Day 3: Cairns (Rainforestation)

Today was our Rainforestation nature park day trip. It was me, Katherine, Jo, Nicola, Anita, David, Grainne, and Brad who went. I think most other people were doing Cape Tribulation or rafting or something. I actually liked having such a small group because I felt like we had more of a chance to talk and get to know each other. First, we got to walk through a wildlife park and see dingoes, kangaroos, wombats, crocodiles, koalas, etc. I was amazed at how close we were able to get to the kangaroos. We got to walk right up and pet them and feed them out of our hands.

Next, we had a guide who showed us how to throw spears and boomerangs and play the didgeridoo. He threw a bunch of boomerangs at once and made them all fly back like a flock of birds. When I tried to throw the boomerang, it just kind of hit the grass and didn't do anything... but a few people in our group got theirs to come back in the right direction.

Then we watched an aboriginal dance show. They asked for participants from the audience, and David ended up getting picked to go up. Grainne seemed to love watching him make a fool of himse--I mean, dance wonderfully...? The rest of the audience seemed to agree that he did the best job.

After the dance show, we got to go for a ride through the rainforest on an army duck. We were driving along a path in the woods when all of a sudden he started driving into the water. It was cool how it could switch from water to land so easily. The guide showed us a bunch of deadly plants and termite nests and stuff.

Next, we headed over to the town of Kuranda for some lunch and shopping. Brad tried a crocodile burger and I think this is where Nicola had her first gluten free lasagna. I just went with the boring old swag burger 'cause I'm not that adventurous when it comes to food. I'm glad I remembered to ask them not to add the beetroot. Ew.

While we were walking around the town, Katherine, Jo, and I stopped for ice cream. After talking to Katherine and Jo, the ice cream man asked me what part of England I was from, and when I told him I was American, he asked me why I was hanging out with those guys. We decided that they had kidnapped me and forced me to eat ice cream, so at least they're nice kidnappers. I had passionfruit ice cream, and it was really good. I think Katherine got mint chocolate chip, but it was brown, and she ended up getting it all over her face. I wish I had a picture of her with chocolate all over her face, because it was hilarious. We also went to the candy ("sweets") shop for free samples, and we looked around at all the jewelry and things at the little stores. Eventually, we ran out of things to do in Kuranda and just collapsed in the grass and waited for the bus to come get us. It was a long but fun day!

That night, once we got back, a few of us decided to go out to dinner at a place that Katherine and Jo found during their free day in Cairns. It was called Cock and Bull, and we dragged along Nicola, Carolyn, and Lee with us. The portions ended up being HUGE, so I was glad that all I ordered was a salad. Carolyn was really disappointed when the waitress wouldn't give her a box to bring back the rest of her lasagna, so we kept trying to come up with ways to smuggle it back. Katherine stuffed a piece of her fish into one of the cutlery bags and then ended up leaving it at the restaurant. Carolyn left early, and Katherine made a joke about how she could leave a trail of lasagna in case she got lost, and then she was like "Omg, I just made a Hansel and Gretel reference to a German. Is that offensive?" I thought it was funny. I think Nicola got the closest to clearing her plate, with just a few peas leftover. We stayed until they started closing the doors and giving less-than-subtle hints that they wanted us to leave. This was the day when I realized how wrong I was when I thought I was going to hate this vacation. I had actually made FRIENDS (shocking, I know).