Cairns

Cairns is located pretty much as far North on the East coast as most tourists ever reach. The reason most people go there, including myself, is that this is the place to go if you want to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef. The reef is huge, many hundred kilometers from North to South, but most dive trips depart from Cairns.
I had booked a hostel, again with the highest ratings, Globetrotter International. It said that this was not one of the usual party hostels, this was aiming at getting a little more mature people there and at the same time create an international environment. My room had 4 younger British/American and 2 Japanese girls all around 25 years old.
I just dropped my bags and headed out to find a dive shop that would still be open on Xmas evening that could sell me a special lens for my underwater camera to make the pictures clear. The city is quite small and seems again to be catering towards tourists. The entire water front is plastered with restaurants, the one more expensive than the other. There were souvenir shops next to tour organizers offering a lot of different options to do in Cairns. Unfortunately the entire city was dead, except for the tourist shops, a few restaurants and maybe 2-3 dive shops.

They however only sold trips to the water, not really any gear. I had already enquired from a company that sold these lenses in Cairns, they responded back that their entire stock was depleted and they had another shipment coming in the day I would return from the dive trip. I went there anyways to see if they could somehow help me anyway, but they told me the same thing again. I went out and concluded that I still didn't have any camera. The boat had mentioned something about rental camera's being available for $45 a day or was it per dive. At least pretty expensive, so I went in the shop again and asked them what my options where.
Well, young man, you can rent or buy. Looked at the prices, this was not going to be cheap. They told me that the one they were renting took excellent pictures and they had the better model for sale. So I bougth a camera, one of the cheaper ones. I knew already then that it was over priced a lot, but what could I do. I wanted some pictures from the trip for sure, so this seemed to be the better option if I was going to be diving more on this trip. Which I certainly am now that I spent money on this camera, haha
The harbor was full of the dive trip boats, one bigger and more impressive than the other, now I was getting a little excited. It was Xmas and I was ready! Had a big steak, one thing Australians seem to be proud of, but I can't say I was too impressed, except for when I had to pay. This was becoming one expensive Xmas, haha
I came back to the hostel and started packing my stuff for the next morning, charging all my things. The 4 English speaking room mates, had been to the store to buy some cheap box wine and was sitting there slurping away. When I finished the packing I went outside to find a place where I could sort some pictures and update my blog a little. When I came back to the room, the drinking people were gone and the girls sleeping. I packed the rest of my stuff and went to bed as well.
The other room mates came back in the middle of the night, apparently a little tipsy. They went to bed too and started snoring like crazy. In the middle of the night one of the guys must have had a little too much to drink as he was in the bathroom not feeling very well, haha.
Next morning when I got up the two girls who had been drinking the night before was waking up early too to catch a flight. I went to the bathroom where the lock didn't work, where I found this guy hugging the toilet, he had been sleeping there. I went to the girls and told them their friend had passed out and might need some help. They came out, took a couple of pictures as you are supposed to first and dragged him into his bed, haha. I took a quick shower and just when I had come out of the shower cabin and wrapped my towel around, one of the Japanese girls came in half asleep. She was first scared, then very embarrassed and back out bowing saying sorry maybe 10 times. When I came out she was even more embarrassed and kept saying sorry and was hiding in her bed...
I packed my stuff and headed out the door, prepared for new adventures