A Baby Roo inside its pouch!

Alight, so, the other morning. . . Sunday to be exact I rode Nigel to the library because it opened at 11 and I had a lot to get done. The kangaroos sleep in till about noonish so I was up before them. I think they start getting up around 11 but usually you don't see them hopping around until at least noon. ANYWAYS, I rode Nigel to the library and saw a baby roo sleeping inside its mama's pouch. It was the coolest thing!

This was soo amazing because I didn't bring my camera with me in my backpack for like a month. After I had been here for 2 months I just decided to stop bring my camera with me everywhere I go because it wasn't as cool anymore. But for some reason I had my camera in my hand and I thought should I bring this? Then I thought no there's no point I will just be at the library all day. BUT THEN. I said in my head... oh eff it, its already in my hand so I may as well just drop it inside my backpack, and I did! And I am SOO glad because this was pretty cool!

So that is my story for today. I also had a long day at school. I had class at 8am, meeting with my teacher to go over an assignment at 9:30, another meeting with a student for an assignment at 10:30, had to make 17 pages of copies to use for my research paper at the library, and... then I rode Nigel to the gym because I left my phone there over night, then I had another class from 11-12, then I came home, made a quick lunch and worked on my assignments for a while. Then I took a short nap because that sounded nicer than coffee. Then I woke up and worked on my assignments again and then I went to the gym and ran 2 miles and then did a boxing exercise class (boxercise to be exact) and then I came home and had a small bowl of tomato soup and a piece of toast that I pretended like it was a delicious piece of cheese garlic bread. --> Take a breath and insert last picture now . . .

And don't let me forget to mention my bike ride over to the gym today, it was POORING rain. And I had a very, LARGE umbrella and it was dark outside, and I didn't wreck. When I pulled up to the gym a lady sitting outside the gym told me what I was doing is talent. I think she is right, you should try holding an abnormally large umbrella with one hand while your other hand is on the bike handles and the wind is going under the umbrella trying to fight you and knock you over and its pitch black outside. Easy? NO, Fun? YES! So I conquered that and I was really proud of myself because I almost tried to make the rain my excuse to not go to the gym. But then I thought about my alternative which was do assignments and no matter how much rain was coming down, I was going to be at Boxersize!

After I ran 2 miles and went to boxersize I came home and ate and worked on my projects and waited for Hayley to get home from the movies so we could try her dinner that was in the oven that smelled SOO DELIGHTFUL. It was a zucchini, carrot, pie slash queshe thing and the smell was amazing! It made our whole house smell like delishousness. And she made so much to last her for the week, two pie containers worth and she was going to freeze some.

She talked about it and was so excited to make this and... We both cut out a little corner and chewed very slowly and it was PUKE IN MY MOUTH DISGUSTING! I was going to try and be nice and tell her it was kind of good but room for improvement and better luck next time but I couldn't even do that. I just started laughing and spit it out but it was just so funny because she was so excited for this for a few days. My comfort statement ended up being that... "Its okay Hayley, at least it smelled really good" Soo she wanted to cry because she said she cant cook. But her pasta and cous cous is very good so maybe if she sticks to that then we can never be disappointed.

Okay, I need to go to bed! GOODNIGHT! Hope you liked the pictures of the baby roo and mama! That was my reasoning to write this blog but I got carried away, haha!

Hello reality. Hello University of Sunshine Coast!

Okay, once again I have neglected my poor little blog. Oopsies! Well… some exciting things have happened but the main reason why it gets neglected is because not every day in Australia is worth talking about, I know I make it sound like it is with my blog but in reality… it’s not. Besides school, assignments, readings, studying, library, sleeping, eating, and gym not much has been going on for almost two weeks. I hope you all took note of the first five things I wrote on that list! The best part about this is that it’s actually true (Yuck, I used the word ‘best’ in the same paragraph I was talking about school, there are so many other appropriate words to use here besides, b-e-s-t) haha.

