Calling at Cairns

And so the backpacking begins! Yesterday was a hectic (to say the least) dash to the finish, to squeeze in the packing around a billion other last-minute jobs that had to be done. Just to name a few we had to dash to the Vicroads car centre to return Yvonne’s numberplates in order to get our registration refunded, run to Southlands shopping centre to pay money in and get rebates from Medicare, as well as doing some desperate last ditch washing. The packing itself took hours; we’d forgotten how much you have to cram into a rucksack! Because of all this and a million other things we ended up crawling into bed at half three in the morning, only to get up again at five to get to the airport.

The flight up to Cairns itself was sweet, bar the child that didn’t stop crying the entire three hours, that Alex luckily missed out on as he crashed as soon as his head hit the back rest. He’s too old for these late nights now! Stepping off the plane was like stepping on to a tropical island, with palms waving in the gentle sunny breeze. Finally off came our beloved jumpers and scarves!

After checking in to our hostel, the Nomads Serpent, and a quick change into more appropriate clothing, we wandered down the esplanade to check out the city centre. The walk was gorgeous and it was interesting to see how many activities take place up and down this strip. Not only is there the lagoon and many children’s play areas but there’s exercise stations and many classes going on. When we reached the city centre, something of a misnomer, we walked down a few streets and realised that was it. We found a total of one museum, one art gallery, a park and a McDonalds... and that was about it. There was however at least twenty, if not more, tour agencies advertising everything from trips to the Great Barrier Reef to Cape Tribulation. Cairns it seems is a great place to visit things from, not so much a place to spend a lot of time.

This turned out to our advantage though as scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef is something both of us have been looking forward to so we’ve booked a trip for tomorrow with Reef Experience, exciting!!!

Rex’s Rules of the Road

• If you’ve bought a car in Australia and you don’t use up your full year of registration you can claim a refund but only if you hand in your plates.

• If you have the time, start planning out what you need to do a week before you leave, especially if you’ve been in one place for a long time.

• Planes can be a quicker and sometimes cheaper option to get between Australia’s extremities. Webjet is a great place to compare flight prices.

• Although Cairns is technically a city, don’t expect a looming metropolis.