The entire whirlwind journey – from the moment I stepped foot on Australian soil, which happened to be my birthday, to seeing the awaiting global media as we arrived on Hamilton Island, being the first to step off of that plane and wave to the entire world, the dinners, the friendships, the nervousness, the suspense, the extreme exhaustion, the jolts of adrenaline, the moments of sheer ecstasy, the moment of devastating disappointment, the realization of the end being near – experiencing all of that in about a week-long period felt like I was thrown in a washing machine that was filled with copious amounts of goodness and some sprinkle of “reality bites” detergent and set on the spin cycle.

Long story short, I lost. You probably already know because you are reading this on the “winner’s” blog.

Oh and that part about “devastating disappointment”, I lied. I put it in for dramatic effect, and as I said a countless number of times, it really felt like I was competing against my siblings and I felt genuinely happy for Ben. I’ve had a chance to catch up with Ben for a Korean media tour back in February and the more I get to know the guy, the more I know that TQ picked the right candidate out of all of us there. It is the “Best” job, but it’s an incredibly taxing job and you have to be “ON” all the freaking time. I’m sure every one of us would have brought a different flavor to the position of “island caretaker” but I firmly believe that Ben Southall is the one guy out of the 16 that really had the package that was a perfect match for TQ. That’s why Ben has turned his 6-month stint, into an 18-month job and probably a lifelong career. Good on you mate!

Now, enough ass kissing and let’s get a little more narcissistic. How did “TBJITW” change my life in the past year? Oh where to start? During my 1-year relationship with TQ so far, I had such a wide spectrum of experiences.

I experienced Australia free falling from 14,000 feet in the sky and scrounging around on the ocean floor.

I waited for sunrises floating in a hot air balloon and said goodbye to sunsets while sipping wine on some of the world’s finest sandy beaches.

I climbed on top of suspension bridges and crawled up 150m sand dunes.

I’ve hugged koalas, pet kangaroos and held crocodiles. I’m sure Ben has put up plenty of pics of these so I won’t bore you.

I gave it a go on the surfboard and I WAS the sand board, multiple times.

I traveled in everything from choppers and seaplanes to quads, white water rafts and luxury yachts.

I’ve had a chance to meet everyone from Ambassadors to celebrity chefs.

I’ve had a chance to serve many different roles during my past year as TQ’s Tourism Ambassador, but the one that has left the biggest footprint is my role as “babysitter extraordinaire” (second word in the title is self proclaimed) during the The Best Global Leader Campaign that Tourism Queensland sponsored along with DAKS Kids. I’ve always loved kids, but after being in charge of an 8 year old and a 6 year old boy for a week, I have MUCH LOVE and RESPECT for all the parents out there!

As you can see, there are many things that I’ve gained from my relationship with Tourism Queensland over the past year, but I value my new found friends from all over the globe the most. I still remember the awkward “hellos” and attempts at putting the online identities to the real life faces and handshakes when the 16 final candidates first met at the hotel in Brisbane. The 16 “smurfs”, all dressed in our bright blue shirts, shared a certain bond during that week in May 2009 and now, seeing an email from one of my fellow candidates in my inbox never fails to bring a smile to my face. I’m happy to report that all of us still keep in contact with each other with these great, long and entertaining emails that provide a snippet of our current lives to our fellow “best jobbers”, as we like to call ourselves. It’s always exciting to hear updates with stories about new additions to candidates’ families, the new “Best Job Couple”, or the latest trip to Queensland… but we have become close enough where we confide in each other during our tough times and tragedies as well. When I see this kind of camaraderie among the group, I realize that I was really part of something special and all of my efforts for TBJITW wasn’t for naught and it actually produced something tangible, something real, something worthwhile, even though I technically “lost.”

