CAIRNS ROUND TWO

This is our second visit to Cairns, lucky you Cairns, our first being our final Campervan destination before we flew to Melbourne, pre-Merbein. Cairns is a small tourist town on the North East Coast of Australia. You can’t swim in the sea up North due to the SALT WATER CROCS and DEADLY JELLYFISH… oh Australia and your delightful wildlife. Instead the town of Cairns has a man made lagoon (giant beautiful pool) down by the Esplanade, right by the sea where the crocs swim by cursing the wall that separates us from them.

Liv, Charlie, Mike (New Scottish friend) and I spent one of our days in Cairns at a PRIVATE tour of the Cairns Tropical Zoo. Totally worth it. We got to bypass all the ‘Staff Only’ signs and head into the enclosures. We fed lemurs, a giant weird Aussie Bird and an 18ft Crocodile, with half a chicken on the end of a wooden stick. Amazing. We also got to hold a koala and a baby croc. Such a good day.

Liv feeding a Lemur..... MADAGASCARRRRR!!!!

Liv, Me, Charlie, Heavy Koala & Mike

Me feeding an 18ft Crocodile half a chicken

 Me holding a  baby croc, we was wrigly!!

Another day and part of my Birthday pressie, Liv and I rented scooters for the day and followed a map up into the rainforest to see waterfalls, gorges, cascades and lakes. We even had a little picnic beside a mountain stream and had a visit from lots of fish and a gross EEL!! Was so beautiful and so much fun!

The rest of our time in Cairns we enjoyed our free nightly meals at Woolshed Bar compliments of our hostel, swam and sunbathed at the Lagoon, played a lot of Uno and cards, plus I cant forget all the drinking, clubbing and dancing. And of course the terrible job searching, the bane of traveling with a limited budget, but it must be done. 

That brings me to the next leg of our adventure. Jobs are definitely hard to come by. We have a saying over here…. AUSTRALIA LIES. “There’s heaps of jobs” LIES. “It’s hot everywhere, all the time” LIES. “You can easily earn 2 grand a week” LIES. Yes I know, a little far fetched to believe all of this but you would be surprised by the amount of backpackers who have been promised or at least believe this prior to hoping on a plane to this side of the world.

A week and a half in Cairns and about a week of job hunting, we finally came across a job which securely feeds us AND houses us (in our own house) AND pays us, so we though feck it, we haven’t had any other worth while offers to save more money. So right now, Liv, Lois (our new Manchester friend) and I are headed for Rockhampton, which is 12 hours South of Cairns, to stay the night where we will be picked up and brought 3.5 hours inland to the OUTBACK to work in a hotel for a month or two. Our goal = SAVE MONEY and hopefully have a bit of fun while doing it. It should be interesting! The town of Rolleston (the arse end of nowhere) where we will be, has it’s nearest biggest town Emerald, both of which are mining towns, so the tips best be good and I’m hoping that the horses best be everywhere, haha! It is the outback after all. I’m praying for some Rodeos!!!

Hopefully this will workout, we’ll have saved money and can plan our BIG TRIP OF NEW ZEALAND before heading back over the seas home again! Wish us luck, as my Mam cleverly pointed out – we are headed for David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ Music Video!!! Hahaha! Enjoy :p