I went with a group of 8-9 to Cairns, Magnetic Island, and Airlie Beach/Whitsundays. I chose to go two days late from the group so I skipped the rainforest and something else. It was cheaper! So I flew with my friend, Raymond.
Woke up bright and early, and 6am to be ready for our 9 o'clock-ish flight. Didn't want to get into early morning traffic! His girlfriend drove us to the airport. Thanks Monica!
Got on the Quantas flight of a couple hours and was pleasantly surprised with breakfast!
Orange juice, egg omelette with bacon, tomato, and cheese, yogurt, dinner roll, and optional coffee.
Arrived and got on a free shuttle to various hostels in the area. We went straight to Gilligan's, which looked like a great place!
They even had computers available and a travel agency-ish place for you to figure out what you want to do here. Everything looked really clean and modern so far!
Got into the room and saw clean showers...
Clean bathroom, and clean sinks!
Beds seemed pretty alright also! 8 person room.
Since we both got up so early and slept late, we decided to take a nap before the others came to meet us. Hilarity ensues through text, but it's too long to explain.... Later, the rest of the group comes to meet us in this room (6 others) and we all settle in for the evening. Gilligan's provides a free dinner for each of its residents for each night that you stay. As you could have guessed, it isn't the most luxurious of meals.
Sausage and mash. Still not bad.
Next day we spent the whole day scuba diving in the Great Barrier reef! It. Was. Amazing! I've never seen anything more beautiful... The boat gave me seasickness for a bit, but thankfully a friend gave me one of her motion sickness pills. I also... had my period, so I was afraid that sharks would come for me in the water because of the blood and kill us all. Not a fun thought.
But anyway, we were called into the deck to be taught how to scuba dive. He warned us about the difference in pressure and how that will affect our bodies, which freaked me out a bit, since I never have luck getting rid of the ear pain on long plane flights.... He also taught us three vital skills we needed to master before getting into the water. The first was how to get rid of water seeping into your mask. You press your fingers against the top of the mask, which then opens the bottom of the mask, at which time you will blow out through your nose to get rid of anything there. The second skill was to be able to put your breathing piece back into your mouth if it gets knocked away. And the third was to.... signal? Or equalize your ears through blowing your nose.
Everyone went in the first time in groups of 3 with an instructor who would hold onto our linked arms and guide us through. The first time was just alright, I have to say. It was pretty amazing, but not spectacular because there weren't too many fish, and the coral/scenery was basically very gray and still. Still fascinating.
If we weren't scuba diving, we were on the deck just laying in the sun as the water lapped against the boat calmly. The rocking wasn't so pleasant when the boat was running though.... Then the water splashed high and against us! But that was super fun! :D On the bumps, we felt like we were just going to fly up and not come down! I've never done any sunbathing before, but it's so nice and relaxing! :D Never thought I'd like something like that. Lunch was provided, and it was pretty good! Buffet style with real steak meats, salads, and veggies. Just chillin'.
After everyone's first rounds, we moved deeper and arrived at a point that was promised to be even better than the first spot. But doing this dive would be $30. It was SO worth it though. It was the most beautiful area I've ever been in... The colors and fishes I saw.... It was nothing a city girl was used to.
But by the next hour, everyone was exhausted and retreated to the inside of the boat, where most of us put our head down and fell asleep to one of the crew guys playing guitar and singing. At the end, they even handed out home made cupcakes that they were originally charging for. LOL. How do I know they were home made? Oh, I know. Trust me.
(Jk, I'm not being mean, they wrote "home made muffins".)
Took a pic with the super friendly crew! They were so helpful and amazing, I really appreciated their attitudes! It's difficult to get into the water at first, especially if you're scared of water, but they made the process very easy and calming. At the end they even gave us "certificates of completion" of scuba training. ^^ I'm pretty sure it doesn't count for anything though.
That night we just bought some goon and drank it in our rooms while playing Ring of Fire / King's Cup. Good night!
Next day we went to pick up our reserved van and drove all around the Cairns area. It wasn't he most interesting drive, but some of the scenery was pretty nice. Our first stop was a quiet area where we could go platypus watching, so we did that right after eating a picnic lunch. We had to be really quiet so we didn't scare them away...
FOUND A FEW! Eventually. Pretty cute, right?
Next stop was Stoney Creek/Lake. It was a pretty clear stretch of water that made for great scenery. I Tried getting into the freezing water and ended up just waddling there while everyone swam further. I should really learn how to swim...
Rest of everyone just chillin'. Read them books, drink dat iced tea, tan them legs.
View from the car.
We saw a few waterfalls! This one was just alright, but still nice.
This one was quite nice though! Ellinjaa Falls...
Time for Herbal Essences commercials!
The girls after getting into the freezing water! What we do for good pictures... We basically put our hair into the water and flicked it upwards to create that wet hair flow for a picture. Everyone's hair and backs were wet by the end. Pictures came out blurry.