I mentioned earlier my position of Tourism Queensland’s Tourism Ambassador here in Korea. What exactly is a Tourism Ambassador? Well, my job: selling the wonderful tourist destinations that Queensland has to offer to Koreans and the rest of the world. Sounds simple enough. I always thought that sales people who believe in the product that they are selling are always the best ones. And through my wonderful trips to Queensland during TBJITW and in subsequent trips as a part of my Tourism Ambassadorship, I definitely believe in the product that I’m selling. I’m also very glad that I can work alongside TQ’s Global Tourism Ambassador, and my friend, Ben Southall. Thanks for this opportunity to have my say Ben!

Best to all the readers in the world!

Juweon Kim
TQ’s Tourism Ambassador in Korea

Today however would be different. No more messing about, this is the stuff that sorts out the men from the boys – I mean it is supposed to be an adventure tour isn’t it!

First stop Skydiving. Skydive Cairns are to be our hosts for the stomach-churning adventure and we rock up to their office in the centre of Cairns for the pre-jump brief and to find out who we’ll be paired up with as our Jump Master.

My man of the morning is Max, a parachutist of 15 years who has made well over 15,000 jumps and obviously has an exemplary safety record (we just don’t talk about the five close shaves he’s also experienced!). He runs me through the procedures involved; how I should tuck my head back and my legs away when it’s our turn to sit in the door, when to spread-eagle in the air on the way down…and when it’s almost over – how to land.

I feel in a pretty privileged position really, having jumped a month ago with Skydive Airlie, but there’s a couple of pretty apprehensive faces wandering around the office!

We all get into our harnesses, sign our lives away and then make our way to the minibus waiting outside the office…sitting there like the vehicle which will take you to meet your maker!

As we pull onto the airfield our awaiting plane is already fired up and ready to go, there’s no going back now. I mean there’s pride at stake here. Forming an orderly, if bouncy-adrenaline-filled queue we await our fate…

One by one our Jump Masters load us into the plane, there are seven of us jumping so that’s 14 people in total. We clamber inside the plane and take our places between, the person in who our future now lies, thighs. This is all very cosy!

As we taxi down the runway some of the Korean media are talking to each other in Korean. I find out later that the editor of AB-ROAD magazine turned and told his cameraman “I love you!” Classic.

The scenery below is stunning as we make our way south-east, away from the city and out over the rainforest once more. We spot our some of our locations from the day before, landslides on the hills and churning waterfalls off in the distance. It’s a very different view to that of the Whitsundays, but equally as beautiful.

14,000 feet above the ground doesn’t take that long to get to and before we know it the roller door has been opened, the rush of the cold air fills the cabin and the first victim, sorry jumper, has their feet out of the door. Then before you can blink – GONE!

It’s surprisingly quick with these guys you know. No time to say you’re pulling out which is probably a damn good thing. I’m fourth up and before I can look down we’re falling down at terminal velocity towards the ground.

220 km/h of face distorting wind is rushing against my face and body and the only thing I can do is laugh and love it. The feeling never ever changes no matter how many times you do this – adrenaline is coursing through my veins and the natural high it causes is totally addictive.

This time there’s around a minute of freefall but it passes by oh so quickly when you’re tumbling at that speed. In fact it really does feel as though it’s over in a matter of seconds before that crutch-jerking tug on the harness and the entire freefall is over.

Once I’m hanging under canopy floating gently to the ground, Max offers me the controls of the parachute and I get a chance to steer this baby. Scary thought I know but it’s so cool being able to fly yourself down to the ground and towards the landing zone.

We pull full circles at speed and eventually come close to our landing site before Max takes over, gives the last instruction to lift my feet and with a fast approach we make it down onto terra firma once more.

Incredible – absolutely amazing – “can I go again please!”

Seeing the other guys come down to earth is wicked too, I can hear Juweon before I see his face – he’s had a great time too and shouts and screams as he approaches the ground.

The most incredible transformation has take place with another of the group too – Choong Keol Lee, the editor of GQ Korea, was a pretty quiet guy before this jump. This has brought him out of his shell totally. From total fear to total enjoyment and a huge number of very funny jokes too. I like this guy a lot.

