A week in Cairns (part I / V)
So this is a quick 5 part story about when Olivia (friend
from England) and I spent a week in Cairns.
I guess you could dub this was my “holiday within a working
holiday” as I am currently in Australia on a working holiday visa. Olivia (my good friend from the homeland) had
worked hard to save some money to go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef and
since I was already in Australia I thought I would tag along.
At first we couldn’t decide on which resort to go to. I originally wanted to go to Whitsunday
Island because I heard it was a good party destination and I thought it would
be an ideal place for Olivia and me.
However Olivia wanted to go to Cairns as it was further up north and
therefore a lot warmer plus Cairns always seems to be the number one choice
resort when it comes to scuba diving in the reef.
After a bit of research Cairns did seem like the better option overall
and we pushed Whitsunday aside and booked tickets to Cairns. After all it was Olivia’s holiday and she was
the one with the scuba diving license, which is always a good trump card to
play when deciding where to go on a scuba diving holiday.
Flying north for the summer
The economy class flight from Sydney to Cairns took just under 3
hours and was a good reminder of how big Australia was. You could fly from the most southern part of
England to the most northern tip of Scotland and back again in less time.
The transition from the temperate climate of Sydney to the
tropical climate of Cairns was apparent even before we landed. Looking out the plane window whilst
approaching Cairns the landscape had changed from rather dull looking beige
colour of when we left Sydney to rolling hills of rich deep green jungle. Walking off the plane was like walking into a
preheated oven. The humidity made the
air a bit sticky but it was not too unpleasant.
 |
| It looked like we had flown into a different country. |
Getting off the plane everyone stopped in the skybridge rather
abruptly and started getting out their cameras, at first I thought everyone was
taking photos of the plane for some reason.
But I then noticed that everyone was taking photos of an awesome rainbow
that was spanning across the airport. This
was an awesome introduction to Cairns.
Making our way through the relatively small airport was fine
although I was spot checked by security to see if I had any explosive resin on
my clothes. Luckily I tend to wear an
apron when I make my bombs (that was a joke, I don’t make any form of explosives).
 |
| Cairns made a great first impression |
I hadn’t felt the heat of tropic weather since I first arrived in
Sydney back in March, and it felt good!
The weather in Sydney over the previous month had been very similar to
the weather back in my home city of Manchester.
Sometimes I had to remind myself that I was on the other side of the
world, but here in Cairns it felt very different from home. We didn’t have to wait very long for the
shuttle bus to pick us up and take us to the hostel that Olivia had booked us
into. Our new home for the next week, a
youth hostel by the name of “Asylum”.
