20 yards! We thought that was that until we were pulled out of the line and taken to a seperate x ray machine for our bags to be checked. Chris' went through with no problems but Gavs had to be checked twice as they thought they could make out the shape of a weapon - it turned out to be his hair dryer! What a tart!
We got to Cairns with the intention of just relaxing and recharging our batteries for our hectic East Coast trip and thats exactly what we did! We spent our days chilling by the lagoon, sun bathing, playing football and of course burning, and our nights were spent getting rat ars*d at the Woolshed which is the norm for every backpacker in Cairns! After a few days Gav started to get restless so decided that jumping 14000ft out of a perfectly good plane would be a good idea, and as it turned out it was! What an amazing adrenaline rush and the views of the Great Barrier and tropical North Queensland were spectacular - what a buzz!
Next stop Mission Beach and our first experience of the Big Green Oz Bus. It wasnt quite the partay bus we had expected and it was more like your first day at a new school! On the way we stopped off at a crocodile farm where we held snakes and small crocs and the crazy Aussie running the place decided to aggrevate one of the snakes so it bit Gav on the finger bringing the little fella to tears! Chris decided that the best way to get back at the snake would be to make Gav a new pair of snake skinned shoes to add to his ever expanding collection!
We arrived at Mission Beach expecting the bus to empty but only 5 of us alighted! We were all put together in the same dorm which as it turned out was to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. We spent the day and night getting to know Jess (posh girl spending daddys money on the plastic!), Stan (northern monkey!) and Loz (ginger!) and it turned out they were all good people - surprisingly even the ginge was ok! The next day we went extreme white water rafting on the Tully River - yeh thats right we said extreme, how crazy are we!?! To be honest the only reason Chris went was for the all you can eat bbq at lunch time! The whole day was wicked as we negotiated grade 5 rapids which we were told we potentially deadly but we didnt care beacuse we are so extreme! That night, not having too much dollar between us, we decided to hit the goon which is the cheapest, sh*ttest wine money can buy - 4 litres for $8 (thats 2.50!). It may taste like paint stripper but it does the job!
Next on to Magnetic Island with our new buds in tow. We arrived at the beach hostel and were greeted with free pints of beer, and four free shots of sambuca each - we knew we were gonna enjoy this place! The hostel was heaving which meant we were to be parted for the first time in 6 weeks and had to sleep in seperate dorms - Chris was put with a load of p*ss heads while Gav managed to charm his way into the all girls dorms!
The next day we went on a 10km trek of the beautiful bays around the island with Stan and Loz leaving young Jess behind as her butler Jeeves wasnt there to carry her! We also visited World War 2 forts where we spotted our first koala in oz! The next morning we were rudely awaken at 8 by someone banging on the doors telling us that we had to evacuate as there was the possibility of a tsunami hitting the island! We were told to grab any essentials so Gav crammed as many shoes as he could into a bag, while Chris raided the fridge! With everyone very bleary eyed from the night before it was total chaos as everyone began to panic and head for higher ground! Fortunately the wave never made it as far as us and we were given the all clear and could to start to relax again and drink the day away!
Next stop Airlie Beach for our sailing expedition on the Whitsunday Islands! Wooohooo!
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