Remember this is supposed to be an Adventure Tour so there’s no time for sitting about. No sooner are we through with our jump then it’s back to the office to collect our bags and onto the next activity…

Well strictly speaking we did have lunch first and it was back to one of my favourite haunts in the city, Café China and its ever-welcoming host Harry. Treated to his very special function room we all tucked in a spread worthy of the finest Chinese Emperor, finished off with a very different but tasty mango jelly. You have to try it!

With our final mouthful just about down the itinerary kicked in once more – we were off to the final installment. White-water Rafting.

Now I know it’s not the most impressive of all the rafting waters in Queensland, but with the rain the surrounding hills have had over the last few weeks, the Barron River is still putting down some serious white water. Enough to challenge those first time rafters amongst the group…and there are a few!

Raging Thunder are again our hosts for this our last adrenaline-filled activity and we jump in their minibus, complete with trailer and rafts, which takes us on the hour long drive up the valley.

The Korean media group all head off to one raft with their translator – there are certain things that you have to understand when rafting! I join up with another group of English speaking tourists led by Ash the guide. Once we’ve kitted ourselves out with lifejacket, helmet and slap on the sunscreen it’s down to the water’s edge to prove we can swim, float or at least not drown. The large yellow raft is big enough to fit eight paddlers and a guide in, there’s holes all over the bottom of it but fear not. They are there to let water out…not in.

The paddling drill is then given to us with a number of different instructions necessary to take on the rapids of varying intensity. They range from “paddle” to “PADDLE!!”, there’s “get down” and finally “GET DOWN, PADDLES UP”.

These are all in order of desperation as Ash our guide decides how we should be approaching, or attacking, the next rapid.

We do pretty well to start off with, riding the first and second of the falls with relative ease and then one of the big ones approaches – The Rooster Tail. So called when the water is flowing like it is, as the spouting water looks just like a chicken’s tail.

On approach it all looks pretty good, it’s only when we drop onto the beast that the raft is flung up in the air, all of us grab onto the centre ropes and get as low as possible. As we smash into the water below the raft almost flips but we just manage to hold on and save a wet ending happening.

Further downstream we’re not so lucky and get sucked back into one of the falls we’ve just dropped down. This is known as surfing! The raft is pulled right under the cascading water and immediately fills right up but these things are designed to do just that and instead of sinking, just sits there and with me being right at the front, I bear the brunt of the torrent!

We struggle to get free and in the end Ash has to jump out with a rope attached to him to act as a human-anchor, thereby giving enough resistance to pull the raft free from its temporary parking spot. No such luck.

So now it’s my turn to help out. In an effort to add more resistance Ash asks me to jump ship too, holding onto the line he’s clinging onto downstream. I take a leap of faith into the white water and join him gasping for breath 10 metres away on the end of the line. Eventually our efforts are rewarded as the raft breaks free from its watery pit-stop and we clamber back onboard.

Another fifteen minutes later and it’s all drawing to an end. The river levels out, the rapids disappear and we take the opportunity to bath in the waters, relaxing the tired muscles we’ve used all afternoon.

What a cracking way to finish the tour! It really was the activity I enjoyed the most and would love to do it all over again – but with some bigger rapids maybe!

The night was taken up with devouring one of the best steaks I’ve had in a long time courtesy of the Salt House Restaurant. Yum yum.

The alarm call at 3.30am wasn’t the most welcome I’ve ever had but I dragged myself from my pit, met the Korean media guys and Michelle downstairs and staggered onto the Raging Thunder courtesy bus ready for the hour’s drive up to the Atherton Tablelands just inland from Cairns.

Dawn was yet to happen but the early signs of a colourful horizon were starting to appear out to the east as we arrived at Mareeba, the town close to the launch site for our trip up into the sky.

I’d been up to do this once before with my girlfriend Bre and we’d had the most incredible experience together as Jay our pilot flew us over the patchwork landscape of the area. To read about it click here.

This time I’m flying together with a few other people so the balloon is that much bigger – in fact it’s huge and to boot there’s a cute little Koala on the outside. As the ground crew prepare our balloon, filling it with fans and then eventually heat from the burners, our group desperately try to avoid the plagues of carnivorous mosquito’s hovering all around. This is a game in itself!