Anyways, since I have wrote last; Ian has left, I upped my cardio, I have turned in 1 assignment, I have been working on two more to turn in this week, I have gone to the Plaza, Hayley has almost got a job, I have gone grocery shopping at Woolies, I got two summer job rejection e-mails, Lucy’s sister got married, I saw a kangaroo with a baby roo in its pocket sleeping, I have cooked a lot of food, made a few bowls of cereal, and it has been sunny and rainy.

So, Ian left last week and we had such an amazing 10 days, and it was definitely a needed time together. The last few days together we didn’t get to do too much exciting but our big thing was to go to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef and we kicked that off the bucket list right away.

The last couple days Ian was here we just hung around my apartment, went to Mooloolaba beach, had a BBQ at the community BBQ at our apartments with some friends and worked on my assignments. Nothing too exciting but just being together was more fun than anything, even if we were working on assignments.

Anas, Seppy, Ian and I all spent one day at Mooloolaba because it was nice out and we wanted to do something fun before he left (besides working on homework of course). It was a great time and the water was really nice. Anas, Ian and I swam for a while and caught some waves.

. Ian had never swam in waves like that before so he was really anxious to do it. He thought it was so much fun after he got the hang of it. I explained it in some of my beginning blogs when I first got here and went to the beach. It can be dangerous but it’s easy to avoid the danger of it. You can either go under the wave when it comes and grab onto the sand below while your under water until the wave is over you, you can jump over it if it is small enough (usually not) or you can swim (sprint swim) with the wave which is the most fun.

Or you can let it take you out which is also fun and sometimes unavoidable. Anyway, Ian loved this part, (it is a lot of fun, so I have to give it to him) I swam with him for a while then I went back to my towel and warmed up under the sun while Ian stayed in the water. Later I convinced Anas that the water was not cold and so he went in with Ian for a while.

After awhile of warming up I went back in and I snapped some photos with my new water camera case. Once we got too cold to be in the water we went back to our towels and dried off and walked around the shops in Mooloolaba. Anas and Seppy went to go get something to eat and Ian and I ate at home so we were not hungry. We separated from them for 40 minutes while they ate and we looked in the shops, and of course we got ice-cream because there is NOTHING better than ice-cream after swimming in the ocean, something sweet after all that salt. So Ian and I got ice cream, and then I got a coffee because I knew I had to go home and work on my assignments and then we met back up with Anas and Seppy and caught the bus home.

When we got home we showered and got comphy and I started working on my assignments. We did take a break and go next door so I could introduce Ian to my friends Danielle and Jennifer. He met Danielle on the bus earlier that day but I wanted to introduce him to Jenn (Danielle’s roommie) and we had to gossip a little bit about their trip that they are planning to Melbourne. After that it was back to work till bedtime.

The next night was the night we had the BBQ. We just invited a few of my friends and we all went to the BBQ and cooked. Krista, Ian and I all got salmon and split it. Ian has a special little marinade for salmon and whenever he makes it, it always turns out so good. So we had that and hung outside around the BBQ for the night and then we came home after we ate and packed up everything Ian brought. The other 75% of his suitcase that was not being used was all my stuff that he took home with him. I stuffed his suitcase soo good so I could fit all of my stuff when it is time for me to pack up everything, this way I don’t have to leave anything behind that I don’t want to. Since it is getting cooler here I sent him home with some dresses and tank-tops. When I say cooler, I mean it is not like Montana or Wisconsin, cooler means that it will not get colder than 60 degrees (except at night it will go down to 40).

So then it was about bedtime and the next morning Ian was off at 7am. I walked him to the front gate where his shuttle was picking him up and said good bye and went back to bed for an hour. It was sad for him to leave but not that sad because I know I will be back in a month and that is nothing because we just went 3 months without seeing each other. I guess since we have lived 6 hours from each other in the states for a year we are kind of used to a 1 month period away. Usually we get to see each other for 1-2 weekends a month. I know this last month is going to go by so fast. Saying good bye to him was cake compared to all of the good byes I will have to say in the next month. Those goodbyes are going to be really hard because I have met some amazing people since being here and I can’t put a time on when I will see them again so that makes it harder.

