Melbourne, Cairns & Port Douglas

I returned back to Sydney on the 29^th of February, from an awesome holiday back home, I was full of hope and looking forward to getting back to work and enjoying the Sydney way of life.  Unfortunately, the financial crisis is starting to hit this part of the world and my agency decided to make some cuts, hence I was unfortunately made redundant.  So after spending a few weeks adjusting to being unemployed and looking for work, it was becoming clear that not much was around.  Because of my visa situation I need to find work in order to stay in the country.  So I essentially have until the beginning of May.  So with this in mind I made the decision that I needed to do some travelling as there were still many things that I hadn’t seen downunder yet.  So after 3 weeks of job hunting and having very little success, I booked a trip to Melbourne, Cairns and Port Douglas (gateway to the Great Barrier Reef).

So I started out by heading to Melbourne, arriving the day after the first F1 GP of the season.  So one of my first thoughts was to get down to the track to have a look at it.  However, this would have to wait until the next day, I was staying with Kirsty in her place in St Kilda on my first night there.  After a quick drink in federation square we jumped on the tram, where we were thoroughly entertained by a crazy woman, and headed out to St Kilda.  We had a great meal and then walked along the front.  After a fairly comfortable night on a big yellow sofa, I headed to Kirsty’s place of work for an awesome breakfast.  Which was ideal as it was directly across the road from Albert Park.  So I headed across the park and was surprised to see the track completely open, but all the fencing and stands still up, I even managed to walk the starting grid and into the pits where all the garages still remained.  I then walked into the city centre, to check into my hostel, and spent the afternoon hanging out in Melbourne’s famous side streets, cafes and bars. I then headed for an early night, as I needed to be up early for a trip on the Great Ocean Road!

Using the same tour company that I went on the Neighbours tour with we left from right outside the hostel at 7am.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t on our side, it was pouring and driving through the coastal towns of Torquay and Apollo, it didn’t look like letting up.  However, as the day wore on it got a lot better.  By the time we got to where the wild Koalas hung out the sun was shining.  There were loads of these guys, just hanging out in the trees above the road.  At lunchtime we stopped for a typical Aussie lunch, a bbq at a lighthouse at Cape Otway.  By late afternoon we reached our destination that is the 12 Apostles, these are amazing and if you don’t know anything about them then, ‘The Twelve Apostles is a collection of miocene limestone rock stacks jutting from the water in Port Campbell National Park, between Princetown and Peterborough on the Great Ocean Road.’  As you can see, they are pretty amazing! 

  

It was a fantastic day, one I will never forget.  The next day though, I packed my stuff up and headed to the Airport as I had a flight to Cairns to catch, via Brisbane.  After two, 2 hour flights, I was finally in Cairns.  Now, I thought Cairns would be lovely, as it is surrounded by rainforest and is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, but the truth of the matter is Cairns is a bit of a dump.  There isn’t much there at all apart from a lot of bars and clubs, there isn’t even a beach, just some mud.  It’s not the best of places, so thankfully I was only staying there for the night as early the next morning I had a bus booked to take my up to Port Douglas.  However, when I got up the next morning it turned out what should be an hours drive from Cairns was going to take much longer.  There had been a landslide on the main road which meant a 2 and half hour journey over the mountains.  By lunch I had made it, I checked into the hostel and immediately booked a trip on a boat the following day, to do some snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.  I spent the afternoon wondering around the town and then to the beach where I was welcomed by a sign telling me to beware of Crocodiles in the sea!  So that was comforting, not only was I already worried by sharks and poisonous jelly fish, I now had to think about crocs!  Excellent. It wasn't a bad beach though.

The boat pulled out the harbour at 8:30am, and it would be a 90 minute ride out into the ocean to the first dive site, there would be 3 locations throughout the day, with us spending an hour in each place.  During this time, we were given instructions on how to use our equipment, not hard really, but good to know all the same. We also got changed into our lycra suits, I can tell you, I looked fantastic in it. There is a picture, but it is simply just to good to share! Then we arrived at the first site.  I thought I would be a bit worried entering the water so far out to sea, considering the amount of sharks, but for some reason that doesn’t even cross your mind when jumping in. I could try to describe what it is like swimming about the corals of the reef, and looking at all the animals, but I think this promo video from the company I went with shows it better than I could ever describe: 

It is just simply one of the best experiences of my life.

We did see sharks, people claimed to see a turtle but unfortunately I didn’t.  I did see plenty of other animals though, hundreds of types of fish and, yes, I did find Nemo.  On the 3^rd site, after an awesome lunch, we arrived and stopped and suddenly the captain shouted, ‘BIG SHARK IN THE WATER!’  Now my thoughts at this point would be that we wouldn’t be getting in the water anytime soon.  However, he then shouted, ‘GET IN THE WATER, QUICK!’  Eh what was that???  I don’t think so! I am fine right here on the boat, and I think this was the general consensus of most people on board.  However, all the crew started telling us it would be fine and so, in we jumped, with a huge shark, which promptly swam off as soon as the hundred divers and snorkelers jumped in the water.  So I never did get to see it up close, which I am actually slightly disappointed in.  So here I am in all my snorkelling glory holding a sea cucumber, which is basically a big worm.

With the trip out to the reef came a free sunset cruise the following day on a catamaran, which was lovely, although it was cloudy and the sun wasn’t due to set for another 2 hours after we left, and the trip was only an hour and a half long.  However, it was very nice anyway. 

On my last day I had booked a trip on a tour of the Daintree Rainforest, basically because I wanted to see some wild crocs.  Again it was another early start, but the luckily the bus was coming directly to the hostel to pick me up.  I was the first pick up, and a girl from my hostel also got on.  Her name was Anna, she was up in Port Douglas from a little town north of Melbourne where she has been working as an nanny for a family.  With little time left in Australia she had also decided to do some travelling.  Little did I know at this point, but meeting Anna, would lead me to a whole new adventure.  We spent most of the day on the rainforest tour hanging out as we were the only people there on our own.  The trip itself was amazing, I saw some wild crocs and enjoyed plenty of walks through the rainforest, although, it poured all day, and by the end of it, everyone was a bit damp.  When we got back to the Hostel Anna and I went out for some food, earlier in the day we had talked about different places we had been and wanted to go.  She was off too New Zealand the following Saturday for a week and I had told her I really wanted to go there before I eventually leave Australia. 

So as we were walking back to the hostel, she asked me if I would like to go to New Zealand.  I thought, pretty quickly, about it and then said I would love too.  So there finished one great holiday, and triggered  the beginnings of a whole new adventure!

There is a big croc in this pic somewhere.

And so, too New Zealand.......