| Frank & Lisa's Amazing Cross-Australia Adventures |
| The Queensland Coast (3) |
| on to more Queensland Coast ...or |
| Cairns - continued |
| flavour available both times because that is what vacations are for, but Kelli & Frank loved the more mundane macadamia and blueberry respectively, too! There are lots of little galleries and an abundance of tourist shops in Kuranada, but I made a point of revisiting Boongar's Gallery. Kelli spent a heap of money on his original aboriginal art last time, and this is where we bought our boomerangs. Boongar has the most remarkably engaging eyes once he starts talking... This time Frank & I walked out with almost $400 worth of paintings (pics below). The paintings depict platypuses, a kangaroo, crustaceans, and the rainbow serpent. Only the platypuses painting was not done by Boongar himself - it was done by a fellow named Watson who is currently in jail, and thus has time to craft some fabulously detailed work. Despite buying them "together", Frank was later keen to clarify whose were whose (prep for the divorce): |
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| the platypuses & the crustaceans are mine and Frank gets the kangaroo & rainbow serpent... |
| The whole esplanade was under construction the year before when I was there, and now a huge lagoon pool, children's park and boardwalk line the esplanade "beach". The one disappiontment in Cairns is that the coastline is full of mud flats. You have to travel to the northern suburbs to enjoy the beach. Franks' dive apparently went really well and he came home with another underwater photo of himself (pic right). Unfortunately, he wasn't very diligent with the underwater cameras, so there aren't any photos from that day! |
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| In Kuranda our first stop was for lunch at a little place called Monkey Joe's (I think - it gets a mention in the Lonely Planet guide, which makes it the most famous restaurant in town) and then hit the shops. We found the homemade ice cream stall I had told Frank about. I had avocado ice cream when Kelli & I visited and quite liked it, but in its absence I tried pumpkin & clove this time. I admittedly picked the most obscure |
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| On our second full day in Cairns we took a trip on the Skyrail. It is a big ski-type gondola that takes you up over the rainforest into the small artsy town of Kuranda. Along the way there are two stops to get off and walk through the rainforest and view some waterfalls. It is really quite pretty - even the view straight down (pics below)! |
| Yvette picked me up the next morning and drove me up to Port Douglas along the Captain Cook Highway. This makes the list of the top 10 coastal drives in the world and it is not hard to see why! We followed the coastline all the way up |
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| We bought a few other gifts and souvenirs in Kuranda as well, before heading back down the gondola. That night we found a phone booth and phoned my old roommate Yvette and my friend Maylin's parents to see about catching up. I made plans to see Yvette the next morning while Frank went out diving for the day again. We then arranged to go to the Chuah's for dinner the following evening. We also met up with Yvette briefly down by the new lagoon that evening (pic left). |
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| to Port and then Yvette showed me the local haunts and tourist sites (she used to live there some years ago). One stop was a lookout for 4 mile beach (pic above left), which the highway follows. Another was the local church with a picture window behind the altar overlooking the ocean (pic right, despite my not knowing how to get the right camera setting to show the view). When we first walked in the Quicksilver II (a huge Quickcat and the boat my |
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| sister & I visited the reef in) was perfectly framed in the window, which sort of ruined the effect... Then we went down to the beach to throw a frisbee around and chat before heading up to Mossman Gorge to have a swim! This place is beautiful and |
| chock full of fresh water spring creeks - a novelty this far north (pic left). After a refreshingly chilly dip we mocked the arriving tourists who wouldn't brave the "cold" water and headed back to town so Yvette could keep an appointment. Fortunately for me, she got a call on the way back that it was cancelled, so I got to take her to lunch before saying goodbye! |
| Northern Territory: Red Centre , 2 / Top End , 2 NSW & ACT: Hunter Valley / Sydney / Canberra , 2 Queensland Coast: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 South Australia: Barossa Valley / Kangaroo Island / McLaren Vale & Coonawarra Victoria: Great Ocean Road , 2 , 3 / Melbourne New Zealand (North Island): Aukland / Rotorua / Tongariro / Wellington (South Island): Nelson / Westland / Queenstown / Milford / Dunedin / Mt Cook / Christchurch |