Cairns

Well this was our trip to Cairns. Us Gappies happened to get word from Mac (dean of students and gap supervisor) that he would be making a trip up to Cairns one weekend to visit some friends he had up there, and would have 3 available seats if we wanted them. Gratefully we obliged and quickly got excited for our first real trip outside of Charters Towers since we arrived in Australia. Granted we'd gone to Townsville on a few occasions, but that feels more like a trip from Victoria to Duncan than Victoria to Comox or something, and so Cairns quickly became the focus of all our computer time googling what there is to do in such a place. Turns out there's lots. Not only is Cairns one of the greatest backpacker destinations (since it's esplanade and downtown region has more hostels than can be counted), but it is also is located in one of the most accesible regions of the Great Barrier Reef. Not often do people realize that the Great Barrier Reef isn't actually on the coastline of North-Eastern Australia (Queensland), but instead up to 100's of kms out onto the water. However the farther north you go, the closer the reef curves towards the coastline, and so Cairns, in it's tropical northern location, creates quite easy access to the beautiful water of the reef. Upon arriving there at around 10 or 11 pm, Katie, Marco, and myself began walking up the esplanade (the road bordering the shoreline where you find all the fancy things) to find the hostel that I'd booked back in CT. This took quite a while. In fact we walked all the way up to the top of the esplanade and back a couple of times before discovering that the hostel I'd booked was discreetly tucked into some dark doorway which looked like the most shut-down place possible in the city considering it was only 10 or 11. Got in the hostel, settled down for bed and awaited our fun-filled day ahead of us... whatever that was to be. This was Friday night, and the roadtrip there took approximately 6-7 hours, so we were tired. Saturday led us to the tropical island of Green. No, seriously, the place is called Green Island. It was fantastic, and i'll explain it in another entry... after doing Green Island for the whole day we came back and decided what there was to see in the city. Being a city alive with travellers, backpackers, tourists and just plain crazy locals, we found plenty of spots for a good brew. A couple of destinations we saw and liked were P.J. O'Briens, and Gilligans... there were a couple of honourable mentions though this being a couple months after the fact I can't remember.... and one really shifty cowboy joint that felt out-of-place with the whole palm tree setting, but this is still North Queensland and NQLD loves it's country, so we didn't give them a hard time for it. After a really late night and an interesting phone call to my parents (i'm sure you guys remember), I settled down for the night, which it turned out, was to be closely followed by the morning. It came. I didn't want it to. But I got up anyway at 7 at the pressure of having to check out by 9 or lose my deposit... damn. Well it was still a jolly good time touring the city, walking to the mall that never came, and then catching a taxi to see the man who would be our chauffeur for the 7 hour drive home. All in all it was a jolly good adventure, even with the drive up watching the sugar cane fields float by and the constant thrill of a kangaroo encounter... one can never know. I'll update with some more pictures later, and then my green island pictures. Cheers.