As the elegant balloon starts to fill it’s our time to go. There are three other balloons all launching from the same site and the sound of firing burners fills the otherwise quiet morning air. We clamber into our basket, take loads of photos of each other and wait…

One final burst on the gas and the basket starts to skip across the ground below – we’re off! The last of the tethering ropes are thrown clear and we gain height quickly as our super-warm ball of air heads up into the heavens above.

Below us the lay of the land becomes that much clearer, the swirling streams and rivers lined by their lush green banks of bushes and trees. The patchwork of agriculture disappears into the distance with crops and fields making up the bulk of the landscape. This is farming territory.

As the sun broke the horizon the light changed with warm orange and yellows beams thrown onto the other balloons, the clouds above us and the peaks of the surrounding hills. This is the way to witness sunrise.

Our pilot the told us it was time to find a suitable landing site, he’d spied one around half a kilometre away in some rough ground behind a residential block. The shifting winds at altitude can vary over the ascent/descent of just a few metres and it’s these that he used to bring us closer to the site. Until finally the basket dragged over a group of bushes, scraped along the wet grass for a few metres and unceremoniously popped us over on our side. All of us are now lying flat on our backs!

As we clambered out of the basket and swapped stories about how good it was, there was one more job to do – pack the entire balloon and basket back onto the trailer.

What a way to spend the very early hours of the day!

After a hearty breakfast back at the Heritage Museum we all jumped onto the courtesy bus back to the city and an hour later arrived at the car park of Skyrail.

Now Skyrail is something, which has intrigued me for months. I’ve been to a few awards ceremonies for the tourism industry and almost every time it’s the destination awarded the prize for ‘Sustainable Tourism’. I had to see this place…

Skyrail opened in 1995 and consists of 114 gondola cabins that travel along a cableway for 7.5kms, and is much like a ski lift, albeit over slightly warmer more tropical conditions! The cableway starts off at the base of the Red Peak Mountain and climbs up 545 metres to the first of the stations.

We’re lucky enough to have a special ride for our trip, there’s a ‘marketing cage’ that does away with the usual sides and roof and instead each rider wears a harness and is secured to the metal framework. It’s a little scarier travelling this way but for the sake of the unrestricted photos we can get it’s well worth it!

As we leave the lower station Skyway whisks us up and over Tjapukai Aboriginal Centre where I visited last year and steeply up the side of Red Peak – the start of the tropical rainforest.

It’s really quite beautiful travelling in near silence so close to the canopy of the forest. The sounds you’d expect from this sort of environment flood up to us and the humidity rising up from the trees below is really noticeable.

Over the last week there has been a serious amount of rain falling on this area but today we’re lucky to have blue skies and sunshine…what this does do though is evaporate the moisture from below and that’s what were feeling. Nature working!

We stop at Red Peak station and are met by Lance…the wealth of all knowledge here at Skyrail. He’s one of the rangers who takes groups around the boardwalk here, educating them about the rainforest and flora & fauna that call this place home. It’s one thing visiting somewhere like this and being amazed by the trees and landscape but I think it adds another element altogether when you’re actually learning loads about the whole eco-system too. The rangers who work here love what they do and you can tell by the way they present about it!

In the distance the Barron River cuts through the forest as it has been doing for thousands of years creating the steep sided gorge through which it runs. It’s really impressive seeing it from up high especially at this time of year as the recent cyclone that passed through dumped a good few inches on the surrounding mountains resulting in loads of water coming over the falls.

Once we’ve travelled along Skyrail to the next station at Barron Falls, it’s time to leave for the next destination…Rainforestation.

After wolfing down lunch (this is tiring you know moving about all of the time!) we had the time for a quick tour of what’s on offer here…and I wish we’d had more.

The whistle-stop tour introduced the Korean media to everything Australian in the hour we had. We held a koala and crocodile, learned how to play a didgeridoo, threw a boomerang, and tossed a spear. Once we’d cleared the animal park it was time to explore the rainforest from a very different angle…down on the floor!

