Cairns

Hi everyone! We arrived in Cairns 2 days ago and it is HOT here! (about 105 degrees with 90% humidity). We are staying at a really cool little hostel, but unfortunately our rooms don't have air conditioning! We might go up to Port Douglas for the weekend with Brittney and Verona, but until then are just hanging around Cairns and going to scuba dive the reef! We fly out of Cairns on December 4th over to Auckland, New Zealand. So excited!! We miss you all so much. xoxo

Magnetic Island!!

Ohhhhhh!

We were so close to them! Look how Mama is just hanging there!!! SO CUTE!!

Mama Sheila and Baby Felix!! (we named them.)

A pretty view from our National Park walk! (where we saw all the koalas)

Our humble abode!! It actually wasn't too bad since it was just the two of us in there (minus all the ants and the opossum...)

This is the pool we learned to scuba dive in! We spent the first 2 days in the class room in the back and in this pool, then the next 2 days diving in the ocean (a total of 6 ocean dives.) We are now officially certified scuba divers!!! We'll try to add a picture of us in our gear later...The 2 girls we did it with (Britt and Verona) have them on their camera.

Kookaburra!

Sailing the Whitsunday Islands!

Looking sexy in our "stinger suits!" We had to wear these whenever we went in the water because of the poisonous jellyfish!! The snorkeling was amazing though and well worth it.

The cutest friendly fish! They followed us around everywhere when we went snorkeling and were about 2 feet long!

Awesome snake we saw on one of the Islands we stopped at! He was probably 5 or 6 feet long

White Haven Beach... One of the top ten most beautiful beaches in the world! The sand is the purest sand in the world and is made of 98% silica. Only NASA has been given permission to remove any of the sand... they melted down one ton of it to make the lens of the Hubble Telescope!!

What a view! (the beach, not us)

The catamaran we sailed on, Cora!

Relaxing on the boat!! There were 40 of us, plus the captain and 3 shipmates! We sailed/snorkeled during the day and slept in hostels on South Molle Island for 2 nights. Such an amazing trip!

So Ash didn't know she was being filmed for this, but she wanted to get a picture with the parrot! This is on South Molle Island where we slept at the "resort." Check out her facial expressions! LOL

1770

This was our favorite hostel so far--it's called Cool Bananas! The city was a bit dull, but thankfully the hostel was a lot of fun (and clean!) We stayed 2 nights before hopping on a 9 hour bus ride up to Airlie Beach.

Hammocks outside of our bunks.

Our bus left 1770 at 12:30 at night last night during the middle of a HUGE rain/thunder/lightning storm! Luckily the rain helped cool things down as it is getting very hot up North!

Fraser Island

Hanging with the girls at Lake McKenzie!! This was our last day on Fraser and by far the most amazing Lake we've ever been to!

Underwater camera fun!

The great journey to Lake Wabby through the sand dunes!!

Walking up Ellie Creek so we could float back down!

The whole gang!! There were 21 of us total in 2 cars. We all camped and explored the island together. This is in front of the famous Maheno Shipwreck that crashed on the island in 1935.

Hanging out with Verona about to hike back from the Champagne Pools to Indian Head and the cars.

The Champagne Pools! You can't swim in the ocean at Fraser Island because of all the sharks, but the champagne pools are a natural swimming pool free of sharks!

Swimming in Lake Birrabeen!

We went on a 3 day 2 night 4x4 excursion on Fraser Island last week! These are the girls that were in our SUV: Janice, Brittany, Verona (all Canadian) and Lindsey (Irish.) There were also 4 boys in our group from Ireland.