I'm sure you'll all be relieved to know that my holidays didn't end in Mexico. When I got to Australia I arrived in Cairns for my friend Lisa's wedding, also the next week was my birthday so I figured it'd just be silly to go back to work on my birthday so I stayed two weeks :)
Cairns is a beautiful place to be in the winter, 25-30 degrees with blue skies, sandy beaches and greenery everywhere... you just gotta watch out for the crocodiles. I'm quite lucky as a couple of my besties from high school live up there so I can mooch free accommodation from them when the Melbourne winters get cold and dreary.
The morning after I flew in was Lisa's hens day, we woke early for a bbq breakfast and early morning kayak at Palm Cove, but the weather was crappy so we missed out on the kayak :( The rest of the day was fun and relaxing, we went to one of the resorts, had a picnic on the beach and I had a sneaky jet-lagged nap in a hammock while the others did yoga.
The great thing about the wedding was I got to catch up with the whole gang as Krichelle, Anna, Casey, Fay, Hayden and I spent the next few days with Lisa and Andy helping prepare for the wedding which was at Lisa and Andy's home in Speewah. Speewah is up in the hills behind Cairns where they have a split level block surrounded by rainforest, the perfect place for a wedding.
The rest of my time in Cairns I spent at Krichelle's place in Kewarra Beach, the beach is walking distance from her house where we go for BBQ's and to the beach bar, but no swimming... the crocodiles remember ... and stingers when the water is warm.
You can walk along the beach from Kewarra up to Palm Cove where you can find excellent restaurants for breakfast. And we did a day trip up to Kuranda to the markets and visited the butterfly house.
There are lots of things to do in Cairns but I was being super lazy. In the past we've done an overnight hike in the rainforest, visited the Daintree national park, Green Island, Port Douglas, the Atherton tablelands, gone swimming up in the rivers, gone white water rafting, been diving on the Great Barrier Reef and I've watched Lisa bungee jumping because there's no way in hell I'm doing it.
When I finally got home to Melbourne I wasn't there long before work send me off to Sydney.
Sydney is another excellent place to get out of the cold. I spent a lot of winter weekends getting some
sunshine as I ran along the coast from Bondi to Coogee, it's a great walk, in the summer the crowds are ridiculous but in winter it's great.
I was lucky to be staying close to the botanic gardens so in the morning I would run there, down through picturesque gardens and manicured lawns to the water overlooking the harbour and the bridge and opera house.
I have a few friends in Sydney who have been kind enough to entertain me - thanks Erica & Sean, Lucy and Nat, and I had my friend Julie come hang out for a weekend where we went to the Japanese gardens, Vaucluse house for high tea and got a ferry over to Watson's Bay to test out the cocktails.
Through work I also had Wednesday night travellers dinners so got to explore the restaurants and one night went to the Sydney Seafood School - I felt like I was on MasterChef.
Cairns is a beautiful place to be in the winter, 25-30 degrees with blue skies, sandy beaches and greenery everywhere... you just gotta watch out for the crocodiles. I'm quite lucky as a couple of my besties from high school live up there so I can mooch free accommodation from them when the Melbourne winters get cold and dreary.
The morning after I flew in was Lisa's hens day, we woke early for a bbq breakfast and early morning kayak at Palm Cove, but the weather was crappy so we missed out on the kayak :( The rest of the day was fun and relaxing, we went to one of the resorts, had a picnic on the beach and I had a sneaky jet-lagged nap in a hammock while the others did yoga.
The great thing about the wedding was I got to catch up with the whole gang as Krichelle, Anna, Casey, Fay, Hayden and I spent the next few days with Lisa and Andy helping prepare for the wedding which was at Lisa and Andy's home in Speewah. Speewah is up in the hills behind Cairns where they have a split level block surrounded by rainforest, the perfect place for a wedding.
The rest of my time in Cairns I spent at Krichelle's place in Kewarra Beach, the beach is walking distance from her house where we go for BBQ's and to the beach bar, but no swimming... the crocodiles remember ... and stingers when the water is warm.
You can walk along the beach from Kewarra up to Palm Cove where you can find excellent restaurants for breakfast. And we did a day trip up to Kuranda to the markets and visited the butterfly house.
There are lots of things to do in Cairns but I was being super lazy. In the past we've done an overnight hike in the rainforest, visited the Daintree national park, Green Island, Port Douglas, the Atherton tablelands, gone swimming up in the rivers, gone white water rafting, been diving on the Great Barrier Reef and I've watched Lisa bungee jumping because there's no way in hell I'm doing it.
When I finally got home to Melbourne I wasn't there long before work send me off to Sydney.
Sydney is another excellent place to get out of the cold. I spent a lot of winter weekends getting some
sunshine as I ran along the coast from Bondi to Coogee, it's a great walk, in the summer the crowds are ridiculous but in winter it's great.
I was lucky to be staying close to the botanic gardens so in the morning I would run there, down through picturesque gardens and manicured lawns to the water overlooking the harbour and the bridge and opera house.
I have a few friends in Sydney who have been kind enough to entertain me - thanks Erica & Sean, Lucy and Nat, and I had my friend Julie come hang out for a weekend where we went to the Japanese gardens, Vaucluse house for high tea and got a ferry over to Watson's Bay to test out the cocktails.
Through work I also had Wednesday night travellers dinners so got to explore the restaurants and one night went to the Sydney Seafood School - I felt like I was on MasterChef.
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