show us your Cairns

hey guys,

here we are, in beautiful Cairns (pronounced "Cans" for some reason...the Aussies love to drop random "r"s). We arrived yesterday late afternoon - the flight was about 3 hours. I keep forgetting how huge Australia is!

We checked into a hostel called "gilligan's" which is probably the nicest hostel we have ever been in. The reception area is huge - bright, hardwood floors - and the hostel even has an elevator! It's a luxury not having to haul my 20kg suitcase up flights of stairs. On the shuttle bus ride over, we met a few people and ended up all sharing a room last night. Some of the people moved on, so Jason and I got two beds in an 8 bed room (oh yes, back to the hostel lifestyle) and one of the lovely people we met is from France so we have been spending time with her as well. Last night we got a cheap meal and hung out at the hostel bar - they had $1 champagne for ladies (although our friend Élodie looked outraged at how they were pouring the champagne..it was like they were opening a bottle of rum and pouring it straight out. Apparently it's just sparkling wine, but hey, for $1, a girl can't really complain).

today we did absolutely nothing. it was lovely. Élodie and I lounged around near the water, and Jason explored for a while. We are saving ourselves for the next few days; tomorrow we are going to Cape Tribulation, a world heritage site rainforest, and the following day we are going to the great barrier reef all day, to potentially go diving (you apparently don't need to be certified because it's not that deep). So, a busy few days coming up!

I will post pictures of our adventures in the next few blog postings. I hope this message finds you well! Keep the comments coming! We love to read them :)

M xoxo