Well anyway, that is pretty much all that I have been up to the last two weeks. I have three exams to study for and I have 2 assignments to turn in this week and that is going to be a BIG relief to finally hand them in and never look at them again until I see a grade on it. I have been working on these assignments since before Ian got here. I will turn in my last assignment on Friday and then the week after that I have to give a 15 minute presentation. And between now and 33 days I will have two visitors coming from America. I will host Sam for about 5 days and we will have fun and play around the Sunshine Coast and he leaves and Shawna will come for 10 days and we will plan lots of fun stuff (besides studying, haha). After that I will have to take 3 exams and then I will be finished and will officially be a SENIOR! WOOO HOO! I will take my last exam on the 23rd of July and I will fly back to Chicago on the 25th. Pretty crazy that it is all going to come to an abrupt end so fast.
Well… I’ll write again about anything exciting that happens. Sam will be here Thursday and we will go to Noosa on Saturday, (Noosa is a National Park, famous area that is a bus ride away from school). Ian and I spent some time there while he was there and it is beautiful and fun so I am sure that Sam will like it.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned :) !!

Rememberr?. . .

So remember a few weeks ago when I told you about my shuttle ride to the Brisbane airport where I met that couple? Okay, well if not, long story short; I met a couple on the shuttle and we just talked the whole way and really got to know each other. They were headed on a cruise for 3 weeks and I was going to New Zealand for two weeks. Anyway they gave me their number and said call them and they would take us around. So I told them Ian was going to be here and they were excited to show us around where they live and all that fun stuff. I called them when Ian and I got back from Cairns and they were ready to hang out. Dot said 'Bob will come get you guys in a few minutes'. Then Bob called and said, 'Will you be ready in 20 minutes,' and we said, 'yep, see you then'. Ian and I packed a little back pack and waited for Bob to get here. It was about 9:30ish in the morning when he picked us up in his baby blue 1975 Mustang and then we drove about 20 minutes to Dot's house and had moUrning tea (there's that U again, Aussies spell morning with a U).

We just hung out outside at the table and enjoyed the beautiful weather with our tea/coffee and banana bread and shared stories about our different trips and lots of other stuff, they are a lovely couple, they are 60 and only 11 days apart (Bob is 11 days older, yes that is important, haha) Dot and Bob are 'partners' and have been together for over 5 years. Dot was widowed about 10 years ago and met Bob a few years after. They have traveled a lot together so they have a lot of fun travel stories. They also have a lot more traveling to do it sounds like.

After mornring tea they took us on a beautiful hike that was about 5 minutes from Dot's house.

You could see her house from the top. She got a new roof the day before so it was easier to spot from up there. It was a nice hike (except I saw a baby brown snake, and brown snakes are deadly), it over looked the ocean and a couple important points like Noosa, which is a National park.

We went to Noosa after this hike so it was cool to see it from away and from so far above. This hike was beautiful. It had a long story about the Aborigines and it was their land but I dont really know the whole story or else I would tell, haha. But I know the hike was amazing and a good little work out. Dot did it barefoot because she had a cut on the heel of her foot and she didn't want the wound to open up because she and Bob were going dancing the next day. The name of this hike was called Mount Coolum.

After Mount Coolum, we went back to Dot's house, had some fruit and then they took us to Noosa. Noosa is a very nice and famous National Park in the Sunny Coast and for some reason I have not made it there yet. I dont know why but it is really close to me and it's beautiful. It is about a 45 minute drive from my house but only 20 minutes from Dot's house.

We went on a really nice walk through there searching for Koala's. They are out there a lot but sadly we didn't spot any. They are really hard to see. We heard a rumor that there was one around where we were but everybody just kept saying that, none of us actually saw it.

