Credit card: -£250
AU Bank balance: $400
UK bank balance: £400
(Thanks to Craig loaning me money to be able to pay minimum off on credit card monthly)
now flying over cairns really was amazing, from
City life to seeing lush green hills. Loved it. The flight was a lot longer than I thought. Apparently Australia is big!? I guess the equivalent distance from Melbourne in the south to Cairns in the north would be from the UK to Greece? Something like that (actually just checked this and I was spot on, what an amazing guesstimate!)
When I landed I stood waiting for my bag where a bunch of other people were, before realising there was also a load of other people at another place for luggage collection. Had no idea which one my bag would be coming from and looked for signs... Decided in the end to stand between the 2 which didn't work and so just took my ticket out and looked for something, anything that I could match to a sign somewhere. When I looked up I saw my bag and ran to get it. Easy. Yeah I know exactly what I'm doing I have this traveling thing all figured out...
Next, transport to a hostel I'd booked to meet Nicki and ash.
I went to a desk that looked like they could help me and they sorted out transport for me. 10 mins later a mini bus came.
Ok il probably leave out these boring, how did I get a taxi details now but for anybody reading who has a fear of traveling solo I just wanted to impress upon you how easy it all is even when your as retarded as I am.
the hostel had a pool and a night club. Cairns itself seemed to have a lot of bars and they sold a lot of gluten free stuff. Amazing! Imagine not eating a pie for a while and finally getting one...
I don't know what happened to meeting up with Nicki and ash but I got in touch with Sam:
"Hey I'm in gilligans (hostel)"
" oh were in another one just cross the right turn right then second left and well be on the right"
"Yeah ok Sam I'll give it a go but I'm not promising I'm gonna find you.."
I am shocking for taking directions
she had to find me in the end and i spent the majority of the time in their hostel.
Gilligans was fine but everyone knew each other in my room and were all about to leave. It was nothing like habitat HQ (Melbourne hostel) the kitchen was a bit desolate and it wasn't cozy and friendly. There was no stage for people to perform on, except to do pole dancing competitions in the bar at night. Totally different atmosphere and not my kinda place (although nicki and ash did sign me up to this competition but I totally chickened out. I might have won a dance competition in Thailand but I certainly wasn't going to win on the pole haha!)
that day I met Adam, Sams twin brother. He had already done his first year as well as his farm work and had travelled a bit of Australia too.
We all sat together and discussed mission: get farm work. I was up for any work as long as it involved earning money, getting my second year would be a bonus (if you want to extend your working holiday visa and have another year in the country to use before your 30 you have to do 3 months farm work). it was really good to be with the girls again. We had a catch up of what they have all been up to. Apparently a really good time spent in the bars so it was standard that we went out that night.
apparently they had been out every night since they arrived in Cairns. its definitely the place to get smashed. Of course if your there long enough the novelty goes and the girls had searched long enough for farm work with no luck
I met up with nicki and ash in the end and we all went to port Douglas via a car we rented. It was amazing to drive again and we stopped over at palm cove, a gorgeous beach. We spotted some Kangaroos along the side of the road and the landscape views along the way were idyllic.
Port Douglas was a small expensive area with another gorgeous beach. I wish I could have explored the area a bit more as it was too much of a brief visit but it was a nice day spent with everybody and we got to meet some of Adams friends who were coming towards the end of their 2 years in Australia, so o more story's were shared.
I have a huge list of notes on my phone of places I have to visit that aren't necessarily the typical touristy stopping points. Who needs lonely planet or travel books when you have backpackers?
By this point me and Craig had been apart for almost 3 months and it was starting to take it's toll. Id been so stressed and caught up with finding work and meeting new people that I forgot to keep in touch with the guy who has been my biggest support. iMessage conversations were beginning to look like
"Hey"
"Hey"
"How you doing"
*2 hours later...*
"Good yeah you? ..... Hello?"
*following day...*
"Sorry I was caught up with something"
And that sort of dragged on for a few weeks and it's pretty shitty when It gets like that.
It was good that Craig gave me the nudge I needed to keep on track with him, felt awful I needed that nudge though. Life seems to go at a million miles per hour when your working in a panic and trying to have fun at the same time.
It's crazy when your traveling, almost everyone is single and has this opinion that relationships and traveling really don't mix. well, distance and relationships generally don't mix but If i can stick out 2 tours, I can stick this out no problem and so can many other couples. People with these negative comments just Speak from bad experiences, I'd rather they just didn't say a word though because it's not what I want to hear and it's not encouraging.
Me and Gemma were up bright and early the following day to make the most of the car rental and drive to farms to seek work. No luck.
The following day we settled to look for work, any work. Adam knew some guy who worked for a cleaning company on Hamilton island in the Whitsunday's and told us how brilliant his experience was. I got in touch with Chris who managed that cleaning company and was told to email my resume along with a cover letter. Brilliant news! so we all emailed chris and I chased it up with a phone call the following day, they were actually just looking through my resume there and then! Gemma also called and the following day I had a job offer. I was so excited! Next dilemma: where do I live on the island? Unfortunately no accommodation was available to rent but chris found a possible apartment and to make it affordable offered us all work on the island! Woooo!!! $$$$$
We spent our last day chilling at the pool by the beach. It was so relaxing. We just chilled in the sun and enjoyed our last day of holiday freedom.
We booked a coach the following day and missed it. So we re-booked it and made our journey to Airlie beach (where you get the ferry to the Whitsunday's and Hamilton Island) which is about 8 hours south of cairns.
Trying to assure Craig I was still thinking of him .... Haha
No comments:
Post a Comment