Hello Australia

G'day cobbers. We're having a bonzer time out here in Oz, so ripper in fact that we haven't updated our blog proper for yonks, so apologies for being such larrikins. No worries, though. Haven't gone walkabout on all our mates just yet.
Now that we've eaten our brekky today - and good tucker it was too - we can get down to being fair dinkum blokes again, instead of drongos, and I can tell you what Sheila and me have being doing with ourselves. So hang on to your didgeridoos, you beauts. Here goes...

Cairns
Flew into a very wet & wild Brisbane from Auckland. Quick overnight stop - the weather was that lousy we didn't set foot outside the front door of our hotel - and an internal flight north to tropical Cairns next morning, hugging east coast all the way up. Can see huge swathes of Great Barrier Reef below us.
Heat hits us as we step out of plane. It's 33C - and so humid with it. Doesn't take long to break into a sweat (about five seconds, tops).
Staying at Floriana - a quirky and charming little guesthouse on a quiet part of The Esplanade some 10 minutes walk from the city. It's low season (The Wet they call it, but no rain to speak of yet) so pick up a decent deal on a self-contained flat, with kitchen, balcony, bay window looking out to sea and lovely, comfy bed. As much as we enjoyed our six weeks in campervan in New Zealand to have this amount of space again is heaven.
Take a walk across road to see Cairns beach. Like Swansea Bay it's tidal, but there the similarity ends. There is very little sand here, just mudflats and mangroves. Swimming is a no no - there are signs warning of 'salties' (saltwater crocs). Nasty & 'orrible Salties aside, the sight of thousands of large mud crabs merrily scuttling about is enough to put anyone off venturing out on to it in the first place. Ugh.
However the wildflife the flats attract more than compensates - storks, pelicans and parrots of all colours inhabit the area, while at dusk the sky goes inky black with large bats (four times the size of any we have at home) taking flight from the fruit trees dotted around. Bram Stoker would have had a ball and Dracula fans would love it here.
Another big plus is the 4,800-sq-metre saltwater swimming lagoon where you can enjoy a good soak. It's a top spot to linger for a couple of hours when it gets too sticky.
Like Cairns a lot, so have decided to make base here for a week to explore this far northern part of Queensland - a land of ancient rainforests, gorgeous and remote white-sand beaches and, of course, the most famous reef in the world.

Kuranda Skyrail and Railway
Don our 'tourist' hats (our Tilleys are just the ticket in this tropical heat, to which we are slowly - very slowly - adjusting) for one of the world's longest gondola cablecar rides affording bird's-eye view over rainforest.
We have 'car' to ourselves for 7.5km long trip over forest. Great photo opportunities for sure, but not a great time for camera to pack in! It has jammed and is jiggered for sure.
Bit of a disappointment to say the least, but we get over it, refocus and concentrate on enjoying the view below us - you are almost touching the tops of the tropical trees - and also the one out towards Cairns, and The Coral Sea.
Destination is the sleepy little village of Kuranda, which wakes up only when the first tourists arrive in the morning and then promptly goes back to bed when they depart again on last train at 3.30pm or final cable car at 3.45pm. It's a neat little place to spend a couple of hours.
Highlight for us was The Australian Butterfly Sanctuary - a magical place where you step into an aviary of butterflies all the colours of the rainbow which freely flutter around you as you walk. There are thousands, and you are in the midst of them. John had thought it wouldn't be his scene, but on reflection is so glad his Sheila persuaded him to take this particular 'walk on the wild side.'
Head for station and return trip on Kuranda Scenic railway - great one-and-half-hour train trip back through the mountains and forests and over the Barron Gorge and a mammoth and spectacular high and wide waterfall.
Back in Cairns in time to buy one essential - a new camera before we head out onto Great Barrier Reef the following morning.