There were a lot of really nice beaches and fun activities like the paddle boards and kayaks that everybody was doing. We walked for awhile on the trail and saw a bunch of nice views.

We saw a sea turtle while we were walking back so that can replace the koala in my book :). After our walk we went to a surf club and got a drink and hung out and chatted for while. We stayed at the surf club until the sun was going down and we watched all the people on the beach. There was this one lady that was making sand a sand sculpture and it seemed like she was doing a really good job. It was hard to see from so far above but it seemed really neat. Then there were just people swimming and having fun on the beach. After we left we stopped and Bab ran in the fish and chips store and got some for all of us for dinner. The fish they had there was amazing and it was all fresh we had that and a salad. After dinner they gave us a ride back home and hopefully I will get to hang out with them again soon! We had a really good day with them and they took good care of us. Its just funny how you meet people sometimes and how some friends come into your life. After they dropped us off we went up to Anas's house and hung out with him and Shiney for awhile and then came back downstairs and tried to do some homework. Then we went to bed :). Thats all for now!

Rent A Dent (no hidden costs)

Wednesday was our last night in Carins and we did not have anything planned out all day except for the dinner cruise that was included in the package that we bought with our accommodation. We didn’t have to board our boat until 6:40pm so we had a whole day to fun stuff. Again, it was a little problem of trying to decide what to do, (if this is my biggest problem then I am in very good shape) : ). So we talked about it and decided to just go on a walk and look around the town more and if something screamed our name then we would do that. That meant, if just looking around at all of the little stores and relaxing was screaming our name then that’s what we would do… That’s exactly what WASN’T screaming Ian’s name though, haha. After we ate brekky (cereal and toast with jelly) we packed a backpack with my computer, ipad, our swimsuits, and travel brochures and went on our walk. We walked around the water for a while and then went to McDonalds because that is where they have free WiFi. So we shared an iced coffee and checked our e-mails, facebooks, and whatever else we could check. After that we just walked more and more. It was actually very early at this point. Since we had such a long day at the Great Barrier Reef the day before by 8pm we were both so exhausted and just forcing ourselves to stay awake. By 9pm (the same day we went to the reef) we were fast asleep. We even laughed about it right before we went to bed and said we are like an old grandma/ grandpa couple going to bed so early and we would probably wake up so early also, haha! That did happen but at least we could fit more stuff into our schedule since we woke up so early the days we were there.

So we woke up around 7am and were both wide awake. I think by the time we walked and checked our e-mails and stuff it was maybe 8:30am. So after checking all of our e-mails and everything online we just started walking and enjoying the weather, the town and each other’s company. Finally we decided we had to figure out our day. We talked about parasailing, but that was expensive and it would only take up a half hour, and horseback riding which was a good option because it was two hours but then we decided nah on that. And we made, yet another great decision. Why not rent a car for the day until our dinner cruise then we could return it right before that?

So we just thought okay, we are right at a car dealer shop and if they give us a good deal then we will make our own tour. We had a few places in mind that we wanted to do but we did not want to sign up for a tour because we wanted to be on our schedule, not theirs. So we stopped at the car shop and they said 55 bucks no extra charges and that includes insurance. 55 / 2 = $27.50. Sold. So we got a car… Actually, let me re phrase that; we RENTED A DENT! HAHA, It was totally worth it though. Did 10 minutes of paperwork and drove to the hotel and grabbed our beach blanket (the top sheet off of the hotel bed) and our Chaco’s, and a few other things that we would need for our day and hit the road by probably 9:30 or 10 am.

We drove South from Cairns and hit up a few places we learned about from researching, brochures, networking and information centers. We drove about 58K’s South until we hit a tiny, tiny town named Babinda. We stopped at the information center and asked what she thought about our tour. The tour that we made for ourselves was; Babinda boulders, Bramston Beach, and last but not least Josephine Falls. She thought that our plan was great and she told us what order to do them in and then we headed 6K’s west until we hit Babinda boulders.

