Day 7: Cairns to Port Douglas

We woke to grey rainy skies - we were so lucky to fly yesterday in that spectacular weather! After a mad scramble we managed to vacate the hotel by 8:10am. 

View from the hotel - no hills in background, Convention centre on left

The living/dining area of the hotel room

We then drove to Hartley's Crocodile Farm and we just made the 9am boat trip. There were 26 crocs in this lagoon and we saw quite a few of them.  They did some feeding off the side of the boat which was great fun.

After the boat trip we had a drink and a snack before heading down to the crocodile farm.

The croc farm is where they grow the croc's to then be killed for handbags, belts and shoes.  The farm is essential otherwise the trade would go into the black market and the crocs would be poached to met the demand. All croc eggs are male and it depends on the incubation temperature  whether they become female or not.

After this we walked around to the Freshwater crocodiles, through the birds and then onto the Croc feeding area for the 11am show.  The show was really good as we saw a lot of jumping crocs and some truely massive ones.

 After the show we had lunch and a bit of a break at the cafe. Once we were all energized we went for another walk past more crocs and ended up in the reptile area.  Lots to see!

Lastly we went to the 12:30pm Croc attack show.  This was a shorter show without the cool barrel role and head shake demonstrations however it was still good to see.  He was a very brave keeper!

Then it was time to go, so we trekked off to Port Douglas.  Rohan feel asleep 6km out!  The hotel was in a great location at the end of Macrossan street, right on the inlet.  Our room was ready, so we parked the car in the underground carpark and Steve took the bags up.  I stayed in the car with the a/c on to let Rohan sleep.

Eventually Steve came back and I woke Rohan and we went up to the room.  The hotel/apartment was pretty nice!  We all had some biscuits in the lounge area and chilled for a bit.

When we thought Rohan could handle it, we walked to Coles down the road and did the grocery shop before heading back.  Steve and I went out into the outside lounge area (this apartment is seriously big) and had a beer whilst the kids were in the lounge watching Mister Maker (ABC for kids).  They were SO tired after a big couple of days, so a bit of TV relaxation probably helped give them a rest.

We decided to go to the Ironbar for dinner as they had macaroni and cheese for the kids which was a nice change.  Julian went for that but Rohan was adamant that he wanted Chicken nuggets. Steve had a Coral Sea fish curry and I had a Chicken burger with a side of vegetables.  It was all really good.  The boys finished the meal with ice-cream - 3 scoops, so they were very chilled afterwards.

The apartment has a lovely free-standing bath, so the boys had a "relaxing soak" before going to bed.  Their room has no windows and a very solid door, so it is pitch black.  We put the bedside clock in there to act as a nightlight (we forgot the groclock but they are coping well).

Day 6: Cairns - Great Barrier Reef

We woke to blue skies with on a little light cloud - perfect for our flight over the reef.  We got picked up by a DainAir shuttle around 9:20am and we had a quick trip out to the airport.  We got our little lifevests strapped on and were run through a safety briefing.  Then we met our pilot - a young chap called Rohan!

We were in a little 4 seater, and Steve kindly let me ride shotgun, so he had Rohan on his lap.

 It was only 5 minutes until we were cruising over Green Island.  It looked very impressive from the air.

We couldn't believe our luck with the skies!  It was beautiful over Arlington reef.

The sand islands are called Cay's and for the life of me I can't remember all of their names.

As I am hotspotting on my phone as the internet is not working, that is all for the reef.

We got back to the hotel around 11am after the flight.  We cobbled together the swimming gear, including snorkels and vests, and drove down to the Lagoon.  When we arrived we discovered that it is closed Wednesday mornings until 12pm for maintenance.  So we had lunch but the boys were itching to get in.  At 12pm, they bolted into the lagoon and we spent the next 1 hour 30mins playing in the water.  By this time I was bored senseless and the boys were starting to shiver (it was probably around 23C outside).  We got dressed and came out to find it raining - so it was a perfect time to leave.  We went home and dumped our stuff before heading to a seminar thingee.  It is hard to explain it as I won it on a scratchie card!  In the end, we didn't have to sit through 90mins of  marketing to sell us a holiday club, they just gave us 7 nights of accommodation at a resort of our choosing (15 to choose from).  This sounds weird, and it is a bit surreal but the end result is a nearly free holiday - nice!