Great Barrier Reef
Greeted by a perfect day - blue skies, a calm sea and a camera that works! Mickey, a lovely lady at Floriana, has recommended Seastar - a small family-run business - for our trip out onto The Coral Sea and The Reef. Top choice, Mickey. Immediately impressed by professional, but laid-back and fun crew.
Two stops - Michaelmas Cay and Hastings Reef on The Outer Reef - on all-day trip. Fellow reef adventurers on board are either scuba-diving (some for first time), snorkelling or are just along for the ride.
We have gone for snorkelling option - and have been advised to wear special Lycra 'stinger' suits to protect us from box jellyfish. These marine menaces sport venemous tentacles which can grow up to three metres long - and swimmer fatalities have been recorded.
It's a no-brainer then. Stinger suits on, plus mask, snorkel and flippers (we look like something out of a James Bond movie, though maybe more Jaws than 007), we take the plunge into our Jacques Cousteau underwater world off first Michaelmas Cay.
We snorkel for 90 minutes over 15 to 20-metre drops off reef. Coral bleaching in evidence in parts, but still plenty of colour too - blues, pinks, oranges - and it's Sheila (sure her name was Chris back in Wales) who comes up trumps.
She has gone off on 'organised' tour off Michaelmas Cay beach with lead snorkel guide, while John has headed out to 'do his own thing' off dive boat.
Good call, girl. Chris and her group get to swim alongside giant female turtle of such grace and beauty for around five minutes. Mind-blowing to get so close to such a majestic and magnificent creature of the deep. Other highlights include giant clams and so many species fish. The whole reef is a kaleidoscope of colours.
Meet up with John back on boat for barbie lunch (boy those prawns taste good) and exchange experiences. Next up it's Hasting Reef - a different encounter. This is purely off boat, no cay or beach - and it's up to 30 metres deep in part.
A tired, but ecstatic, Chris sits this one out (she has done brilliantly on her first real big snorkelling foray in 'open water') - deciding on glass-bottom boat option for part two of adventure.
This time John (looking in his stinger outfit not remotely like the dashing James, or even The Lady Loves Milk Tray Man come to that) lucks out, getting a close encounter with a reef shark. They're harmless enough, but they still look pretty mean (it's the eyes wot does it), so he keeps his distance just in case - John that is. Perhaps the shark doesn't fancy his chances either with the Lycra-clad earth-dweller who has come to temporarily inhabit and invade his space.
One hour later after swimming among the turquoise parrot fish, the gorgeous five-striped sergeant major fish and stingrays too it's a weary climb up that ladder at back of boat. John reports to feeling exhilarated but exhausted (well and truly knackered were the actual words). A strong current didn't help either.
Now it's full throttle back to Cairns after a truly memorable day with the Seastar crew - a really great bunch of guys and gals who looked after us well and contributed so much to us experiencing one of the seven wonders of the natural world at first hand.
Lonely Planet reports that one BBC TV programme rates The Great Barrier Reef as second only to the Grand Canyon on a list of 50 Places To See Before You Die. Cor blimey. Been there, done that then - and magic it was too.

Northern Beaches
Quiet day on cards after GBR adventure. Chris heads off to find hair stylist and meets Michelle who hails from Dublin originally. She lives here with her boyfriend now and recommends some good cafes, bars and restaurants in city.
Pick up a hire car - we'll have it for seven days, so plan to head out of Cairns in next couple of days to explore Atherton Tablelands region, Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation where the tropical rainforest quite literally meets the sea ... but more of that later.
This afternoon we drive up a 26km stretch of coastline known as the Northern Beaches. There are six or seven of them which all have 'stinger-free nets' allowing you safe swimming in the sea.
We head out to Ellis Beach, the most remote of them all. It's a gorgeous stretch - a long sheltered bay with virtually no development. There is just a small beach bar across the road and some discreet oceanfront bungalows just feet from the sea.
Just the job - towels and books out, 'swimmers' (they're bathers back home) on and time to enjoy a nice lazy couple of hours busy doing nothing (and we don't get stung either). A result.