Holiday!!!! And there's nothing better than heading to Australia's north: It's hot ("it's currently 36c outside this bus" in Townsville), it's beautiful, it's fun, it's awesome and I love it!
All the way back in October Jetstar had a sale on, so I booked flights for Sandra and myself. Flying into Cairns at the end of January and flying out of Proserpine a week later. I finally got to give Sandra her tickets back at the beginning of December for her 30th, and since then we have been planning our trip, tryna make it as awesome and epic as possible! And with the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday islands as our backdrop, it was never gonna be too hard to fit into the previously mentioned categories!
We left our home, in Brisbane late Saturday morning and headed to the airport, before taking our (roughly) two and a half hour flight up north to Cairns, and what views we had. Flying over Australia's north are honestly and easily some of the best flights I've ever had for the views. On this occasion the flight took us up with Australia's east coast glaring at us from our left window the whole flight up, until we got further north and all we could see was glorious blue sea with reef after reef after reef! And landing in Cairns airport surrounded by luscious green hills (and some rain, which did pass quick). Before taking the short bus ride into the centre of Cairns …time to start our holiday for real.
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| Flying over the Sunshine Coast,... |
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| ...Mission Beach,... |
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| ...The Great Barrier Reef,... |
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| ...And arriving in Cairns. |
We checked into our hotel, dumped our stuff into our room, dumped, and pretty much head out straight away to check out the "city" that is Cairns. The night pretty much involved Buvarion beer and pretzels, crocodile burger, and a hostel night life.
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| Our hotel in Cairns... |
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...And the looooong corridor to our room!
(our room wasn't even at the end of this corridor) |
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| Guess the meat again... |
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| ...Crocodile |
We both woke up feeling pretty tired the following morning, having to wake up at 6:30 so that we could get picked up at 7:15 for our full day Cape Tribulation tour. The tour took us north and took us through the rainforest (for a slow stop/start short walk), up to Cape Tribulation beach for our lunch, before heading to the Daintree river for a crocodile river cruise (sadly only seeing one croc this time (compared to last time when we saw loads) but it is summer now, so they're harder to spot, and that being the first croc that our tour guide had seen that day, so we were pretty lucky when you put it into perspective) before heading to Mossman Gorge for a late afternoon dip and dive. Overall a pretty full day, with our awesome and extremely informative tour guide, George, and a pretty awesome group of about 19/20 of us. Well worth the money and time. Some old and now places for me to visit, but all new for Sandra, and all awesome for both of us.
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| Little Stingray on the shore |
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| Alexandra Lookout |
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| Cape Tribulation |
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| Awesome view at our ice cream stop |
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| Crocodile in the Daintree River |
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| Mossman Gorge |
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| Big guy |
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| On route back to Cairns |
No need to change the alarm settings on my phone on Sunday night, as we woke up again at 6:30 on Monday morning, this time to head to Cairns harbour by 7:30. This was the day I was looking forward to the most, diving the Great Barrier Reef! I've been told by many people that you don't need to dive the reef, and told by many divers that the reef really isn't a great dive spot! But that wasn't gonna stop me, I didn't care, I was in north-east Queensland and I was gonna dive the reef! We boarded the Reef Experience after being told that we were being upgraded from the original tour that we booked (I will never know if this was true or not, but mwah) and after filling out forms we set upon our voyage to the outer reef. After sailing for about an hour and a half they called upon the certified divers to go through what they'd be doing with us, as we would be diving first. I felt pretty cool at first being 1 of only 3 certified divers, on a boat full of over people (but that coolness was later crushed when Sandra pointed out that the reason for this was probably due to the fact that most certified divers will be on better trips (true German ego crusher style there)). This was my first dive since I have been certified, and my first dive in just over 6 months. The first dive spot was at Coral Gardens, and the second dive spot (after our buffet lunch) was at Cabbage Patch. With me really tryna work on my breathing in the 2nd dive so that my air would last much longer. The two highlights of the day we're definitely seeing 3 sting ray on the 2nd dive and feeding a turtle on the 1st dive. To be fair we didn't go down too deep, maybe a maximum of 12m on my first dive and 8m on the 2nd, but it was still awesome, and nothing beats that feeling of being free under water. Plus I got to snorkel at both dive spots for a long while after my dives, so that was cool. As this was only my 5th and 6th dive it felt crazy that I was pretty free and Caroline (my dive instructor) was pretty much just my guide, but before not too long at all it feel cool and a massive confidence boost to be left to my own devices and in control! The day was also helped by a few awesome people on the boat including Straggy, Zack, Rachel, Peteo and co! Sandra loved her dives too, even though they did have to go down in a linked chain of 5 on the way down on her first dive. I can definitely see what people mean though when they say that the Great Barrier Reef is looking tired. It is not as vibrant and full of colour as one would hope. Kinda sad really, but it's still a special place.
