We got up early again and got ready for our trip. We spent the morning walking around the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne and what a sight that place is. We were almost going to go yesterday but ended up a bit late (and our feet were really tired) so we decided to hit them before having to go to the airport for our flight up North to the Tropics. Yes, I said North and tropical area...this country is upside-down so going North means you're closer to the Equator and it gets really hot. But let's go back to the gardens: my travel guide said they are probably the best in Australia and they were not wrong: it's a gorgeous, peaceful oasis in the middle of the city. There are amazing plants and trees and flowers from around the world and I saw my first black swan. I have to say that I like them better than the white ones: maybe it's the Goth in me that makes me like them more.
We could have easily spent all day there, but we needed to go catch a flight to go to Cairns. We will stay only for a day and half, just in time to go snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef.
We arrived in Cairns at around 6 pm and the heat and humidity almost knocked us over: yup, we are definitely not used to the humidity anymore. We got the bus from the airport to center city and found our hotel. The hotel looked like it had seen better days, but it was decently clean and had air conditioning in the room (not in the bathroom, don't ask me why).Dave went out around town to figure out where our meeting point was to be for the next morning. We are going to take a boat to go snorkel on the barrier reef. While I'm not exactly excited about the boat thing (and yes, I have drugs with me) we are both looking forward to the excursion.