Cairns - April 2014

---

We headed off to Cairns to see my Dads family over Easter and now that the kids are a bit older to hopefully see more of the Great Barrier Reef. A small flaw in the plan was my Dad actually died about 8 weeks ago and id been over for the funeral etc, but with the trip all paid for 6 months ago we were still keen to come and see Dads wife and my step sister and catch up with everyone and make sure they are ok.

And it has been a really good trip. It has been great to see everyone and we've caught up nearly everyday which is great and really good for the kids to remember everyone as we are all family even if Dad isnt here any more. So... We caught the qantas flight from perth to Alice Springs to Cairns and a few notes for next time, the food was an awful egg sandwhich and there was no entertainment at all. small things but at qantas prices of $400 one way for 5 hours I'm sort if expecting even the old movie from a tv screen in the middle of the aisle. But, otherwise a good flight and we were in sunny (at least humid) cairns by 8pm 😊

Our first Morning was Easter Sunday and very luckily the Easter Bunny found us at the hotel! It looked like he came in, saw us all asleep and put the kids eggs in the bath 😊 the kids thought this was hilarious... We then set off for an exploration of the city and it didnt take long for us to find the 'lagoon'. The kids loved this huge pool with sand entry and i think we ended up there for a swim every day. It has a pretty cool holiday feel too with backpackers everywhere and dj's, aerobics and street performers all the time.

We stayed at the Hilton which was quite nice. We used my hubbies hilton points and had one room for 6 nights and when i tried to upgrade to a suite or purchase an adjoining room they were booked out- eekkkk! So 1 room for the four of us it was, but there was a nice balcony were we could relax with a vino once the kids were asleep.... Aaahhhh 😊. Anyhoo, the hotel has been refurbished so quite modern and nice, and a great location about 500m from the lagoon and the main street of cafes etc. it had a huge pool too and a spa that was good to relax in each night.

We did a few touristy things while here, we went to the Cairns Tropical Zoo one day. It was full of aussie animals - surprise, surprise 😊 but, we do live in a 2 million people city so my kids were delighted to feed kangaroos, see crocodiles, dingos and koalas. Ive never seen this before but the koalas were very alert. When we walked in they turned and looked at us and watched us! Normally koalas sleep for 23 hours a day so you never see them actually do anything. So if you want to see aussie animals this is the place for you, and the kids enjoyed it 😊 We also went out to Green Island by catamaran one day. This was the big adventure and we all had a fantastic time. In a few years when the kids are older id love to go out to the pontoons that look like mini oilrigs on the edge of the continental shelf, but green island was perfect for a 3 and 6 year old. They loved the boat ride and fish swimming around our legs and the Midgit is taking in so much its pretty cool. He will happily snorkel at home but got a bit nervous over the coral so we will need to work on that for next time. We played minigolf one day where i had my fair share if mozzie bites so glad that is over and turns out the Little Miss has a good swing on her!

Cairns itself was very relaxing. It was 30 degree days and 23 minimums with overcast days and a faint drizzle. If it hadn't have been overcast it would have been HOT so we were happy. We did as tourists did and spent silly amounts on bfast, lunch and dinner... Man, it is expensive! We did have some nice meals though including a creole restaraunt that was really good and although pricey they were always huge meals with good service. Then we did as the locals do and ate at the footy club, pubs and local suburban cafes when we ran out of money. We also did what 1000 backpackers before us did and brought milk and cereal for breakfast from the supermarket 😊

A really cool thing each night was also the bat migration from downtown across the inlet. About 15,000 bats would come out of the mango trees in a huge convoy. The council are actually planning on getting rid of them and i really hope they don't. Ive signed a fb petition to try and stop it 😞

So all up, quite a lot of swimming with tourist stuff and local adventures thrown in plus a good catch up with family... Back to work and school now i guess.

---

Photos

Nightly bat migration
15,000 flying foxes move out every night!

Comments

[taracloud]

Bats, koalas and mango trees--wow!
Sounds like a very fun trip-how great to see talents coming out in the kids (the little one's golf swing). Sad and bizarre that the city wants to get rid of bats when they eat the mozzies that were eating you, and must be something of a tourist attraction. I loved your photos of them. Sorry to hear of your father's passing, though Cairns looks like a fun vacation venue to combine with family visits--lucky you!

[RENanDREW]

Tam I'm so sorry to hear about your Dad. xx

[tamandfamily]

Tourists
Thanks! Cairns is super touristy which is weird but then we are currently tourists so also handy! I dont really understand the bat issue but there is entire block were no one can park cars due to amount of poo! Strange issue to have haha. But still, move the parking!