Cairns

Alex and I arrived in Cairns on Saturday afternoon.  Cairns is our second-to-last stop in Australia before heading back to the homeland!  When I studied abroad 14 years ago, my parents came to visit over my Spring Break and we spent a few days in Cairns.  I honestly can say I did not recognize much of the town and it felt like I was exploring it for the first time all these years later.  

After checking into our Airbnb, we went to the Barrier Reef Brewing Company where we each ordered a beer - Double Shot Coffee Amber for Alex and the Pale Ale for me.  The owners were really nice and we spent a bit of time talking with them.  They informed us there was a food truck event happening about 20 minutes outside of town and we ended up going there for dinner.  There were about 15 food trucks and we shared some pulled pork, gnocchi, and some chicken dumplings.  It was all delicious and a great way to spend an evening.  

Unfortunately, we are ending our last week in Australia with not so great weather.  Weather reports are forecasting clouds and rain for the next few days - Yuck!  On Monday, we drove to Kuranda, a mountain village outside of Cairns.  On the way to Kuranda, we stopped at Barron Gorge National Park to see Barron Falls.  There is an elevated boardwalk which winds through the forest to multiple lookout points around the rainforest.  

Once in town, we wandered through the Kuranda Original Rainforest Markets.  Operating since 1978, multiple stalls sell everything from local produce, crafts, and art.  We picked up some breakfast and checked out a few of the shops.  

By this time, the rain had started to pick up and we decided to seek shelter at the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary.  It is the largest butterfly aviary and exhibit in Australia and the southern hemisphere!  They have over 1,500 butterflies in the enclosure at any given time. We were able to walk through the exhibit and enjoy watching the butterflies flutter about.  One even landed on my head!  Ha!

This butterfly is laying eggs - they are the small yellow circles on the string

We spent all day on Monday at Fitzroy Island.  Alex noticed a while back there were deals on a website similar to Groupon which offered discounted tickets to Fitzroy Island.  Luckily for us, we were able to take advantage of this deal and our ferry ride only cost half the price.  Woohoo!  I love a good deal!  Once on the island, we decided to spend the morning hiking the Lighthouse and the Summit Track.  It took about 2 1/2 hours and the views from the summit were really beautiful.  

Lighthouse

View from the Summit

After our hike we walked to Nudey Beach which, despite its name, is not a naturalist beach!   Most of the beaches on Fitzroy are made up of corals and this was no exception.  I spent a lot of time walking along the beach admiring all the corals. 

My name spelled out in coral!

Before heading back to the ferry, we did the short Secret Garden Track which took about 30 minutes.  It goes through the rainforest and was a nice leisurely hike through the trees.  

We leave Cairns tomorrow and will spend the next three nights in the Daintree Forest.  Although we did not have the best weather, we made the most of it and embraced the fact we are in rainforest territory!