Queensland Holiday

We went to Queensland for a short holiday last week! I was so excited leading up to the holiday because we were going to be visiting the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest but as the departure date approached, the weather gods decided to give us a week of rainy weather...

Still, it was a blessing in disguise because it meant we did not have to worry too much about getting heat strokes and spf protection. When it was raining, the skies cleared up quite quickly afterwards so we needn't have to worry about the rain ruining our plans after all!

Our first stop upon reaching Cairns was the Esplanade. Look at the cute fish sculptures, they even spurt water out from their fins! The public pool is just fantastic fun for the family! It's free, and there are bbq, seats, changing rooms nearby. If only there is something like that near our place..

Because it was low tide, all we saw was mud flats during the day.

The next day, we went to Kuranda where we took the historic scenic railway up the mountain and cable car down. There is a train station in the cbd and close to where we were staying so we could walk there for the 2 hour train ride. The train carriages looked like they were from a bygone era, with long cushioned benches for the passengers. We saw lots of interesting landmarks along the way, including Stoney Creek Falls (above)

The train stopped midway and the passengers get to stretch their legs outside the train to take pictures of Barron Falls for about 10 minutes.

We took a walk on the Circuit Track at Kuranda Village. The village itself was very interesting and far bigger than I had expected. I thought it'll be like a strip of shops and one or two restaurants but it was a lot bigger. It even had its own IGA supermarket! 

We had plenty of restaurants, a couple of pubs, and cafes to choose from. There were also a place selling pies, another selling local coconut juice. We settled for a restaurant that served crocodile nuggets or kaarage. I chose a vege bowl which came with deep fried kale. I loved the crunchiness and Gaz liked eating what would be a vege he would not ordinarily not eat.

This is one of the view from the cable car on the way down. The cable car and train station is located next to each other and its possible to buy tickets when you get up there but for peace of mind, we bought a package online which consists of the tickets for the train, the cable car and a shuttle transfer from the Smithfield cable car station back to the CBD. It cost $140 per person.

 It is difficult to say which mode of transport train or cable car was better but if I really had to choose, I have a slight inclination towards the cable car because we got the whole gondola to ourselves and there were 3 stops we could get off and walk around exploring the board walk and take pictures.

I also enjoyed looking down onto the rainforest below and imagine how they look so much like little brocolli clustered together. There is an option to pay more for a glass bottomed gondola called Diamond View but I don't think it was necessary because we could peer outside the gondola anyway. The recommended trip is to take the train up and cable car down so it was a good tip for us.