The DUKW, or DUCK, is an ex-army amphibious vehicle that can move on both land and in the water. Rainforestation have a fleet of around 15 of them and they are so impressive.

A track runs from the centre out into the forest and Muzz our guide and driver talked to us all about the history of the forest and some of the interesting creatures and plants, which are found here.

My particular favourite (as it’s so horrible) is the Stinging Tree. Now it’s no a piddly little nettle which irritates the skin for a few minutes – this thing hurts and for ages! There are tiny spikes, almost like fibreglass, which are on every leaf and branch which should be avoided at all costs as the sting hurts like hell to start with and once that’s gone, irritates you for up to a year afterwards. Not very good!

Our tour takes us into the valley into a large wet area at the bottom…there’s no stopping this DUCK though, Muzz simply engages the propeller and our truck becomes a boat! We drive around the waterway seeing freshwater turtles and lizards on the banks that scurry away as we approach. We’re up close and personal with nature once more.

The clock is ticking on our afternoon and we have to make a rushed exit in time to catch our train from the town of Kuranda back to Cairns – we’re travelling Gold Class and it’d be terribly rude to turn up late you know.

Kuranda station has to be one of the most beautiful in the whole of Australia; the plants and flowers that fill the platform only add to the colonial feel, of this the last stop on the line.

We board our Gold Class cabin onboard the Kuranda Scenic Railway and settle in for a journey back down the dramatic valley the Barron River has carved out. Our Hostess Beth pampers us with drinks, nibbles as the commentary plays on the television screens mounted in the wall.

As we travel down the line we’re told stories of the construction back in 1891 when the early pioneers decided they needed a way of getting from the inland gold fields out to the coast. The line clings to the edge of the steep sided hills, with huge drop-offs, raging waterfalls and delicate-looking bridges built along its length.

My Mum and Dad would have loved this part of the adventure. It’s a very special way of seeing the gorge. We stop off at a couple of photo spots, both of which focus on the dramatic waterfalls that are full to capacity:

It’s been an exhausting but thoroughly entertaining day and as we make it back to the hotel, there are a few sleepy bodies waking up around me – and I’m one of them. It’s amazing how the heat takes it out of you!

We reconvene an hour later ready for dinner at another of Cairns famous eateries – Barnacle Bills Seafood Inn

. Owner Tony has been here for 27 years and loves what he does. Tonight he’s prepared a special menu for us – suits me as there’s no complicated choosing from the menu.

I love my seafood and am not disappointed; oysters, scallops, Moreton Bugs, prawns and Coral Trout grace the table and as ever I eat the very last one!

Waddling back to the hotel, much like a Moreton Bay Bug, I sleep particularly well.

Day Two of the adventure complete.

Taking a week long break from his usual morning radio show Juweon has travelled out with some important people from the Korean media including:

• Mr Choong Keol Lee – editor of GQ Men’s magazine, Korea
• Mr Myung Hyo Chung – editor of AB-Road, one of Korea’s top travel magazines, and
• Hyun Woo Sun – a ‘power’ blogger from Korea

The aim of the trip is to introduce the adrenaline-filled adventures which are possible in tropical North Queensland to their markets and over the course of the next few days we’ll be lucky enough to trial some of the more exciting adventures out.

First stop however was to let the local press know our intentions so we met journalists from ABC Radio, Channel 7 News and The Cairns Post to give them a heads up of how our trip would inform the market back in Korea of the experiences which can be found here.

It was great to see Juweon again, I recently took part in an interview for him on his radio show and after chatting on the phone it was great to see him again in person.

No rest for the wicked though, this is going to be a seriously busy few days and our first appointment is with Sunlover Cruises, one of the tour operators who leave Cairns on a daily basis and head to the Great Barrier Reef to give holiday makers and tourists the experience of a lifetime. It doesn’t matter how many times I go out to enjoy the reef, I still get little butterflies of excitement in my stomach as I prepare to head out there. Today was no different!