The boat got us back to shore at 4 in the afternoon, both of us a little bit red, but satisfied with the day's activities. The evening was again pretty chilled out, and we returned back to our hotel after eating to get our stuff together ready to get our bus to Airlie Beach for the following morning (this morning). We woke up 10 minutes later this morning, at 6:40 so that we could get ready and be on our Greyhound bus at 7:45. Our long bus ride (11 hours and 10 minutes) that should get us to Airlie Beach at 6:55 tonight. Hence why I'm writing this post while I'm on the bus, to kill some time. I've already checked my emails and Facebook, and watched Saints loose to Swansea. I was hoping to get this published today, but for some reason Blogger doesn't have access to my photos on my phone, I dunno if that's Blogger or Apple blocking that, but when I get home to my computer in Brisbane I will get this post published (with pictures) along with the next part of our holiday: Around the Whitsundays. We stay in a hostel on Airlie (the mainland) tonight. Then South Molle island for 2 nights. Sandra must be sad that we're gonna be staying in hostels over the next few nights, as it means that we'll have our own single beds, which means that she'll have no one to punch, knee or kick her through the next 4 nights! I definitely don't mean to do it, but it definitely happens (probably even more often than even I would like it to!?)
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| So many bats.. |
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| ...And an awesome sunset! |
I started writing this part after we left Townsville at 2:15 this afternoon, and as I stop, our bus is just arriving at Bowen now for a break, with about 2 hours 15 to our destination. And it's just started raining here.
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| Whata view.....Cairns to Airlie |
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| Scary sign to see in the male toilets at a random petrol station in the middle of nowhere |
Holiday!!!! PART 2: Whitsundays!!!
Well this part of my blog is written after our holiday, home now, and back to normal.. I was gonna write it on a separate post, but as I've still gotta upload all my photos, I figured that I'd carry on and add it to the existing post!
So carrying on from our bus ride, we actually arrived there about 20 minutes earlier, which was nice....really nice! We just missed what looked like an awesome sunset as the bus parked up. But that was fine, we headed to our hostel, checked in, showered and then spent the evening/night chilling at the hostel bar....tomorrow was gonna be a lay in day...no alarm until 9:30!
The next morning/afternoon, we had a few housr to kill between checking out at 10, and starting our tour upon Pride of Airlie at 2. But after eating food and passsing the time we headed to Airlie lagoon, to board our Sail boat, along with about 40-50 offer travellers.
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| Airlie lagoon |
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| Leaving Airlie Beach |
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| Aboard the Pride of Airlie |
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On the boats toilets.
I think you need to read this as it's written to see why I find it funny! |
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| Our first view of our new home for the next 2 nights, South Molle Island |
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| The view from our room |
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| Sandra... |
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| ...kicking ass! |
That evening, we chilled in the pool, had a few drinks at the island resort, then the next day was a day of sailing and snorkelling.
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| Heavy rain, just as we were about to board our boat, with all of our things |
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| But it did clear (and rain again, and clear again, and so on and so on!) |
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| Whitehaven Beach (not "inlet") on Whitsunday Island |
I did get a bit sea sick on the boat (but not as bad as some people did), it was a choppy day on that water. But where the stomach is weak the mind is strong, and I spent the morning staying at the front of the boat to feel the full effects of the waves, mind over body! The day was pretty good, pretty chilled, including a good snorkel spot on the shores of Boarder Island. We also saw plenty of turtles whilst on the boat in the morning, and dolphins in the afternoon. When we arrived back to South Molle Island, after a bit of a chill, we had food, a few drinks, and a spot of karaoke! (And probably the longest game of beer pong ever played)
On Friday (the last day of our little holiday) I did wake up still feeling a little bit drunk, but a walk up to the highest point of South Molle Island soon sobered me up.
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| The view of one side of South Molle Island... |
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| ...And the other side! |
Just before feeding these fish from the jetty, we actually spotted a reef shark. So cool! This is not him:
And that was that. We headed back to Airlie Beach early that afternoon,, before having a few drinks with Ian (from the crew) and a few others from the boat/island, on Friday night. Then flying back home, to Brisbane, late Saturday morning, But what a great week it was.
Really back to reality now, back to work on Monday, and started a boxing class (a really hard workout boxing class) with Terry, also on Monday, and planning carrying on with that on for a while.
We're still not sure what are plan for the future is yet. My company are messing me around with the potential of a 457 sponsorship visa...still (which is annoying as before Christmas (when we were still unsure what we wanted to do) it was a "definite" from my company, but now they're "50/50"). So on Monday I went to speak with my manager again, who informed me that "they're still not sure", so I informed him that "as much as I like it here, don't be surprised to hear that "I'll probably be looking elsewhere for work then""....change of tunes on their part since then. As of yesterday (Tuesday) I've been receiving training on new products, and I finally have my own desk (sort of, not really), so it's sort of a step in the right direction. I just wish they'd actually voice their plans to me, and stop leading me on. So with that in mind, and now our holiday is over, I will be on the job hunt, as I think we both wanna stay in Australia a bit longer still....1 year is never enough. Now Sandra's seen Outta Brisbane, she's gotta taste for it!!!!!
Just wanna take the attention off of me (I know, I know, it's hard, but it's just for a moment), to say a big congratulations to Ryan and Katie and their littl'n appearing on our planet in September. And a big shout out to my Gramps, get well soon mate, kick this virus in the ass! My thoughts are never too far!
