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Published: February 17th 2007
The Arrival I slept almost the entire way to Cairns, but woke up in time to look out my window and see a gorgeous coastline - my first glimpse of Australia!! For the about 20 minutes while we flew over the northern tip of Australia, my eyes were glued to my window. Here it was, a country I’d been longing to see for as long as I could remember. HERE IT WAS!!! When we finally began our decent I couldn’t have been more excited. The Cairns airport was small, and mostly filled with Qantas planes, so our 747 Cathay Pacific plane was quite an addition. As I exited the plane, I was hit with the weather almost instantly - suffocatingly humid and hot. Quite the stark contrast to the snowy Toronto I had left behind. Customs were incredibly friendly, and even let me keep my fresh Alaska smoked salmon which had now been on quite a long trip. I exited the airport and looked around. A friendly lady approached me, asking me who I was looking for. “Cairns Colonial Club Resort. I’m staying with them and they said they’d have a bus for me.” She told me to give them a
call at the complimentary phone, and even gave me their quick dial number. I was told the bus would be there in 15 minutes and I should wait outside. After half an hour, I started to talk to the friendly security guard. He informed me that Australians were, as their reputation states, lazy and quite unpunctual. He said they probably forgot about me. So I called again. They apologized on the phone and assured me the bus would be there in 10 minutes. After about 20 minutes, it showed up.
The Cairns Colonial Club Resort is a tropical paradise.
I could not have been more pleased with my choice.
Which is good, because I spent many bored hours on my co-op term researching hotels and this one promised not to disappoint.
The one downside was that it was about 6km outside of the city centre, and their complimentary shuttle bus stopped running at 6pm in order to get residents to eat at the resort restaurant. The cab ride back home: about $10-15, depending on where you are in the city. After I got settled, I made the trip into town to have a look around. Cairns
has this little night market open from 4:30-11:30 every night which is fun to see. Mostly it’s filled with little shops run by East Asians who speak poor English and sell tacky souvenirs involving Kangaroos, Koalas, and Sharks. But it’s fun to walk through. I had been advised at the hotel that there was a great seafood restaurant on the Esplanade called Barnacle Bill’s so I decided to give it a try. When I saw the prices I almost gagged. I though the hotel restaurant was over-priced, with most meals costing between $17-25. Here, however, there was barely a meal under $20!! But it was my first night in Australia, so I decided to treat myself. And it was worth it! Barramundi (that’s a fish) with avocado and HOLLANDAIS sauce. YUM!! And my waitress, cruel that she is, brought out the dessert options, tempting me into having the most amazing cake ever. The bill made it a bit less amazing (or maybe more so?) - the cake was $12!!! All in all it was a pricey meal but whatever, you only have a first night in a tropical paradise once, right?
Kuranda and Rainforestation My second day in Cairns
I signed up for a rainforest tour to the most popular spot - Kuranda. I had a great all-inclusive tour. They picked me up from the hotel then drove just outside of the city to a train station. Then we all hopped on the Kuranda scenic railway. Built long before modern technology in the 1800s, this railway winds up the mountains and deep into the rainforest, passing two magnificent waterfalls - Stoney Creek and the mighty Barron River falls.
At the end of the trip you are in Kuranda, a small town up in the rainforest. I paid extra and got to see the Butterfly Sanctuary and I did not regret my decision! I got to see literally hundreds of butterflies, including Australia’s own Blue Ulysses. I also got a free tour where I learned heaps about the butterflies of Australia - and the world.
After our stop in Kuranda we headed up to Rainforestation, a theme park of sorts deep in Rainforest. We started by watching an Aboriginal Dance display, including live musicians. Next an Aboriginal took us to three stations where we got to try throwing a boomerang, watch a digiridoo demonstration, and learn about spear-throwing.
Next was our lunch, which was an incredible buffet with loads of delicious food. We also got some free time to check out a great tourist trap not included in our tour - get our photo taken with a koala. I have to say, it’s the cutest picture EVER and worth the $20. Next we rode an amphibious vehicle through the rainforest, travelling by road and water and checking out the flora and fauna (and learning which to avoid. Number one lesson learned in Cairns: whether in the rainforest or out on the reef, DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING!!! Cause pretty much everything will kill you, or at least hurt you beyond belief.)
Our final stop was the wildlife park, where we got to get up close and personal with the domesticated kangaroos and wallabies. So cute! We also got to meet Jack the Ripper, a large and daunting crocodile. Plus we saw a dingo, and I learned the story behind the expression “the dingo ate my baby”. In the 1970s a woman went into the Outback with her baby, but returned without it. She told the courts that the dingos had taken it away, but no corpse or traces of
the baby were ever found again. Most people in Australia think she actually killed the baby, but there was no proof so she remained free. There was a movie made about it, but I forget the title. It had ‘Angels’ in it, I believe.
Anyways, after seeing the animals, we headed down to the world-famous Skyrail, a gondola ride above the forest canopy. Unfortunately the weather was overcast and rainy all day, so the view wasn’t totally clear, but it was still utterly spectacular. There are also two stops along the way where you can get out and have a little look around. At the bottom, we were bused back to our hotel. It was an AMAZING first day. I was so excited I even ate at the hotel restaurant with my new friend from the day - Jessica from Minnesota. She was on her way down to Sydney the following day.
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