By now the boys were very tired, so we went back to the hotel and they bludged on the bed watching ABC for kids.  Steve and I sat outside with beers.

After a little discussion, we decided to return to the Golden Boat Chinese restaurant for dinner.  We had the same dishes as a couple of nights ago but added Crispy skinned pepper duck.  Once again it was very good however the dine-in cost was nearly twice the cost of takeaway - ouch!

I had no idea how tired I was until I feel asleep straight after the boys were in bed. Steve turned out the light at 8:30 and we were both gone!  Big day!

Day 5: Cairns - Kuranda Scenic Railway and Skyrail

We were out of the door at 8:15am as we had to be at a shuttle connection at the Skyrail terminal for 8:50.  Peak hour in Cairns was non-existent, so we were there with plenty of time to spare.  We rode the shuttle bus to Freshwater Station where we boarded the Kuranda Scenic Train.

Note Rohan holding his Train engine souvenir

 

The trip took about 1hour 30mins and was quite slow.  Rohan enjoyed the 15 tunnels.  Julian wasn't into it as much as I was expecting.

We had some sandwiches on the train, so were ready to go when we arrived in Kuranda.  We took a stroll up the main street, which was filled with tourist shops, to the Butterfly Sanctuary.  Unfortunately Rohan was tired and grumpy and really didn't enjoy the butterflies.  Julian had a great time there.  The tip from the travel agent to wear white if you would like the butterflies to land on you wasn't as effective as I expected - light blue probably would have been better.

After the Butterflies, we walked to Birdworld.  This is really just one big aviary with lots of colourful birds.  I didn't like it much as the birds kept swooping past me.  Thankfully Rohan was a little less scared here.

After a mild Rohan hissy-fit about not wanting to go to the toilet (I overheard a guy say"And that is why I don't want children"...) we walked into Kuranda for the daily holiday ice-cream.  We went to the little cooler trailer of the Kuranda Tropical Fruit Ice -Cream company.  Once again the boys decided on vanilla and Steve and I chose Macadamia (no fruit for us!).  We ate them on a bench outside a clothes shop and had a great time people watching. The ice creams were delicious.

It was only 1:30pm but we were done!  We walked back to the Skyrail and after a short wait, we climbed into our gondola for the return journey.  Both boys LOVED the gondola.  I wasn't too keen on how high up we were.

Barron Falls

It was a great day but tiring for everyone.  So when went back to the hotel and we all had some downtime.

We walked back to Barnacle Bills for dinner.  Steve had a Jambalaya and I had Coral Trout, the boys had fish and chips.  We went next door to Movenpick for the second ice cream of the day and it was vanilla again for the boys :)  We walked home via the Night Market where we bought a small backpack and souvenir t-shirts for the boys.  It ended up being a later night than I would have liked but they held up ok and settled into bed without too much fuss.

Day 4: Cairns

Today was the rest day that we all needed, however it didn't start too well.  We decided to go out for breakfast at a place called The Pancake House as everyone likes pancakes.  Unfortunately 8am was too late for Rohan, so even though he chose a pancake dressed up to look like a spider (with ice-cream!), he wasn't happy.  For some reason I chose a pancake with bacon inside it and bacon rashes on top.  It was weird and not in a good way.  Steve chose an avo-smash on pancakes with 2 eggs which apparently was tasty.  Julian being the alternative type (not at all) chose the Acai Blueberry pancakes with coconut and chocolate sauce which he thought was delicicous. Definitely not a breakfast menu.  The Rohan shenanigans meant there were not photos of our strange breakfast.

We then did some food shopping and went back to the hotel to relax.  We finally hauled ourselves out just after 11am to drive down to the Cairns Lagoon to have a swim.  Finally the clouds had gone, and there was blue sky and warmth.

