I lucked into a cheap flight from Melbourne to Cairns for $59 with Virgin Blue. Arrived there on Valentines Day. It took me a little while to get over having been in 3 time zones in one week but I was eager to get started. Cairns reminded me of Florida, kinda tacky and really hot and humid. I liked it anyway.

I booked a fantastic 2-day tour with Adventure tours. The first day we were taken out to the Great Barrier Reef via fast catamaran. The GBR is the size of England and the only living thing to be seen from the moon!! When they offered us ginger pills for the ride I accepted them and took them straight away even though I am not really prone to sea-sickness. I've been on enough boats lately to know, when the crew has ginger pills on hand it might be a rough ride. And was it ever!! People were being sick out the back of the boat and getting tossed all around.

When we got to the reef a storm was moving in! We donned our snorkeling gear and stinger suits and got in the water, but the waves were HUGE! There were a couple of instances where I was sitting out the back of the boat waiting to get into the water when a large wave would come up, lift me off the end and slam me down onto the boat again, OUCH! So snorkeling was really cool, the water was so warm, like bath water. Had it been calmer and sunnier the coral would have looked more amazing but I still saw incredibly large clams, colourful fish, and a HUGE fish 3 feet wide and long!! The tour was so great - quality snorkeling equipment, really friendly crew, great food and on the way back a guy was playing guitar and singing, although I have NO IDEA how, as the boat was all over the place once again.

Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation

The next day I went with the same organization on a trip through the Daintree Rainforest. This was incredible, it is a world heritage protected area, as is the GBR, and the only place in the world where the Rainforest meets the ocean. First we went to a wildlife sanctuary where I hand fed kangaroos, they were so cute and shy!! Just amazing animals, and smart too. I also touched a snake, yup, and it wasn't scaly funnily enough! ;) Then we saw Mangrove trees, which are really incredible, they grow right on the beach in the sand even though they are in salt water.