After a 30 min interview with immigration which saw me outline my background, future ambitions, favourite past times and why I was carrying 120 of the queens finest tetley tea bags I was finally let into oz. Cairns was my first stop and though i didnt see the sun once in 5 days i still had an awesome time indulging in the power hours at rhino bar, togo parties and keg challenges. With accomodation sooo expensive i ended up couch-surfing with a really cool guy who to be fair only tried molestering me a handful of times. He introduced me to the crazy game which is AFL, kangaroo meat and GOON - this australian institution is a 4 litre box of wine which costs aout 7 quid and though contains fish cuts and creates the worst hangovers ever it is the drink of choice for backpackers and tramps a like.
I started heading down the coast and was soon on magnetic island with a group of us hiring a car and seeing the island. Due to jellyfish and other unfriendly sea creatures we all had to wear stinger suits to swim, but whilst snorkelling with schools of multi coloured fish and craping yourself everytime you saw a stingray you soon forgot about you condom-esc suit.
Airlie beach was the next port of call and a 3 day sailing trip around the whitsundays was truely amazing. Watching the first mate jump into swim with sharks, before we ate a squid which jumped on deck and later watching the sunset with a cold beer was enough to see even the hardest man with a tear in his eye. I tried my first dive, and though we only reached 15 metres i manged to see a baby shark and destroy a lot of thousand year old endangered coral. On the last day our boat (british defender) raced its sweddish nemesis (condor) in a bitter battle in rough seas, with the boat on a 45 degree angle we had to hang our legs on the top side to prevent capsizing; although we lost the race it was an awesome day.
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