Cairns

The hostel I stayed at in Cairns was downtown. Anything and everything that Cairns could offer was just a short walk away. It was called Gilligan's and I would call it more of a resort than a crappy hostel. It's by far the nicest hostel anyone had stayed in from who I talked to. Feel free to google it to check it out. The downstairs turned out to be one of the most hopping pubs in all of Cairns, so it was very lively all time time.

They split the Australearn kids into two different groups depending on where we were attending Uni (they called college Uni, short for university). The first day we drove about an hour on bus out to the middle of nowhere where there existed a small complex in the middle of this rainforest. I would almost call it a zoo, but there was much more than just animals. Naturally there were amazing animals just as kangaroos, dingos, salt water crocks, and just about anything and everything you could ever imagine to be Australian. We also saw a traditional Aboriginal dance. After the dance they showed us how to throw a boomerang, how to play the digeraroo, how to throw a spear and how to speak a little of their tribes dialect. They took us on a ride though the forest in a vehicle that when driving into the water floated and was accelerated by a propeller.

The second day we walked down to the Cairns Marina at 7:00 Australian time, but no worries mate, we are all still jet lagged so it was no problem. I first went scuba diving (which was an absolutely amazing experience) then went snorkeling for the rest of the day. And to only prove further that the great barrier reef truly is an amazing place as everyone says, the tour guide told us we picked the coldest day and one of the most cloudy days the reef has seen in over 5 years. If they never told us that then I'm sure we would have never realized because the water was still SO CLEAR and SO BLUE.

After a full day of being in the water the ocean between the reef and shores had become extremely choppy. But it was so strange because the waters by the reef were as calm as could be. At first this sucked because the warm and dry deck of the large catamaran had turned into a violent rocking ship that would take on water just as fast as it would shed it off. We had no choice but to all cram into the cabin and just look thorough the windows at the power of the sea. However, not being one to just sit back from a distance, me and a group of people maned up and very slowly worked our way to the bow where we held on to the rail literally from being thrown over and experienced a much wilder ride than any six flags ride could offer. Naturally others joined when they figured out that if you wrap every limp around the rail and hold on for dear life then you probably won't get thrown over. Luckily enough no one did.