This was just a little hike that we went on with some beautiful scenery and formations from water in the rocks. We stayed here for about 30 minutes to take in the scenery and then hit spot 2. Bramston Beach.

This was about 14k’s west. Here we set out our extra large beach blanket and laid out in the sun for a long time, don’t worry, we re-applied sunscreen. It was really relaxing at this beach because nobody was really here and there was a netted area encase we wanted to swim. We just wanted to take a nap on the sandy beach and catch some rays though. We saw a few people come and go because it was right near a camping site but not really. We did meet a dog though, a staffy. He didn’t have an owner I don’t think but some old crazy lady said he was a town dog. She was a bit loopy though so I am not really sure what she was saying. I wanted to keep her but then she became friends with the people next to us that were taking our their sail boat. She was really friendly though and she loved Ian. I would have taken her home if I had a permanent address in Australia, haha!

Once we left here we drove west to our last destination. A rainforest/ waterfall- Josephine Falls.

. It was awesome! This place was a huge waterfall with a NATURAL WATERSLIDE! Of course the water was freezing but that’s easy to get used to after approximately 40 seconds. So we are on these rocks and then we have to swim across the swimming hole to get to the other big rocks where you walk up and then you get to the top of the “water slide”.

”. The water slide consists of a big, huge, giant rock with moss over it making it a perfect waterslide. I was a little scared to try it at first because it looks like there is a bump at the bottom that could potentially do some tail bone damage. But it was an illusion. It was a perfect natural waterslide. We stayed here for about an hour and went on the waterslide a few different times. My camera died here so I didn’t get as many pictures but at least I got a couple. After we did the natural waterslide thing then we just hiked around here to check out the rest of the area and the rest of the waterfall. It was another beautiful view.

After this we hit the road and headed back to Cairns which was about 45 minutes. Once we got back to Cairns we put gas in the car and dropped it off where we got it from. They were closed so we just parked it where he told us to and we locked the keys in the car just like he said and then we walked back to our hotel. We changed and got ready to go to our dinner cruise that was included with our package. This was a lot of fun. The food was horrible and Ian got sick from the clams BUT the dessert was good! The best part of dinner was the potato soup and the bread rolls. Everything else (edible) was crap. We got live music from a guy who had a beautiful voice and who was a very good entertainer and very talented on the guitar. We got unlimited drinks during the cruise but since we had to wake up at 6am for our shuttle to the airport they were actually limited. We brought some of my dad’s ashes and spread them in the Pacific. This water is warm all year round and I am sure the current will bring him right to the Great Barrier Reef.

Although all the food was disgusting (besides the potato soup, bread and dessert) this was the perfect ending to the perfect mini vacation. It feels so good to finally get to spend time with Ian and this time spent together was something that we both really needed. Being separated for 3 months was a big test for both of us but we realized that this time away from each other has made our relationship so much stronger than it already was so it was really worth it. Our relationship has gained so much from this test, and at the same time we have learned a lot. We know we can get through a lot and distance is not going to bring us apart and communication is a really valuable thing, especially when we are in two different countries.

For now, we have made it back to the Sunny Coast and I will write more tomorrow! See-ya for now!

Great Barrier Reef... Whaaat?

Tuesday is the day we went to the Great Barrier Reef! This trip was planned and included in our package that we got with the accommodation so we didn’t have to do anything but show up at 7:30 am and check onto our boat.

The boat was about a 1 minute walk from our hotel so that worked out really well. We woke up and had cereal and toast for breakfast and packed a backpack with our camera’s, waterproof case (best idea ever) and a towel and some snacks and whatever else we thought we wanted.

We got on our boat and did the whole, “in the unfortunate event of an accident…” talk and went through some safety stuff and normal things like that and then we set off to the reef. The Great Barrier Reef was about 2 hours from the harbour so we just went outside and laid in the sun and met a few people and hung out for two hours. We got coffee and cookies before our dives but I skipped that.

