May, June & July in Cairns

Hi there! Happy May, June, July, August! How is it already August?? The calendar flipping over (many times) means we've officially been in Australia for over 6 months and official home-renters in Cairns for almost 5 months! We will be fully honest and tell you that we've tried to write a blog post for every month since our last, but we kept forgetting, so here is your update for the last several months of everything we've been up to since settling into our new routine in Cairns.

Chapter 1: Katie's Unemployment: Water Version

First, we left you long ago on a bit of a cliffhanger with Katie returning to Australia after her solo liveaboard travels in the Philippines. Promptly after returning home, she left again and went onto another boat. What a life. Katie volunteered with one of the dive companies based in Cairns and got to go on a 5-night liveaboard to the Ribbon Reefs on the Great Barrier Reef for the small small price of keeping rinse buckets full, helping divers take off their fins and washing a dish or two. It was so nice to dive on the Barrier Reef again and get to practice my underwater photography skills!

Chapter 2: James is a working man

While Katie had been living life underwater, James had been hard at work learning the ropes of his new company, soaking in a metric ton of information (and seawater) in his first month of the fresh gig. Even in this short period of time, he's now in charge of training a couple of newbies, despite being a newbie himself! He's gotten accustomed to identifying tons of new reef species and learning their behaviours, feeding patterns and which diseases they're most often afflicted by, which he gets to treat in the hospital system! The only downsides so far are that he comes home smelling like a fishmonger and has to deal with a lot of dead, and STINKY fish.

While this section was written a while ago now and James has now been working for 4.5 months and has surpassed the required 88 days for a second-year visa, it looks like James is in the clear while Katie is working away hard on hers. James' first 4.5 months have been busy, busy with thousands of fish coming through the facility every few weeks! So far, James' favourite animal is a tiny baby wobbegong shark that came in last week; he (along with everyone else on the team) is secretly hoping it won't sell and stays as a long-term resident.

Chapter 3: Katie's Unemployment: Land Version

After returning from her second liveaboard, Katie had all the time in the world to fill with anything she could want. Here's a non-exhaustive list of what she's been up to:

• Birding: joining the Cairns Birders on their 7:30 AM walks around the Botanical Gardens & Lakes. Before you ask, yes, the average age of the group is approximately 72.

• Baking: making lots of snacks like focaccia, cookies, energy balls

• Pottery: making some cool projects (photos to come)

• Turtle rehab volunteering: getting to hang out with turtles at the Aquarium

• Hiking: exploring our local peaks, rainforests and beaches. Bonus points if it's a hike to a swimming/snorkelling location

• Running: she momentarily considered signing up for the half-marathon in Port Douglas in September, but then learned that the last 3.6km are on sand, so she decided it would be a no-go

• Reading: She's on her sixth and a half book, and is the newest member of the Cairns Library!

• Making kombucha: call her cultured because her SCOBY is thriving

Chapter 4: Chomper gets chomped

After 3 weeks of random activities, Katie finally started her job! Her prayers were answered, and the curator at the Cairns Aquarium kept her in mind and offered her the position that she wanted. So now, 5 days a week, you can find her hanging with the sharks, rays, and a psychopathic Maori wrasse (named Teddy after Ted Bundy). She's been cleaning tanks, feeding blue spots, testing the water, changing filters, scooping poop, cuddling sharks, and getting absolutely CHOMPED by multiple rays.

More on the rays, but first, a little backstory.

At a very young age, Katie made two life-changing discoveries: first, that she had teeth, and second, that they were surprisingly effective negotiation tools. Want a piggyback ride? Chomp. Want control of the TV remote? Chomp. Brothers annoying her? Chomp.

Her reputation spread quickly, earning her the nickname "Chomper," which naturally evolved into "Chopper," "Chop," "Chopperito," and countless other variations that have stubbornly survived into adulthood.

Fast forward to today. As Katie settles into her new job, the animal kingdom has apparently uncovered her childhood résumé and decided it's time for a little payback. Over the past few months, her fingers have been enthusiastically sampled by everything from red-toothed triggerfish and batfish to shovelnose rays and marble rays.

Luckily, she does have chainmail gloves (a piece of equipment her brothers should've invested in 23 years ago), but when a 600-pound ray thinks your fingers look a lot like food, it still hurts. The rays don't exactly leave puncture wounds but they leave you questioning your life choices while your fingers throb.

After years of being the family's most notorious biter, Katie has officially become the one getting chomped. It's hard not to appreciate the irony.

 A really cool thing about our jobs is that many of James's fish get sold directly to the Cairns Aquarium and become Katie's fish! Good thing there are no refund policies!!

Chapter 5: Life

All in all, life is pretty good in Cairns; the weather has been gorgeous with daily averages of 18-28 degrees and not a single raincloud in sight. Perfect for evening tennis, gelato on the Esplanade, and new adventures with the roomies!

With working ending at 3:30 for both of us, we have lots of time on our hands, and we have been chefing up some delicious grub, including James' feature, Beef Wellington, Katie's (/Kimmy's/ RecepieTinEats) focaccia, many delicious pizza's with a few new dough recipes in the works, burritos with homemade tortillas, so much sushi, delicious stir fry in pineapple bowls and so much more! We are certainly taking full advantage of having a full-sized fridge and stove instead of our 4" pan and little burner stove that Olga was equipped with. If anyone has any recipe recommendations, please shoot them over, we're searching for new dishes to perfect!

We've been having such an amazing time living in Cairns, and we are so excited to continue to explore the surrounding areas over the next year! We will keep the blog better updated than it has been, so that everyone can share in the enjoyment of our crazy adventures!!