We make our way down to the dock and after a few press photos make it onboard the custom built catamaran, which whisks us out to Moore Reef in just over 90 minutes. Sunlover are hugely popular with tourists from Korea, China and Japan and the entire boat is virtually full as it’s almost the Chinese New Year celebrations and lots of people visit Cairns at this time of year.

On the way out all of the options for things to do during the day are offered, accommodating all levels of experience and confidence in the water; there’s snorkelling, glass-bottom boat trips, touch-pools, underwater viewing chambers, SCUBA diving and the excellent Seawalker experience. It’s been nearly two months since I had my last dive on the reef and I’ve been missing it hugely. I think it’s one of those things that once you’ve tried it you just can’t stop wanting to do it – have I really become addicted to diving? There could be worse things I suppose…

As we arrive at the pontoon that the catamaran ties up against, the staff onboard go about their business looking after the excited customers all wanting to get off and get involved in their chosen activity. Most of the media crew I’m travelling with have never had the chance to dive before, so after very little persuasion they all decide to give it a go – bar the one unfortunate chap who can’t as he’s taking medication for high blood pressure. It’s good to see that the dive-master stops him from going due to the safety implications, much to his despair and infuriated protesting!

We make our way down to the pontoon and into the dive area, kit up and prepare to enter that hugely exciting underwater world once more. As I am the only certified diver onboard out of 243 passengers I get Vance, the dive master, all to myself! We make our way down the steps and into the warm (30 degrees C!!) tropical water. Cyclone Olga, which recently hit the coastline, came through this area only five days ago but there are no ill-effects visible on the reef, maybe the water has slightly less visibility than usual as the bottom’s been churned up, but there’s no damage to the coral or delicate sponges which are abundant here. It’s totally wicked getting back under the water again and within a few seconds I feel at home again, hovering above fish, watching Cleaner Wrasse at work and staring at the Anemone Fish close-up as they protect their bizarre stinging home.

After an hour of swimming around with my excellent divemaster Vance, we return to our entry point and surface on the steps of the pontoon. As ever I gush my story of what I’d seen to the nearest person – that being him. It’s the only disappointing thing to me about diving you know, not being able to speak to the person you’re down there with!

Meantime the Korean crew have been having some fun of their own, they’ve tried out SCUBA diving for themselves and spout their own reports of just how good it was. That’s the plan you see – tempt them with the good stuff so they return home and tell everyone about it.

We’ve all built up a bit of an appetite being part of the watery world below and head for the buffet to fill up on some food. The spread on offer is just what’s needed – pasta salads, cold meats, prawns and fresh fruit.

By the time 16:00hrs arrives we’re all ready to head home, the announcement comes over the speakers that were off and we bid farewell to the Sunlover pontoon. There are no Reef Rats living out here unlike the Fantasea one so all the staff who’ve become friends over the course of the day head home with us. We grab our photos from them and find a seat to fall asleep in. It’s been a long day…

Once we’ve had the chance to shower and freshen up the unrepentant itinerary kicks in again – this time with dinner at the Blue Sky Brewery just down the road. A short walk away we arrive at one of Cairns’ hotspots it seems as there’s loads going on!

The brewery was opened by a local Cairns family around two years ago and is one of the most successful micro-breweries in the country having scooped a handful of awards at the Australian Beer Awards in 2009. The bar and restaurant are wide, open and as you approach the bar a daunting line-up of barrels takes centre stage to greet you!

We all sat down and enjoyed a social dinner together and it was good to chat to another blogger, Mr Hyun, about his work, websites and interaction with social networking. Something that has become a big part of my job.

If the remaining three days of this adventure tour are anything to go by then we’re going to have an incredible time together – I just hope some others within the group have enough adrenaline reserves to get through it!

Weather: Sunshine with scattered cloud…windy though and a rough ocean. 28c

I’ve flown places, I’ve driven places…I’ve even kayaked places but so far on this crazy Best Job adventure not been lucky enough to cruise anywhere and to be honest in the past I’d never really given it much thought.

