June.

Well. Here I am, back in England. After the craziest 5 months of my life. Now all the surprises have been done and dusted, I can post this about my last month in Australia.

June started with me coming home from 4 days away in Cairns (the highlight of my Aussie adventure, which you can read here), with exactly 4 weeks left.

Priya, Tarrena and I got free tickets to an event in the city; a Jungle party, where we got some free Leis. There was also a baby crocodile and a python for you to hold and get pictures with. The snake I had no problem with, it was so interesting, and they don't feel at all how you imagine they would. The baby croc on the other hand was a little different. Whilst I knew that if I didn't hold one, i'd regret it, I was still a little nervous! The scary thing was that they prefer to be held against your body where it's warm - which also means bringing it's jaws closer to your face! We were assured that she wouldn't bite but you never know.

Loving the snake - not so loving the crocodile!

One day I actually made it into the city for the first time in ages. I went to some souvenir shops and then met up with Priya and Dillon to go to the Immigration Museum. I'm not a massive museum person so this wasn't of massive interest to me, but it was free and it beats sitting in my flat all day. After that we went to Hosier Lane, where the walls and street floor are covered in graffiti. It looks awesome.

Hosier Lane (apologies for the terrible quality - I've had to cellotape my phone together...)

With it being the end of the semester, a lot of people started to leave after the second week of June, so there were many opportunities to get well and truly smashed. These were the last opportunities i'd have to finish off my liver here so I gave it a good go.

We also went for a day trip to the Grampians National Park. We got a bit lost as it's pretty big, but once we found a spot we went for a walk, took some pictures and then sat down for a barbie. It was absolutely freezing so after a few trips to sit in the car to warm up, the chicken was ready. After the feast we headed back to the car and drove back to Melbourne.

Me being a starfish with the amazing view of the Grampians.

Kiri and I went for a day out in the city. First we went for a wander round the winter market and I tried and failed with my haggling skills. After some food we then went to Hosier Lane (it was nice to see it in daylight this time) and got a lot of pictures of the street art. The next stop was St Paul's Cathedral where we lit some candles. It then started throwing it down outside so we called it a day and made our way home.

Hosier Lane street art.

On my last full day Tarrena and I went to the Melbourne Sea Life aquarium and I went into some souvenir shops to get the last of my gifts for people back home.

For my last meal before making my way to the airport, me and my friends all went to 8 Bit for a burger. Tarrena and Priya started to get a little upset but I didn't start to tear up until it was time to go to the airport.

After what is quite possibly the best 5 months of my life, I made my way to the airport to be reunited with everyone I left behind in February. I'm not going to go into some massive soppy paragraph about how much I will miss my Melbourne friends (1. because I could go on for hours and 2. because I will most likely start crying again and 3. because I already kind of went on a rant about it). All i'm going to say is I really really hope it isn't goodbye, and it's just see you later.

After a gruelling 24+ hours of travelling back to the other side of the world, I walked out of security and saw Mum and Dad waiting for me. After a few hugs, I turned around and saw my sister, who I wasn't supposed to see until that night. I'll just let you see for yourself in the video:

ᗩᑎᑎᗩᗷEᒪ♥

Trip to Cairns!

Before coming to Australia, there were 2 things that I wanted to do. Number 1 was to climb the Harbour Bridge, which if you read my Sydney blog post, you'll see that I did. The second was to swim in the Great Barrier Reef. Already after just being in Australia for 4 months i've ticked so much off my bucket list. But it doesn't stop there. After waiting through my entire trip here, I finally got to see this natural beauty.

We found this hanging on a beach in Cape Tribulation.

Sunday

After being out all night and coming home at 2am, I stayed up until I had to go meet everyone at 4am to make our way to the airport for our 6am flight. Living in tiny England, i've never flown domestic before (except Sydney). So the fact that we just needed to walk straight through security and to our gate was very strange. We didn't even need our passports.

Once we were in Cairns we had a couple of hours to kill until we checked in, so we left our bags behind reception and went to chill by the pool. Me, Priya and Nikole had a quick swim and then went to sunbathe, where I fell asleep. At 2pm it was time to check in and once we were all in our rooms, we fell asleep once again. When we finally had some energy, we made our way into the city of Cairns for dinner where I finally tried the Aussie famous 'chicken parma''. At 9pm we were all in bed fast asleep after an exhausting 24 hours to prepare for our 6am start the following day.

