Aussie Holiday: Cairns

Cairns (pronounced ‘cans’) is on the northwest Queensland coast, the area recently battered by some cyclones. While Long Island and the Whitsundays are geographically in the tropics, Cairns actually feels like the tropics. It has the lush rainforests, hot and humid weather, and mosquitoes like there’s no tomorrow. It is commercialised while still being home to several World Heritage natural sites.

After dinner on our first night in Cairns, we headed into town to the night markets. Every night, after sundown or something like that, heaps of little hole-in-the-wall touristy shops open up to sell everything you can think of. There is a booth that sells pearl jewellery that you ‘pick from your own oyster,’ swimsuits and sarongs and all kinds of beachwear, and even a Chinese massage parlour. We shopped around, bought some drinks to suffer through the hot weather, and just wandered for awhile. We headed back to our resort after about an hour because we all had early mornings the next morning.

My big adventure that day was to go out on the Great Barrier Reef. Cairns is a popular jumping-off point to visit the outer reefs in the Great Barrier Reef. I was very excited because I had heard that I could go SCUBA diving without being a certified open-water diver. Jules had told our group that you could do an introductory dive, which means you have some short instruction before going underwater with the instructors. Seven of us signed up for the cruise, but Stacey and Leanne ended up not coming on the trip because the company told them they were not medically able to dive (even though Leanne has done it before). They had to go with another group on a different day. It was so cool! The weather wasn’t nice at all on the way out, and it even started raining a bit while we were in the water, but you don’t care because you are already wet in the water. I was in the third diving group, so I got to snorkel for awhile before getting suited up. I have been snorkelling in the Caribbean and in Fiji, but this was still amazing. The coral was so bright, and the fish were everywhere. One cool thing is that the fish aren’t afraid of you at all. There was one kind that was very interested in the snorkelers and would actually come up and peck at your stinger suit or your mask.

After snorkelling for a little while, the instructors called my group in to suit up and go over how to dive again. I had never worn a diving suit before, and it was a lot heavier then I anticipated. Of course, it doesn’t feel heavy under water, but it certainly does on land! We suited up and then jumped off of the back of the boat into the water. The company had two lines strung between the fins of the catamaran, one just under the water and one a metre down. After you were used to breathing through the tank over water, you went just under water and got used to it then. I thought it was easier to breathe under the water through the tank than above water. After you signalled to the dive instructor that you were OK, she adjusted your weights and let air out of your vest until you were one metre under water. You adjusted yourself to that while she went down the row to check everyone else. After everyone was ready and adjusted, you went down another metre and repeated the process. At this point, we left the boat and went swimming. At our deepest point, we were six metres under the water. I had a little trouble at the very bottom with my ears (I had trouble equalising them), but it was so cool anyways! When you are under the water, you, and the fish, think that you are just a part of that world, and they have no problem swimming all around you and the rest of the people in the group. Schools of fish would swim by and surround you. That’s an experience that you can’t get on the surface.

After this stop, we all got back on board and had lunch while we sailed to our next destination. At our first stop, the coral a ways under water, but it was almost at the surface at the second stop. That meant that a lot more light could reach the coral and the fish, so everything seemed brighter. I was glad that I had my stinger suit on because I saw a lot of jellyfish. We had seen one really big jellyfish while diving, but I saw heaps more when I was snorkelling, and they were the small clear kind that (I think) were a lot more dangerous. I also saw a really big shark chilling out on the bottom waiting for some food to come along. When I was back on the boat, someone told me the shark was about two metres long (I am really bad at judging distances, especially when associated with water). All in all, it was an exciting time on the water.

After this good day, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my second free day in Cairns. Our resort wasn’t on the water, and even if it was, we couldn’t swim because of all of the dangerous things lurking in the water. I was flipping through the book of recommended activities in Cairns, and I came across hot air ballooning. I was like, ‘Hm, I have never done this before. Let’s try that!’ That’s how, at 4am the next morning, I ended up in a shuttle van taking me to the balloon launching site. Apparently, in the hot weather climate of the tropics, you can only take up a hot air balloon between the hours of 6am and 8am because of temperature constraints, but I think it is nice to be up at sunrise. I was surprised at how quickly the sun rose once it started to peak over the mountain, but it didn’t take long at all. We got to the site early enough to see the balloons being blown up and everything. We split into four groups, two up at a time, and I was in the second group. This was the better group to be in because the sun had fully risen, so the light was better and the scenes more scenic. It was absolutely gorgeous. Because we were up at sunrise, it was breakfast time for the kangaroos, so we could seem them hopping around the fields below us. There was some cloud cover, but that just helped to keep the sun out of our eyes while creating beautiful pictures. Because you flow with the wind, you can’t feel it and everything is perfectly still. The flame to heat up the air in the balloon is really loud while it is on, but when it is off, everything is perfectly silent. It was a really cool experience. It’s traditional to celebrate with champagne after a successful balloon flight, so my company took us to a restaurant for champagne and buffet breakfast.

I got back to the resort at about 10am, but I had been up for over six hours at that point, so I was tired. I made some phone calls and then just caught the shuttle into town to do some errands. I hadn’t checked my email in a few days, and I also wanted to do a lot of souvenir shopping. This was our last stop, so I could load up on souvenirs without having to carry them all over Australia. For lots of people on the tour, it was their last night, so we had a special dinner and night out in Cairns.

The next day, most people’s last day, we headed out of Cairns on a quick morning trip to the village of Kuranda. This is just a little touristy village with some cheap markets and other attractions, like a butterfly sanctuary. I didn’t enjoy it that much, but it wasn’t a bad way to spend a morning. After lunch, the driver dropped most everyone else off at their new hostels (because their tours were over), and I took a much-needed nap. That night everyone on the tour was still in town because not too many flights leave from Cairns, so we all met up in town again for another ‘last night out.’

The next day, the last official day of my tour, was spent up in the Daintree Rainforest region. We took a coastal drive up the Cook Highway before boarding a 4WD vehicle to take us into the Daintree forest. We started with a river cruise (covered in mosquitoes because it was the first day without rain in weeks). Normally, there are lots of crocodiles in the river, but it is nesting season right now, so most of the crocs were hidden. We did manage to see a nesting mother, something that is apparently very rare to see, and a large dominant male. We ended with a big lunch at the mouth of the river. After this, we climbed up into the rainforest and stopped at a freshwater river for a quick swim and a tropical fruit snack. We also had a special kind of tea that the old outback explorers could make quickly and easily and with minimal equipment. On the way home, we made at stop at Cape Tribulation. We couldn’t go anywhere near the water because everything about the beach could kill us almost instantly, but it was gorgeous.

And that was the end of my trip! I spent that night at a big hostel called Gilligan’s. It was huge, clean, and lots of fun. I had to get up early the next morning for my flight back to Wellington. I had a great time in Australia, but it was also nice to be back in Wellington for my final week. I could definitely go back to Australia again.