Couldn't leave before taking a group picture! This was so hard to take because we had to set the camera on timer, but it would only go by 10 seconds, and getting to the middle is super difficult because of the slippery and loose rocks. But Raymond did it! :D
More exploring in the wild life!
You have no idea how surprisingly difficult this shot was... XD
Obviously in the middle of nowhere...
Best group ever! :DDD I'm on the right side of the picture if you can't find me. :) Yes, our van had a sun roof.
Returned the car and didn't go out to party again! Gilligan's had a club right next to it and we were seriously too tired to walk next door. Traveling takes a lot out of you! I believe that was the end of Cairns! We got on a Premier bus (like Greyhound) in the morning and bused our way to Townsville, where we would be able to take a ferry to Magnetic Island, our next destination. We took THE LONGEST time finding our way from the bus stop to the ferry... it was ridiculous. The weather was also being ridiculous. It didn't help that we were pretty much completely lost, so we wandered aimlessly for a while. Eventually we hailed a cab that fit all of us and it was about just $2 per person for the best ride ever. Took the ferry and arrived to Magnetic Island!
This is the hostel that we stayed at. It was less modern and clean than the other one by far, but it had that super beachy vibe.
We directly faced the water! Swimming pool if you prefer that.
Actual hammocks!!
The restaurant/bar where they hold all their events! Love this place.
Beach day again, after a long day of traveling.
Love my girls! We got so close during this trip! <3
<3 On the only sad area of smooth sand.
Towel, bag, flip flops. The essentials of this trip.
So each one of these little houses had 4 bunks, 8 beds. Bathrooms/showers were in another building a short (but annoying) walk away.
The next day we broke off into two groups. One group decided to take scooter bikes to explore the island, while the other bused to the beach and chilled. We were originally going to switch off drivers, but the girls realized they couldn't drive... The owner knew it too and was pretty pissed off that we were lying that we had experience. Hawhaw.
Nearby beach that we passed.
Took a stop at The Forts to look for koalas!
The cool group.
We saw no koalas, but we did see a huge yellow spider. Good times.
Next stop was a place where there were a lot of wallabies.
Wallabies = essentially giant rats. LOL.
Right by the water!
In perfect weather.
I've been working out. :)
Finally scooted our way to the beach to meet everyone. Horshoe beach?
Chilled there while playing cards (El Presidente/The President) and enjoyed light snacks of chips, cookies, and iced tea. That's the life. Raced the other group back who were going by bus. We won. :)
During the night times of these two nights, we enjoyed the entertainment that the hostel kindly hosted for its travelers. The first night was Ladies' Night, where this certain alcoholic punch was free from 7pm-8pm. I drank so much liquid that my stomach was popping out! Still wasn't drunk. They then held a competition of flexibility, where they called all participating girls to a line. They had a box from goon and put it into a drawn square on the floor. Each girl had to take their turn picking up that box using their teeth/mouth/anything but their hands or legs. No touching the floor with your hands or knees. I joined in of course and ended up in the finals! After each round, they would peel about an inch or two off the box so you would have to bend lower and lower. Everyone's strategy seemed to be to do the splits lower and lower. I just put one leg out to the side and bent the other while bending forward. In any case, the near-end was basically where the box was basically a piece of the box but folded over so there was some height. Once we passed that, the 5-6 of us who were left were lined up and given a coin to pick up with our mouths on the floor. Yuck, I know. After he said go, literally about 2-3 seconds later this girl who could do the splits picked it up and won. GG. Oh well!
The second night was Trivia Night. The group of 9 of us banded as super group and were answering about every question. This trivia competition was done pretty professionally by a company, and they had a host who would present a pretty interesting and sophisticated compilation of trivia questions involving music (played backwards), joined images (two faces in one), TV show trivia, and other things. We ended up in first place and won $50 of drinks from the bar and a $100+ voucher for this mini top-down car that you can rent for the island. Although we could claim the drinks, sadly we couldn't do the voucher because we were leaving the next day. So we sold it for $20 (no one wanted it. LOL) and used it for group taxis and such.
This is us, flashing our winnings in front of all the losers. That makes a huge pitcher of beer + a glass of beer + 4 amazing margaritas = $50 I believe. Good night. :)
The next morning, we took the ferry back to Townsville and then the Premier bus from Townsville to Airlie Beach. We settled into our next hostel then went to dinner. This hostel required rooms to be separated by girls and guys, so we had the 4 of us girls with two random girls. By far the worst hostel. But they gave us a deal where residents could have 50% off their dinner specials. I ordered chicken Parmesan. It tasted so good after the days and days of eating just cold sandwiches.
We ended the night with long games of El Presidente and Hearts, then the next day everyone went to Whitsundays and Raymond and I who had booked the same flight just waited on the island for our Premier bus at 5. Had a great breakfast though! Basically an iced coffee. :3
Spent the day just exploring.
Public lagoon.
50% off steak!
Time to leave and end the trip...
Slept in a convenience store for the night to make our flight! Damn airport was so small that it doesn't open 24 hours. Well, that was an interesting experience....