As we flew in low over Dunk Island our vessel ‘Coral Princess’ was moored up in the bay overlooking the island. Bre and I were about to jump onboard a day into the three day cruise down the Queensland coast from Cairns to Townsville. Coral Princess Expedition Cruises offer a huge variety of different experiences around the coast of Australia, and far beyond on their fleet of luxury ships.

Dunk Island’s launch ferried us out to meet our floating palace and as we jumped onboard an air of excitement filled my body – this was going to be very different from the usual hotel room, much more like the view from my Land Rover’s tent last year with every day changing!

The friendly crew welcomed us aboard and a very familiar face popped up, Brittany who we’d met back in July in Palm Cove was now working here. Our room was a delightful little double cabin with perfect ocean views and even a little ensuite bathroom complete with shower – the lap of luxury again!

As our fellow passengers started to come back onboard from their afternoon exploring Dunk Island I sat down and chatted to a few of them. They were from all over the world and a wide range of ages and backgrounds too, with people from South Africa, Germany, USA and the UK enjoying the relaxing environment away from the hectic pace of life on the mainland.

As the sun descended into the ocean the engines were fired up and we started our cruise south heading out into less protected waters and the waves started to build, the number of people enjoying the social lounge decreased as the consequences of the swell started to take effect and seasickness took its toll!

We finally moored up alongside Pelorus Island and entered the sheltered waters of the bay just in time to witness a very colourful sunset – the passengers all gathered in the upper bar for the complimentary drinks and nibbles which was a great way to meet other people and to familiarise myself with the crew.

Josh, the cruise manager, was a particularly knowledgeable guy and told us all stories about the surrounding islands then ran through the itinerary for the evening and following day. Dinner was then announced and we all made our way downstairs to the dining hall.

Each couple on the cruise has a chance to dine with the Captain and tonight was to be our lucky night! The food was great, really well made and presented good old fashioned home-style cooking with vegetables – no over-the-top presentation here, just classic simple cooking. Full marks.

I had some catching up to do on the blog so made my excuses and headed back to the room to work away, the gentle rocking of the boat adding to my already tired head.

Sunrise is one of those great times of the day when colours just erupt like an artist’s palette, and being so close to Pelorus Island just amplified it even further. Once breakfast was out of the way I had a quick chat with Matt, the dive master, and discussed the plans for our dive later in the day. We’d head off the shore of the island to explore some of the coral and clams which line the rocky coast, excellent news another chance to get under the water to investigate. The tender was prepared and we all headed ashore for a day of relaxing and eating – more of it!

The gorgeous sandy beach on this side of the island acts as the hospitality area for the cruise guests and the staff from the boat were busy preparing our lunch by the time we’d returned from our guided walk around the island – Josh again imparting the guests with his knowledge in a very unique way.

After a 40 minute dive navigating our way along the coastline I broke the surface of the ocean to find Bre still there sunbathing away – this Canadian will never learn, her slightly pink skin testament to the strength of the lunchtime sun. Slip, slop, slap is definitely the order of the day here.

Back on board we all met up on deck for sundowners and as we socialised preparations were underway for our evening’s activity, the Coral Princess quiz – a test of our knowledge and fact recollection from all of the information Josh had fed us over the last 48hrs.

With dinner out of the way it was down to the hard work, ten quick fire questions followed by a drawing competition to try and portray our cruise assistant Brittany in the best light possible and once all of the marks had been given we found ourselves in a very respectable third place out of four!

After a long night at the computer I hit the pillow heavily and before I knew it the alarm was ringing again announcing the start of another day…our last onboard. We’d cruised down the Queensland coastline all the way to Townsville and as breakfast was dispatched the familiar sight of the foreshore came into view.

What a relaxing few days we’d had at sea, a thoroughly enjoyable time getting to know lots of different people and learning lots about the geography and coastline of the area. This experience would suit the ‘less-active’ traveller looking for a chance to travel at a more sedate pace whilst stopping off at a number of different remote locations along the way – the comfort and fine dining adding to the cruise-like encounter.

End of cruise location: Townsville, Queensland

Distance covered: 190kms onboard