We’d got the tip that the red cat trip was a good one from Skye’s mum and so booked a day tour on the Thundercat!

We got picked up at 8.30am down the street (they were a bit late!) and then headed down to the harbour. It was a big operation with about 5 boats. We got aboard and headed off for about 40 minutes to Punk (?) Island.

I think we were all a bit hesitant to jump in but when we did we were blown away – the fish were absolutely amazing. We saw zebra fish, yellowtails, lovely blue/pink/yellow fish. The coral was beautiful too and so much more colourful than Fitzroy.

I think we were all gobsmacked at how beautiful it was and what a cool experience we were having. Definitely one we’ll never forget!

Sadie was a bit cautious so got onto the small boat and enjoyed zooming around in that for a while.

We loved it!

Next stop was xxxx bay, which was absolutely beautiful! The company had a licence to feed the fish so they threw some food in and we were suddenly surrounded by hundreds of yellowtails. So close you could touch them and some of them bumped up into you. We also saw some huge flat fish swimming around. When we were back on the boat I was lucky enough to see a huge sea turtle surfacing and then going back under.

After that we went on to Whitehaven beach, which is completely unspoilt and a kind of paradise. The sand is so white! It’s almost pure silicon so it squeaks as you walk.

We walked across the island about 15 mins and came to the beach – the water was so clear and beautiful and we were all desperate to get in to cool down.

We splashed around for a good while and saw a few stingrays! We had a bit of a snooze in the shade and headed back to the boat.

We had a fantastic day! Finished off with dinner at Sorrentos with a decent meal.

We didn’t have anything much planned for today so we grabbed our beach stuff and headed to Airlie Beach lagoon. The sea has stingers and maybe sharks, so there’s a lovely large pool just near it. We lazed around, swam, read and drank iced coffees and iced chocolates,

Paul was still enforcing the starvation diet so we just had cereal bars (sneaked when he wasn’t looking) and fruit. We confirmed our booking for the boat trip the next day and worked out we could leave our bags there. We popped to the supermarket and picked up some things for dinner.

We went back to the apartment and later on went for a walk around to the harbour and spotted a nice restaurant for the next evening. Ronan stayed at home. The three of us all had a drink at the Nomad backpackers.

We had our first home cooked meal – roast chicken with salad. It was delicious! The watched a bit of cricket on the tv. People were quite burnt!

Next stop was Airlie beach and actually it was nice to wake up on New Year’s Day without a hangover!

We got the plane to Prosperine and after a bit of a panic about how to transfer to Airlie Beach we got to our apartment. It was lovely to have a bit more space at last after the last 2.5 weeks all in one room!

It was a cute little place up a very steep hill with 2 bedrooms. It was nice and airy and clean, with balcony and a nice welcome pack of wine and orange juice.

We wandered into town, had a walk and went for dinner at the Hog something and had the usual burger. Sadie had a steak, Paul had a salad (on his health kick!) and so did I.

The last day of the year! We had our final trip in Cairns to Kuranda. Due to the extreme flooding we couldn’t take the train, but we could do everything else.

We started off by going to the Wildlife park. This was our first encounter with some proper Aussie animals and we saw (and petted) kangaroos, possums, koalas, Tasmanian devils, tree kangaroos, cassowaries and crocs! The croc was absolutely massive and looked like it would snap you up in a second!

After that there was a display of aboriginal dancing and didgeridoo playing and a chance to have a go at throwing a boomerang. Paul was definitely the best in the group, but we all did pretty well!

After that was a duck boat ride through the forest – sadly not much wildlife although someone said they saw an eel.

We had a pretty good buffet lunch and then got the bus to Kuranda – a small tourist town in the middle of the rainforest. There were lots of market stalls with t shirts, leather goods snd opals etc. My god it was humid!! It was about 85% and I couldn’t even stand still without sweating. In the end I had to buy a whole new dress to cool down.

We tried to get a river boat ride but the whole harbour had been washed away.

I was a bit grouchy, and very relieved to get on the cable car through the beautiful forest. The views were amazing.

We got a cab back and they got changed ready to go out to the fireworks! The whole town was gathering along the sea front and we walked along and found a spot. They weren’t quite Sydney – but still fun to watch. By the time they were find it was about 9pm so we really pushed the boat out and went to a takeaway place with plastic chairs to have a kebab and pizza! Just what we fancied… 😄

Happy New Year!!

Our second trip in Cairns and this time we caught a boat to Fitzroy Island off the coast.

It was sooo hot! After a 45 minute boat ride we got there. The island was beautiful and just what you imagine a tropical island to be – white sands, turquoise waters and palm trees.

We all put on our stinger suits to protect from the jellies and did some snorkelling, it was pretty good but we only saw a few fish really. Still, we enjoyed it as an intro to the barrier reef.

We walked round to Nudey Bay which was beautiful. After a bit of swimming we had a cold drink at the bar and caught the ferry back mid afternoon.

We chilled in the room after getting quite a bit of sun!

