after touching down in cairns, immediately u could feel your clothes soaking up sweat from your limbs and back... its weather up in far north queensland is similar to singapore! it was my second day back in australia, so i was kinda used to the hot and humid weather and adapted quickly.. we made our way to cairns girls hostel on lake st.. the hostel was fairly decent.. it was clean and neat however there wasnt an air conditioner installed; our poor ching had a hard time sleeping because she was getting a little too warm and sticky xing ku ni le!  i guess its the price to pay for staying at a cheap backpackers.. anyway we endured 6 nights of it! i am so proud of myself.. =)

on the 2nd day, we went on to visiting a small town up in the hills (Kuranda) we opted for a scenic train ride up the hills...during our journey, we came across the stoney creek falls, glacier rock and red bluff as well as barron falls =) at kuranda village we explored the mini souvenir stalls, viewed exhibits at a photographic gallery and had pasta for lunch there was some time left before the mini bus headed for cairns city, so we went on a short rainforest walk =p

 

 

 

we signed on for a day tour the next day.. we covered mossman gorge, port douglas, cape tribulation, an animal santuary, daintree in all..

 

 

 

 

 

 

hanged out in cairns on day 4 of our trip =)  we went to the botanical gardens for brunch, there were a couple of interesting plants and ferns around.. besides that there isnt anything spectacular.. about 300m across the botanical gardens, it's the entrance for mt whitfield red and blue arrow walks.. we headed back to the city in the blue sunbus after which we went for a cuppa at coffee club and dinner at the night market. we had a glimpse of the esplanade and hurried back to the hostel to watch house LOL

     

caution!! this is the highlight of the trip!!! hehe it was the start of our diving class.. day 1 and 2 of our 4day ow course was basically filled with DVD videos and going thru the basic skills and procedures in the pool. we had our swim test and medical check up on the first day... and had a theory test on the 2nd day.. i am so proud of myself!! i scored full marks!!!!!!! lol

we went out to sea on sunkist, it was a 2 hour boat ride out to sea.. you could baically see the gradual change of colour of the water as i was chilling on the top deck of the boat =) sun baking time! lol anyway we were then transferred to the liveaboard boat called the kangaroo explorer. the boat master briefed us on the standard procedures and schedule.. we moved to the saloon and ethan informed us abt our allocate rooms... me and ching had a room down at the bottom deck we had lunch and OFF we go into the water!! woohoo!! the current was light, i was panting by the time we swam to the anchorline.. i nearly DIED.. haha i am so unfit =S then it was time for our first descent in the waters of australia.. hehe the water was a little choppy and i drank a few gulps of water b4 getting totally submerged in the water -.-''' anyway after we passed that stage.. it was EASY haha we saw some cousins of nemo during our first dive ^^ i floated all the way up to the surface when our instructor was showing us nemo -.-!!! anyway i calmed myself down and did a free decent down again.. phew.. i was lucky  we played with 2 sea cucumbers (one of which is a leopard sea cucumber)when we were down at the sandy patches =) the underwater world is spectacular..  there are just massive amounts of life forms down there! so much to see and explore! its just amazing..

 

after a 2.25hr rest we were all excited and went for our 2nd dive.. this time round we saw bat fish circling round our whole group when we were practising our underwater skills i saw schools of blue damselfish , butterfly fishes and angel fishes.. there were also colourful christmas tree worms on various lunar corals as well! heez... it was then time for the night dive!! it started raining when we had our briefing for the night dive =p i was kinda taken back, since the night dive was optional.. however, the gals in our group were all very adventurous so i didnt wanna lose out too!! haha ching and me had the adventure of our lifetimes that night! the weather was bad, it was pouring heavily and the sea was choppy.. the boat was rocking like a huge rocking chair and everyone onboard tried their very best to keep their balance~ as soon as we descent into the water, it was all calm and serene.. it was nothing like the conditions above the surface we could hear the raindrops hitting the surface of the water... it was kinda cool ^~^ with the torch in hand.. i was trying very hard to look at my surroundings, hoping to not crash into any coral.. we saw a huge school of about 30 to 40 bumphead parrotfish and a few dumb red sea bass.. hehe and a little sea star =) i fall off the ladder while i was trying to get out of the water..YES IT WAS that BAD! i got giddy (sea sickness) as soon as i got onto the boat.. and tried hard to shower as fast as i could, after tat i lay dead on the bed

we woke up at 5.30 in the morning and went for our first dive.. how heavenly!! dive for a whole day -> sleep -> as soon as u wake up u are ready for your dives again  LOL at millin reef we did out first dive for the day.. we, descent 17.8m,  saw a few bluestreak cleaner wrasse and a TURTLE!! AWWWWW.... it was so cute... we managed to scratch its back too!! kawaii then it was time for our certification dive =) a videographer followed us down too and we had our dive filmed  there were parrotfishes swimming around our group when we took our mask off and placed on some sunnies ^^ we got our SSI cards underwater and had a little message written on a board with us! it was a whole load of fun... YESH!! I AM A CERTIFIED DIVER now.. diving anyone???????? hehe we went for our first dive as a certified diver after lunch.. we went through the caves like the way they do it on discovery! we swam through confined space and emerged into schools of fishes and lots of soft coral =) i spotted a school of humbugdamsel fish in some staghorn corals.. it was then time to say gooodbye to the GBR  

The TRIP was awesome!

we ditched the girls hostel and moved into the northern greenhouse..

back on land, i could feel the land swaying as i stood still on the road.. lol ching said i had 'motionless sickness' lets forgive her.. she is trying very hard to improve her jokes... LOL joking  we had our mini celebration at a japanese restaurant which i ordered kaarage chicken don and sprite =) the northern greenhouse was wonderful, thanks ethan for the recommendation!

the next day was boring.. we didnt have any planned itinerary in mind so we made our second trip to the mt whitfield red arrow walk, world heritage forest, fresh and salt water lakes..

 

 

there was a pizza party at the woolshed organised by the dive centre.. so we had our night out in woolshed, i drank a cup of beer on a empty stomach and i was already feeling a little tipsy.. i tried apple cider too.. there was this racing goldfishes section and ethan participated but he lost to canada.. haha then we said our goodbyes to our newly found friends in cairns! 

thank you ching, ethan, CDC and my friends from norway, denmark, the states, canada and the uk for making my trip to cairns memorable !