Oz: Outside Cairns - Kuranda

Other than as a hop-off point for the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns is quite unexciting as a destination.  Most packages would include a visit to Kuranda via the historic scenic railroad and a return trip by gondola Skyrail, both providing spectacular and often breathtaking views of the tablelands over which Kuranda is perched.  The rainforest park is the primary attraction in Kuranda and tourists are bused into the swamp on army ducks.  You will see below some of the wildlife we encountered on that trip.  

Historic railroad

View from the train

Barron Gorge with the two lakes

Historic railway station in Kuranda

"Jack the Ripper" 5 metres long 750 kg 45 - 50 years old expected to live to 100

Can you see the well-camouflaged iguana?

Spear-throwing aboriginal performer

A striking tropical Torch flower

Perky iguana

This is the life!

This looks like it might be a fearless Bush stone curlew but I could be wrong.  Perhaps my Australian friends can enlighten us?

Stunning ride over the rainforest 

Great Kauri pine

Approaching Cairns on the Skyrail

Cairns at dusk

This is the end of our Australian trip, we hopped on the plane to New Zealand the following day.  The next posts will cover our driving tour of the North and South Islands.  

Oz: The Great Barrier Reef

Cairns was the base from which we visited the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest structure made of living organisms, in this case, coral polyps.  We enjoyed the trip to one of the reefs - it was indeed an eyeopener, but it was only a minute fraction of the massive reef structure.  We were no where near to experiencing the magnitude of the GBR, considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  In that sense, it wasn't the most satisfactory experience even though we thoroughly enjoyed the outing on the catamaran Quick Silver.  

Cairns waterfront

Downtown Cairns

City Library

The "bat" tree - a huge Banyan tree on the library grounds

Port of departure for the GBR

Catamaran that took us out to the reef

The platform from which we "did" the reef - you can see the different shades in the water because of the reef

Below are photos of coral taken from the tourist "submarine" - now I wish I could scuba dive...

The trip back to port

Late afternoon on the Coral Sea