Cairns

The tour dropped us off back at the Summer House Cairns backpackers. From 5-star luxury to a backpackers? Yep. We like backpackers. So long as the bed is in a double room, not a dormitory, it's fine by us. Nowadays we prefer an ensuite bathroom and many backpackers offer this. At a fraction of the price at a hotel.

We had 6 nights before our flights back to Christchurch, so 5 full days to explore the Cairns area. We pencilled these in as:

1. A guided bird-watching walk in the botanic gardens

2. Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef

3. An eco tour of the Atherton Tablelands

4. Kuranda, and

5. Spare.

Numbers 1, 2 and 4 generated so many pictures they will have a post each.

In preparation for the forthcoming activities, we had a pleasantly idle day in the town.

September is supposed to be the end of the dry season, but 'the Wet' must have been imminent, because irregular showers arrived, some of them very heavy.

In the evening, while walking through the night market we came across Blythe and Karleen from the Outback Spirit tour. They were having a couple of extra nights at the Shangri-La Hotel and had chosen to dine in the night market food court.

We were waiting in Abbott St. for the shuttle back to the hostel when this Bush Stone-curlew walked down the road.  An odd name because it is not a bush nor a stone nor a curlew.  It was also out well past its proper bed time.

The bird-watching walk in the botanic gardens was a naturalist's delight, but we got very wet.

By late afternoon we were back at the night market looking for souvenirs. A piece of trivia, in Cairns “permanent” apparently means 40 days.

For our trip to the Great Barrier Reef we opted for Michaelmas Cay. A full day trip but the cay has both coral reefs and thousands of birds!

Thursday, 18 September was our trip to the Atherton Tablelands. The minibus picked us up at the hostel; a small vehicle and not nearly full.

The driver made much of the 200+ bends in the Gillies Highway. He started counting them when we arrived, but mercifully stopped after the first 3. It is a good sealed road and no more wiggly than the road we live on. We reminded ourselves that this was Australia, where the default road curvature is dead straight.

We were taken to a selection of nice bush locations, with photo-worthy views and/or trees. The Millaa Millaa waterfall was running steadily. It can dwindle to a trickle at the end of the dry season, so the heavy showers we were experiencing had pumped it up a little. The driver's pronunciation, “Miller Miller” seemed to conflict with the spelling, but we didn't query it.

The Curtain Fig tree.  Starting from a seed dropped high in the canopy, this strangler fig grew vertical roots, which gradually became thicker and interwoven. Over hundreds of years these roots have strangled the host causing it to fall into a neighbouring tree.

Lake Barrine

A big cluster of orchids growing by the teahouse at Lake Barrine.

Two Queensland Kauri trees, Agathis robusta, as tall and straight as the NewZealand species, Agathis australis.

Millaa Millaa Falls

And then Paronella Park. A Spaniard migrated to Queensland and managed to save enough from labouring to buy and profitably develop land. After 11 years without sending so much as a postcard he returned to Spain to find his fiancée had married someone else. So he married her sister instead and brought his bride to Queensland and built a castle in the bush. In England it would be called a folly.

You can read the full story here.

A nice avenue at Paronella Park

Apart from the folly, the site is home to some rare Irwin's Turtles, named after the late conservationist and television personality Steve Irwin.

An Irwin's Turtle is recognised by its pink nose.

The last stop on the trip was Babinda Boulders. The showers had made the muddy path from the car park to the boulders very slippery. Eve didn't like the look of it. Bill promised that he would be very careful but, despite his promise, he had skidded and fallen on his back within 10 metres. The most serious injury was to his self esteem, but we turned around and went back to the bus.

On his first visit to Australia, in 1971, Bill had taken the scenic train from Cairns to Kuranda. His journal reveals that his return ticket cost 89 cents. In 2025 the train is $170 for the two of us. Include admission to the 3 wildlife attractions and we paid $294. Australian dollars, of course.

The train may have been the same, but there was much more to do in Kuranda now. So it will get a post of its own.

Rusty's Market opens only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Our last full day in Cairns was a Saturday so we took the opportunity to go and see it.

The market is known for tropical fruits and vegetables. These stalls occupy the prime positions.

A selection of tropical fruits.

Jack fruit are notoriously niffy, so are displayed wrapped in cling film.

While we were there Eve picked up a pair of spectacles from the ground. There was no-one nearby who might have dropped them. A stall-holder directed us to the market manager's office. That was locked so we left the specs on a ledge next to the office door. Let's hope the owner recovered them.

The afternoon was spent idling around the town centre and debating where to go for our last dinner. The decision went to Spicy Bite, an Indian Restaurant.

The Lagoon, where families can paddle and swim without fear of sharks, jellyfish or crocodiles.  Even so, there is a lifeguard on duty.

The journey back to Christchurch was uneventful until we tried to summon an Uber on exiting Christchurch Airport. Bill's 'phone appeared to have a signal, but the Uber app refused to function. We had to get a regular taxi.