We spent about 2 hours there including a picnic lunch and it was really lovely.  We then strolled up the Esplanade to find an ice cream.  The place we found was actually a Gelati shop and it was really really good. I tried their Tim Tam concoction which was nice but I went with my tried and tested combo of Chocolate and pistachio.  The guy sneakily popped some Tim Tam gelati into the bottom of the cone "just because".  The boys had vanilla, again.

We then went back to the hotel and tried out the hotel pool.  It was freezing as it wasn't heated.  Julian managed to get the hang of the snorkel and swim vest but had to be told to get out as he was turning blue!  Rohan wasn't as keen but managed a very quick try out of the vest and snorkel.

After a warm shower, we hung around the hotel until just before 5pm when we walked up to an Italian restaurant around the corner for dinner.  The boys were EXHAUSTED.  They both slumped in their chairs and stared off into space.  Thankfully a little Spaghetti Bolognese was eaten and they happily went to bed 30 mins early - unheard of!

Day 3:Cairns - Atherton Tablelands

After a good nights sleep and breakfast, we headed off just before 9am.  Today we were driving to the Atherton Tablelands which is about an hour southwest of Cairns.  It was cloudy again, about  21C and some light drizzle - so not a tropical paradise.

We took the Gillies Highway from Gordonvale.  This road should have been sponsored by Subaru and Dunlop as it was a tight winding road going up and down a tall hill.  Steve was dreaming of his WRX.

First stop was meant to be the Cathedral Fig Tree but unfortunately it was closed due to track damage, so we stopped off at Lake Barrine.  Lake Barrine is a small lake (circ. 5km) and had a famous tearooms.  As it was cold, we headed into the tearooms for a Devonshire tea but with the best coffee we have had so far.

Lake Barrine and tearooms

There was also a short walk by the lake to 2 Kauri trees, both approx 45m tall.

Now that our bellies were full, we headed off to the Curtain Fig Tree which was just past Yungaburra.  This tree was really spectacular.

The next stop was Gallo Dairyland which sounds spectacular but truely wasn't!  We did buy some Misty Mountain Cheese which was very tasty, otherwise it wasn't worth a visit.

 We then drove to Atherton to have a picnic lunch by an awesome mountain bike track.  Thankfully the sun had come out and it was starting to be nice and warm.  There is a "famous"attraction in Atherton called The Crystal Caves which is really just a rock and gem shop with a manmade cave at the rear of the shop.  We didn't pay to have a look at the cave but we did look at the shop.  There were lots of great crystals and rocks but Julian was only interested in the fossilised  shark teeth.  So on day 3 of the holiday, Julian spent his remaining pocket money on one. 

Next up was our main reason for visiting the tablelands - waterfalls.  First up was the Hypipamee Crater and Dinner Falls.  This was a pretty spectacular crater and Rohan had a great time yelling "echo" and the sound bouncing back to him.

We took the not so short route to Dinner Falls.

There was even a bush turkey in the carpark when we returned.

By now Julian was starting to get into bushwalking and waterfalls - he even said that he was enjoying himself.  The next waterfall was the one that Peter Andre used in his Mysterious Girl video clip - Millaa Millaa falls.  Unfortunately the dial on the new camera was on "Toy" special effect, so we ended up with these special photos.

Just a little bit down the road was Zillie Falls.  It looked like a nice drop off from the top and the track looked just a little bit muddy.  In the end the track wasn't better than a goat track and it was exceptionally muddy.  Everyone loved it.  The view of the waterfall from the bottom was worth the walk.

After an extended clean up in the carpark, we went to Ellinjaa falls only about 1km further down the road.  I think this was the nicest of the day.

On the way home was Malanda falls which was just a little bit different - a swimming pool below a waterfall.  It might have been nice on a hot day.

I was a bit of a long trek home and would you believe that the 2 cars in front of us were from South Australia and Tasmania!  Also the winding road is not much fun when you are stuck in a convoy of cars behind a truck.  As soon as we got back, we ordered Chinese takeaway from a restaurant up the street - Golden Boat Restaurant.  It was the best chinese food we have had outside of China!  Not a grain of rice was left on the plate.