Monday

Waking up at 6am after a month of going to sleep at 4am and waking up at 2pm was weird, but a lot less painful than I was anticipating, thanks to a sleepless night on saturday I slept like a baby. At 7am we were picked up by a minibus: we were going to Daintree Rainforest.

Our first stop was Mossman Gorge, which is sacred Aboriginal ground. This meant we needed to be 'welcomed' by the Aboriginal ancestors. The welcoming ceremony was interesting. We walked around a fire that was billowing smoke to be covered in the smoke. As long as we respected the land we would be protected by the ancestors. We then had some fun with Aboriginal face paint: Priya and I gave each other some army stripes. Next we hopped on the shuttle bus up to the Gorge where me and Priya went for a swim. Cairns is rife with Crocodiles, so swimming in rivers and at the beaches is a very bad idea, but the Gorge was high up, covered in rocks and the fresh water was cold, so Crocodiles don't swim there.

Mossman Gorge.

After the Gorge we hopped on the bus once again, now we were on our way to a Crocodile cruise on Daintree River. On our way there, our guide told us of a woman who was unfortunately killed by a crocodile on a beach that we drove past the night before. As we passed the media and police were still there. After this and all of the information that the cruise guide told us, I have a new appreciation for these fascinating and terrifying creatures.

Crikey!

Next stop was Cape Tribulation where we stopped for lunch. I tried a Kangaroo burger! (Pause for all the vegetarians that are gonna be hating on me now). It was pretty tasty, it made me think of a mix between chicken and beef.

Kangaroo burger!

We then spent the rest of the day stopping at various locations in the Daintree Rainforest, including an ice cream shop and a boardwalk through some of the forest. Daintree is also the only rainforest in the world where it reaches the sea.

Daintree Rainforest looking very Jurassic Park-esque!

Tuesday

Here we go again with another 6am wake up call. This time, I wasn't bothered one bit. I was going to do what I had wanted to do ever since I knew I was coming to Australia. It was Great Barrier Reef day.

We made our way to the docks and waited for our friends Val and Julian to meet us, then walked to the boat that we would be spending the day on. The weather was pretty grim. The first 2 days greeted us with 30 degree heat and sunshine, but the weather was now letting us down.

Once we were all checked into the boat and had been given our equipment for the day (wetsuit, snorkel, mask & flippers), we went to sit on the top deck for the 1 and a half hour journey out so sea. The sea was extremely choppy so we were being splashed and thrown about everywhere, which at first was hilarious. But after a while, one by one people were dropping like flies to seasickness. About half an hour before we reached the reef, there was just me and Dillon left that hadn't turned a nasty shade of green. My Dad gets seasick so I can thank my Mum for that one.

The staff member that gave our safety briefing assured us that the typical Great White and Bull Sharks don't typically come into the reef as it's hard for them to move around. Which was a huge relief to hear. As soon as we got the OK I threw on my wetsuit and jumped in.

I can't even think of the words to describe what I saw. It's something you'll have to go do yourself, because it was phenomenal. The reef was beautiful with shades of all different colours. There were so many different fish in different shades and sizes.

The first location we were at had cloudy water as the weather was a little miserable. Once we had lunch and moved to the second location, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day, which also meant we could see a lot clearer underwater. I made a lot of use of my GoPro and I can't wait to edit all the videos together.

The Great Barrier Reef.

Wednesday

Finally! A sleep in! It was only 8am, but that sounds so much nicer than 6. We checked out and left our bags behind reception again as we went into the city to get breakfast. After we had eaten we went to the Cairns Esplanade where there was a gorgeous community pool called the Lagoon. I made the most of my last few hours in the sun (there was no way I could face going home being as white as when I left). After a couple of hours we caught the last bus of the afternoon (at only 3pm?!) back to the hotel where I sunbathed for another hour.

A quick Instagram-worthy picture in the Lagoon!

Then it was time to return to cold and rainy Melbourne. There wasn't a lot of people on our flight so we all pretty much had 3 seats to ourselves.

When we were home Priya, Dillon and I dumped our bags and went to the common room to watch the new Game of Thrones episode that we had missed 2 days earlier. We didn't want to risk seeing any spoilers!

It probably goes without saying but this has been the absolute cherry on top of a fantastic adventure in Australia. It's a matter of weeks until I go home now and I can't wait to see everyone again, but at the same time, there's a lot of people here that are going to be missed.

ᗩᑎᑎᗩᗷEᒪ♥