Cairns + Sydney + Bye Australia!!

For our last leg of the trip, we drove from Airlie Beach up to Cairns. We took a break in Townsville at the library for a bit, then had to pass out in a rest area for the night before actually making it up there. When we did get to Cairns, it was so hot and tropical so we headed up a little further into the Daintree forest for some shade. We ended up going to the Mossman Gorge and going for a short hike in the rainforest and a dip in one of the creeks (no crocs woohoo!). They definitely don't call it the "wet tropics" for nothing... there was always a shower seeping though, nice and refreshing when it was super hot out. The city itself is really cute, lots of nice shops and markets. We ended up driving up a bit further and sleeping in a rest stop right next to the beach... soo hot and hard to sleep whew!

Got up early the next morning because Glen was going on a scuba diving day trip that day. I ended up going to the outlets and to the mall haha... but the scuba diving trip sounded amazing and I wish I went but I backed out:( I'm lame. He saw nemos and sharks and got to pet a giant fish... he said it was the highlight of his Australia trip. So! If you come to Australia... Cairns is the place to go diving. I'll let you know which company he went with. I met him at the lagoon (another public swimming pool down by the beach... so nice!) and we went for dinner at The Green Ant Cantina for some Mexican food... it was yum but a bit pricey, but they have 2-for-1 days during the week so those are deffs the days to go. We had to return our rental car so we didn't have a place to stay that night and didn't want to get a hostel/hotel since our flight was leaving at 6:30am to go back down to Sydney sooo we slept at the airport. It was actually pretty nice, the arrivals area had a shower and there were some other people sleeping there too, but I probably only slept a couple of hours then hopped on the plane!

Met up with Stew and his girlfriend Hayley at the airport in Sydney and went to the "Rock n Roll" Markets at a local lawn bowling club. Lots of cool accessories and clothes, and of course cheap beer haha! They had a band too and food... it was awesome. Hope Vancouver gets into the market thing... I love them!!! Later that night, we went to Stew's friend Arif's place for a legit Aussie Barbie (finally!) and we ate kangaroo! It was so delicious I was surprised! Mmmmm... stayed over at Stew's apartment in the city where I am now... our flight leaves at 6pm for New Zealand. I'm so sad to leave Australia! It's been so awesome and lots of beautiful weather. Hard to believe a month has passed... we've done so much since we've been here! But I'll be back for sure... here's a list of my favourite things while traveling from Melbourne all the way up to Cairns:

• The Blue Mountains (about 90 mins for Sydney). Awesome hiking and beautiful sights! Stop at the Jenolan Caves too but don't bother doing a tour... you see lots of cool stuff for free anyways.
• The City of Melbourne! Go to the Victoria Markets for lots of awesome food, and take the free tourist bus that goes all around the city... fo free! If you have a bike, cycle the Yarra River and trails. And go down Brunswick Street for awesome food like pizza at Bilbo's or vege burritos at The Vege Bar.