X Km's later... Cairns!

Trip Start Feb 20, 2006
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Trip End Ongoing


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Sunday, April 23, 2006

We had a beautiful and sunny Easter weekend. I woke up on Sunday and Tim had bought me a chocolate bunny. Of course, he helped me eat it! That night, we got together with friends and had our going away dinner. We had a great time and made sure to exchange e-mail addresses. The next morning we caught the ferry to Townsville where we waited for our bus. We left around 2:00 pm and arrived in Cairns at 7:30 pm. Along the way, we passed through areas hit by cyclone Larry (category 5) and saw numerous uprooted trees and washed out fields. There was so much damage and trees piled everywhere. While on the bus, we found out that north of Cairns was expecting another cyclone (category 3) so it has been raining non stop these last few days. However, it did clear a bit today but it's supposed to rain all week. Well, at least we finally got to use our raincoats! So we've been visiting local stores, exchange bookshops and researching our next destination... New Zealand.

A must do in Cairns is visiting the village of Kuranda by taking the 7.5 km skyrail rainforest cableway Kuranda
Kuranda
 . So this morning, we took a chance with the rain and took the shuttle bus to the terminal. From there we boarded our own private gondola and enjoyed spectacular views while it took us above the Barron Gorge National Park. The ride was amazing, offering us bird's-eye views that really highlighted the magnitude and beauty of the rainforest underneath us. There were two viewing stops along the way where we were able to walk along the boardwalks and be right in the middle of the rainforest. The trees and ferns were huge with jungle vines everywhere. There was just a slight drizzle and birds were chirping above us making exotic sounds, an experience we will never forget.

As we continued our gondola ride, we saw some cockatoos fly above the trees and saw Barron falls probably at its best because of all of the rain. Once we arrived in Kuranda, we visited Australia's largest butterfly farm as well as birdworld. After lunch, we walked around the markets and had a coconut for desert. The vendor drilled holes so we could drink the milk then cut it open for us to enjoy. Afterwards, we made our way back down to the terminal and the shuttle brought us back to our hostel. Our driver told us that this was the first day of the month is hadn't rained so we were pretty lucky. It we had left Magnetic Island a few days later we would have never made it to Cairns due to road flooding.

Our initial plan was to continue north, however, several roads are closed. Diving conditions are terrible not to mention that the Great Barrier Reef is one hour and 30 minutes away. We spoke to a couple that went out today and they said that the visibility was lousy not too mention that half of the people got seasick. Considering the weather conditions, we decided to book a flight to New Zealand.

We leave Cairns this Sunday at 7:00 am and arrive in Sydney, 9:50am. Then we depart at 11:35am and arrive in Auckland, 4:35 pm. We've booked 3 nights in Auckland but after that we're planning to rent a campervan. It's much more flexible and cheaper then the hop on/off buss or train pass. We'll be staying in New Zealand for 21 days visiting both islands then were off to Fiji on May 15th.
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