<-- [These were our stinger outfits, we needed them so we would not get stung by jelly fish. There are deadly jelly fish that are the size of our thumb nail. We went at the end of the jelly fish season but they are still being spotted here and there. Either way, we got the sweet outfits] The transportation to the reef was included with our package that we got but that only included snorkelling, not diving. Since I did the whole Padi certification class and learned all of the underwater stuff to become certified it wasn’t really an option for me to just snorkel, although snorkelling was really cool to. Ian and I both upgraded to the scuba dive. Even though he wasn’t certified he still got to go.

I think there was probably 15 people who went scuba diving that were not certified, I was the only one certified out of the group besides the guys that went with us, this just meant I didn’t have to be within an arms-reach of the guide. The first dive we went on was 30 minutes long and it was awesome!

We saw a lot of fish and tons of beautiful coral and we saw a white sting ray. After our first dive we came back up and Ian and I just snorkelled around for a while. I didn’t want to snorkel anymore so I went back to the boat to try and warm up but that task was pretty impossible.

Ian stayed in the water and snorkelled for a lot longer but I just laid in the sun in the front of the boat until everybody else came back and it was time for lunch. We had a buffet and then nachos. So of course we did what you do at buffets and stuffed our faces and then we headed to the next part of the reef.

The next destination we also had the option to snorkel or dive. We chose the dive option because this was a different part of the reef and it was totally different than the first one. This dive was way cooler than the first one.

It was way more beautiful and we went deeper this time and we saw a White Tipped Reef Shark. It was awesome but we had to put our head in this weird spot in order to see it and I felt totally uncomfortable with my head there so unfortunately I didn’t take a picture. I wish I would have but at least I got pictures of the reef and the cool fish I saw.

I saw a few Nemo fishes and a few of these huge giant fish. They got really close to us and were not scared at all. I also saw a sea cucumber and I held it, they are really soft and fuzzy in a slimy kind of way, haha.

Our second dive was 40 minutes long so it was cool that we got to stay under for longer. Ian and I both thought that that this was definitely one of the coolest things we have ever done. It is really awesome to be able to experience life under water and it is a completely different world under there. It was even better to experience it together and at World Heritage spot!

This experience was nothing less than perfect! We both felt really lucky that we got to do this because it is just something that people dream of and actually never get to do. So we are just happy and thankful that we got to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef.

Once we got back on the boat there wasn’t enough time to snorkel so we didn’t get to but I was okay with that because I was ready to warm up. Once we all got back on the boat we headed back to shore. During this time I had the dive instructors help me fill out my dive book and then we just had coffee and tea and cookies. Also one of the dive instructors was a magician so he did a magic show for us and it was really entertaining. He had some pretty cool stuff up his sleeve.

Two hours later we made it back to the Harbour and walked back to our hotel. One of the cool things about this tour was the employees remembered each of our names. I don’t know how in the world they did it but I wish I knew the secret. It’s not like we talked to each of them for a long period of time or anything but they still remembered us all.

They even went around the table and said all of our names (no we didn’t have name tags). They remembered all of our names but one girl who had a really hard German name. So I thought that was really neat! All of the employees did a really good job and made the trip even more fun.

This is one of the only locally owned tour boats, I would recommend Passions of Paradise to anybody who is planning on going to Cairns : ). It was simply amazing!

Byeee for now and I hope you enjoyed reading about my Great Barrier Reef experience as much as I enjoyed being there : )! XOXO!
(PS. Although it looks like we may be grumpy, we are not. However, we would be if we smiled and got the lovely taste of salt water in our mouths and eyes from it leaking in our goggles and mouth peice - encase you were wondering why we are not, haha!)

Aussie time with Ian- Port Douglas

We woke up early on Monday morning and had coffee, toast with jelly and cereal. We talked about what exactly we wanted to do since we had the car. There were a few different options and they all sounded so great so we pretty much just had to go through the process of elimination.