In the evening they went to mass (Saturday vigil) and after I met them and we looked for some Asian food.

We found a slightly dodgy looking Thai place and I had laksa, Paul had a v hot green curry and the kids had a massive pad Thai! A 6/10 I would say…

We got an early start (7.30am). It was an absolutely beautiful day! Our driver was a cool dude called Orion who was from the local area.

The first stop was Josephine Falls – it was a short walk through the forest to a beautiful waterfall. There was a lovely pool that you climbed down to and then a huge smooth rock face across the head of the pool that you could slide down. The water was nice and refreshing in the heat. We were the first group there so we had the pool pretty much to ourselves! Everyone had a good go at sliding down the rock into the pool a few times and then we headed back to the bus.

The next stop was Babinda Boulders. This had the Devils pool where it was said that young men were lured to their death by the spirit of a broken hearted aboriginal girl. We got to swim in a beautiful pool where there was a tree hanging over the water that you could jump in off- which Ronan did! Nice to have a coffee and biscuit too at that juncture. There was a huge golden orb spider hanging outside the loos which Paul saw, but the rest of us were put off!

Next stop was Millaa Millaa falls – it’s been used in lots of films/photos etc as it’s so beautiful and what you’d think of when imagining a perfect waterfall. We swam right up to the waterfall. I think we all couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. We saw a xxxx?

After that it was off to Malanda – a small town in the Atherton Tablelands – for lasagne, chips and some amazing garlic bread!

Next stop on our grand tour was the famous ‘curtain fight tree’. It’s been in Avatar and is 900 years old!

The Curtain Fig Tree is a strangler fig tree. Normally these figs germinate on top of another tree and try to grow roots into the ground. Then the fig will grow vigorously, finally kill the hosting tree and then grow on independently. In this case, the hosting tree tilted towards a neighbouring tree, and the fig also grew around that one. It was pretty impressive!

After that it was our final stop for a swim with crocodiles at Lake Eachem! There are 2 known freshwater crocs in there but they are pretty harmless – nevertheless we felt quite brave jumping in there! It was a beautiful spot with tons of families enjoying the refreshing waters.

We had booked a nice place for dinner called copper. Paul and Sadie both had amazing ribs! Ronan had his 400th burger and I had my 400th salad.

Our flight was around midday so we got up for our last delicious breakfast at the Interconty and headed to the airport.

We arrived in Cairns around 3pm and it wasn’t far to the hotel. At first look the hotel seemed quite nice – a few bars, pool etc – but it was a bit chavvy and full of people drinking in the pool with cans of beer. We had tons of washing so I went to do our washing in the basement and Sadie and Paul went for a swim.

It was SOOO hot in Cairns so we were grateful for the air con.

We stopped at the hotel travel desk to ask about trips and got talking to this lovely but slightly mad German woman. She was really helpful and got us all sorted for trips.

We booked a waterfall trip, a trip to snorkel off Fitzroy Island and a trip to Kuranda.

We went for a walk along the seafront to check out the town – neither pf us could really remember cairns that well!

We stopped at a pub called the Courtyard and said some fairly bog standard food! Then bed as we had an early start the next day at 7am.

Sadie was very excited to get some hubba bubba!

We had booked a trip on the Oz Jet Boat at 10am so had a quick breakfast and went down for that.

It was SO much fun! The boat went haring round the harbour and bay areas, doing sharp turns to get us all soaking wet! The music and adrenaline was pumping and we cut through all the wakes of the other boats for extra bounce! We even got to see a sea plane taking off. We loved it!

We had to go and get changed after all that soaking, then off to meet Mike and Rebecca in Clovelly for bowling via a stop in Coogee for old times’ sake as that’s where Paul and I first kissed!

We got the road to Rose Bay then the bus to Coogee. We grabbed some lunch and then started the coastal walk. However the heavens opened and we got absolutely drenched!! It was biblical.

We eventually got to Clovelly but the bowls had been rained off. We sat and had a few drinks with Mike, Rebecca, Matty, April, Jono, Rebkah and Rebecca’s nephew and family. It was really lovely to see them!

We carried on to Bondi about 6pm then got the bus home. We were exhausted so just got subways from the quay and then ate in our room.

Another beautiful day at Bondi so we just did a lot of wave jumping and relaxed on the beach. The rips were pretty strong though and it reminded us of the episodes of Bondi rescue we had watched!!

We had dinner booked at Doyle’s, so we went home in the afternoon via another trip to Bondi Junction so Paul could buy some trainers to match Ronan’s!

The boat ride over to Watsons Bay was beautiful!! The sun was getting lower and it couldn’t have been more amazing. We went past a $100mn yacht called Lunasea – $850k a week to hire!!

We had the best table in the house – up on a balcony looking over the bay.

Paul and I shared the seafood platter, Ronan had a steak and Sadie had fish and chips. It was idyllic!

We got the boat back with full tummies and smiles on our faces. Rounded the night off with some cards in the bar again.