The first stop in our big oceania trip of 2011 was cairns so that we could say that we swam in the great barrier reef. I have this moleskine mini journal that i brought with me to keep track of everything but it's impossible to keep up with it. Especially when I use an average of a hundred words to describe something when most people would use ten. And as i was preparing to compose this post, i can't find my little moleskine journal! The flight was dreadfully long. IAH -> LAX -> AKL -> CNS. We flew air new zealand which i felt has the most uncomfortable seats. Their upright seat positions began at a slight acute angle. And then when you go to the incline, you're finally at ninety degrees. Horrible! Thank gawd i brought ambien with me. I hate flying. I've got bad knees. They get all ancient and creaky. The food was pretty blah to me. I'm not sure which flight it was but for breakfast at one point, it was either eggs or cereal. They ran out of eggs by the time they got to me so cereal it was. But it turned out be muesli and not the kind of cereal i was thinking. So like there was nothing i liked about the airline other than their cool uniforms and even cooler accents. Upon arrival, we realize that miss mochi's luggage did not make it on the plane. And it wasn't until our last night in cairns that it was finally dropped off at our hotel (mantra esplanade). THREE NIGHTS LATER. There was more doom to come. For me anyways. One of my co-workers said he thought air new zealand was one of the best airlines he's experienced. My answer? You have no taste. Wait, I do have to give them credit for something. Their safety video featured richard simmons. So it was fun and funny and i think everyone actually payed attention. They also have one that feature the All Blacks, new zealand's rugby team, who WON the rugby world cup! So we land at CNS. Exchange some money cos we needed aud currency to pay for the cab ride. It's cheaper to exchange in town but we didn't really have any other choice. Our room had a balcony/patio area that had a city view which was kinda nice. From our hotel, we walked around the area and made our way to the mall to pick up some phone cards. There was this friendly and cute asian kid that worked at this boba place. That really has nothing to do with anything. For our first meal, we chose this chinese buffet like place at a food court that had five other places serving the same kind of chinese buffet like food. I'm not sure how we chose the one we did. Maybe cos the girl working the counter seemed really nice? Before i forget, i need to mention that australia is EXPENSIVE! I almost felt like i couldn't afford to eat at times. So we pay and the nice girl gives me this plastic container to fill up with food. I asked if i could put as much as i wanted in the container and she smiles and says yes. Maybe she's never met an asian person from houston or something cos i expertly fill my container and the food begins to securely pile up. The sweet girl then became sour and tells me that i have gotten too much food. I give her this incredulous look but before i could say anything, the owner tells me it's okay and to get more. OKAY! And i do. I give the sour girl a smug look. You lose. Which brings me to another point i should make. Cairns is like 70% asians. A lot of young people from japan come over to work. I think a lot of them came over post-tsunami. With our can not be closed containers of food, we walk across the street over to the cairns esplanade, a nice area where people come to swim and lounge in the man made beach. The natural beach is actually kinda swampy and not very appealing. The esplanade is the focal point of the city with these metal fish sculptures that rise above the pool. Even though it wasn't cold, it was still cool enough that we didn't want go swimming. Anyway, we would be going to swim with the great barrier reef the very next day!