It was a beautiful, blue sky day with no wind so we decided to use that in our favour (favour has a U in it in Aussie) and check out a few beaches. After our process of elimination we had the perfect itinerary planned. We were going to check out a few different beaches and make lunch on the beach. We packed a cooler with bread, veggies for sandwiches, apples, ice water with lemon, and a kit kat.

A few different people that we talked to suggested that we head north to Port Douglas. The drive that we went on to get there was a World Heritage drive with amazing sceneries. This drive is usually only about an hour and some change but because we were in no hurry in our day, we decided to take advantages of all of the stops and beaches that we passed and spend time at each place. This was the best option because we got to see a lot more and since I was driving I couldn’t stare at the scenery the whole time so stopping was to our best interest, haha!

Our first stop was a beautiful beach that was home to salt water crocodiles and jelly fish. It was so beautiful so we decided to spend a little time here before we continued our driving. We walked on this beach for a little while until we decided to keep on driving. There was nobody at this beach and I didn’t get why because it was so beautiful and the sand was soft and amazing. Maybe the crocodiles have something to do with it though. We continued driving and traffic came to a stop right at a pullover scenery view point. So we thought since traffic was stopped we would just park and get out and check it out.

It was another beautiful spot above the ocean so we took some pictures here and then the construction guy turned his sign around from ‘stop’ to ‘slow’ so we got in the car and continued driving.

We finally made it to our destination Port Douglas. This was home to a few beaches including a four mile beach. We could only swim in the parts that were blocked off and netted because of all of the jelly fish. So we set up here and stayed here for a while. We brought our top sheet from our hotel and used it as a big giant beach blanket and had lunch there. We had sandwiches, apples and split the kit kat for dessert. It was delicious. We spent a fair amount of time at this beach because the water was nice and clean and it was a really fun beach.

. There were a lot of people because the weather was so beautiful. After lunch we swam in the ocean for a long time because we didn’t want to get out. It was really warm water but cool enough for it to feel really good and cool us down. We tested out my underwater case that we got for my camera and it worked. No leakages there. We had to test it out because the next day we were headed to the Great Barrier Reef.

After eating lunch, swimming and hanging out at this beach for a while we decided we would go check out the famous rain forest. I wasn’t really that into it because I have seen 10 rainforests since I have been in Australia and I went to a few in New Zealand also and they are kind of boring to me now. But since Ian has never been to a rainforest we went and it ended up being really cool, just like all the other ones. This one had a swimming hole with fresh water so that was actually really nice because we had been swimming in the salt water all day.

. We swam in this little swimming hole for a while and then checked out the scenic trail through the rainforest. I wasn’t going to say anything about leaving because I knew that Ian had never seen a rain forest before so I just was nice and patient about it. Then Ian just said, “eh, actually this is kind of boring maybe if we leave now we will have time to stop at other beaches,” and I obviously did not argue there.

So we walked fast out of the rainforest and started driving back to our hotel with some more stops at beaches. Finally after our scenic road trip we made it back to our hotel. We unladed all of our beach stuff and food and backpacks and everything and gave the car a quick clean and drove it back to the rent a car place and walked back to the hotel. It was not a long walk, probably about a 15-20 minute walk but we turned it into longer because we made some stops.

Cairns has night markets every night that start around 7pm I think and end at midnight. We looked around in there for a while but didn’t really see anything that we needed so we left. They did offer 40 minute massages for 10 bucks though so that was a steal that I missed out on, haha! After night markets we stoped at Woollies to get an avocado and a tomato so we could have it in our salad that we were going to make for dinner but we also ended up getting pretzels and peanuts so we could have snacks on our Great Barrier Reef the next day. After Woollies we stopped at a gelato shop and got some ice cream and then walked back to our hotel.

Once we got to our hotel we made dinner. We had salad, soup and steamed broccoli with a lot of lemon water. It was pretty late after we ate dinner because we had to drop off the car and everything so we just relaxed and went to bed awhile after dinner. We went to bed early again because our itinerary for Tuesday was booked and we had to be at the boat at 7:30am to head to the outer part of the Great Barrier Reef.