Queensland
Sept 2010
Queensland
We flew into Cairns and took the shuttle to Palm Cove. Palm Cove is essentially a suburb of Cairns with very nice resorts and restaurants. There were nice walks along the beach (although there were warning signs for crocodiles and jellyfish) and all the food was excellent. We took the Kuranga Scenic Railway past several waterfalls (including Baron Falls) to Kuranga. Kuranga has become a tourist town, so other than to shop, there is not much except the small zoo and the butterfly farm. Then we took the skyrail down over the rainforest back to Cairns, The scenery on both the train and skyrail were great. We finished with a visit to the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, where we had lunch and they played the Didgereidoo, did culture dances, demonstrated making fire with two stick (flames in 2 minutes ... impressive), talked about bush food and medicine, then classes on using a spear thrower and boomerang (both are a lot harder than I thought). They finished with a multimedia presentation of their origin story and their history. On the whole one of the best cultural exhibitions I have ever seen.
We also visited the small Cairns zoo which was impressing considering it's size. We spent a good 4 hours going through the exhibits and finished with watching their very good bird show.
No visit to Cairns is complete without a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We took the Quicksilver SilverSonic catamaran to the reef and went snorkeling as well as introductory scuba diving. It was great with excellent guides as well as food and drinks. Everyone had a great time except for one poor girl who was sea sick. We went to 3 different sites for great coral and fish watching.
Everywhere we went people were friendly and helpful, guides were excellent and enthusiastic. We had a great time.
Read MoreQueensland
We flew into Cairns and took the shuttle to Palm Cove. Palm Cove is essentially a suburb of Cairns with very nice resorts and restaurants. There were nice walks along the beach (although there were warning signs for crocodiles and jellyfish) and all the food was excellent. We took the Kuranga Scenic Railway past several waterfalls (including Baron Falls) to Kuranga. Kuranga has become a tourist town, so other than to shop, there is not much except the small zoo and the butterfly farm. Then we took the skyrail down over the rainforest back to Cairns, The scenery on both the train and skyrail were great. We finished with a visit to the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, where we had lunch and they played the Didgereidoo, did culture dances, demonstrated making fire with two stick (flames in 2 minutes ... impressive), talked about bush food and medicine, then classes on using a spear thrower and boomerang (both are a lot harder than I thought). They finished with a multimedia presentation of their origin story and their history. On the whole one of the best cultural exhibitions I have ever seen.
We also visited the small Cairns zoo which was impressing considering it's size. We spent a good 4 hours going through the exhibits and finished with watching their very good bird show.
No visit to Cairns is complete without a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We took the Quicksilver SilverSonic catamaran to the reef and went snorkeling as well as introductory scuba diving. It was great with excellent guides as well as food and drinks. Everyone had a great time except for one poor girl who was sea sick. We went to 3 different sites for great coral and fish watching.
Everywhere we went people were friendly and helpful, guides were excellent and enthusiastic. We had a great time.
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