CAIRNS

After doubling our time in cairns and staying for a week it's safe to say we loved it. Theres so many activities and things to do, we only had one day where we didn't do anything! 

We stayed in the YHA hostel which was actually pretty decent and we got quite lucky with our dorm mates. We opted for a 4 share dorm as it was our first hostel and just wanted to experience it. We also got lucky on the last two nights and had the room to ourselves which was a win! 

Here was where we did our bungee jump, we took a trip to AJ Hackett and the staff were so friendly and just encouraged you to be brave, something I definitely needed! The height of the jump was 50m, which doesn't sound a lot but when you have to throw yourself off it trust me it is. I stood at the top for just under two minutes before he counted down and I just flopped off the edge; my video is so funny! I'm so glad I did it, but I am 90% sure I would never do it again. The couple of seconds you're free falling you just feel like you're not attached to anything and just heading straight towards the ground, which gives you the biggest burst of adrenaline! Brad enjoyed it so much he did a second one; this time running and jumping off the roof. 

In Cairns we also did three day tours. Our first to Cape Tribulation and up into the Daintree rainforest. We went for a wander in the rainforest, stopped off at a little beach and went on a little cruise and saw some crocodiles! One had even wedged a dead cow in a tree to munch on. 

Our second day trip was snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. This is definitely one of the best things I've done and it was just something out of a film as soon as you stuck your head in the water. We saw countless numbers of fish and jellyfish, a few turtles and a baby reef shark! (He was still about a metre and a half) But on the way in from our second stop there was loads of bluebottle jellyfish! So many people got stung and Brad took one right to the neck. The weather was also amazing and we met some friends on the boat and finished the day with (too many) drinks with them :)

Our last day trip was to the Atherton Tablelands with many stops at all the waterfalls to swim in and slide down! We stopped at Millaa Millaa Falls; where the Herbal Essences advert was filmed. We were quite lucky because everyone on our trip was young and from the UK. Literally everyone mingled and it was such an enjoyable day! 

There is some other things to do in Cairns also. There's a lagoon, because unfortunately you can't swim in the sea in North Queensland because of crocodiles. There was a live band playing everytime we went there which was nice. There's also a huge shopping centre if you're not trying to save money! We just took a wander round and just brought dinners from Coles. We also went to the casino where I got lucky and won $40! There's plenty of markets and food places to wander round during the day and in the evening too. 

We went out for drinks most nights with friends and all the bars/clubs have free champagne to girls, did numerous happy hours and jäger bombs went down to $4 (£2) which was always a win-win situation.

Despite all the day trips my favourite memory in Cairns has to be Brad being so drunk he opened the hostel door (naked) in the middle of the night, went for a wee right outside the door, and wandered back to bed... All hanging loose for our two hostel roomies to see! 

Overall we really enjoyed Cairns and I can tell it will be one of our favourite places that we visit. We couldn't work out if we would come here again because we've done all the main activities and there wouldn't be much point repeating them, but it will always be one of my favourites!