Cairns and Magnetic Island

Classic dino photo- Townsville

Arthur's Bay, Magnetic Island

Millaa Millaa Falls in the Atherton Tablelands

Pre-skydiving!

Nudie Beach, Fitzroy Island, Australia

Day 1 Friday: We arrived in Cairns after dark and navigated our way to the local favorite Green Ant Cantina, the closest thing to real Mexican food I’ve had since leaving North Carolina.

Day 2 Saturday: Got an early start to the day on the Passions of Paradise Great Barrier Reef tour. The Catamaran took us to two snorkeling spots. The best site was Michelmas Cay, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the snorkeling I did on Lady Elliot Island. The reef off of Cairns has seen a lot of use over the years and it showed in the less vibrant colors and spots of damaged reef. I did get to see more turtles, though, which is exciting no matter how many of them I have already seen.

Day 3 Sunday: I can’t think of how I’d rather spend a Sunday than relaxing on nearly empty Nudie beach on Fitzroy Island. The snorkeling wasn’t any good, but the beach and weather were beautiful all day.

Day 4 Monday: Skydiving! Such a rush, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I was last to jump out of the plane so I got to see everyone else go before I did... terrifying. We dove from about 14,000 feet so I had about a minute of freefall. It felt like 15 seconds. A truly awesome experience… better than bungee jumping. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the Cairns lagoon.

Day 5 Tuesday: I knew I wanted to do a tour of the rainforest that surrounds Cairns, but it was hesitantly that I signed up for Uncle Brian’s tour. The brochure made me a bit skeptical that it would be some sort of hippie adventure. As it turned out, this was my favorite day from the whole trip. Our guide, Cousin Brad, was fantastic. We had a couple of long stretches on the bus, but he made them go by in no time… he was quite the entertainer. Our tour took us through the Atherton Tablelands, a fertile plateau that is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland. We slid down natural rock slides, swam under the famous Millaa Milllaa Falls, and in a volcano. At the last stop of the day I finally saw a platypus.

Day 6 Wednesday: Today was mostly a travel day. We took the Greyhound from Cairns to Townsville then the ferry to Magnetic Island.

Day 7 Thursday: We walked from our hostel first to Florence Bay then to Arthur’s Bay. The snorkeling wasn’t special at either bay, but the beaches at both were nice. We ended the day trying to snorkel at Horseshoe bay but gave up due to extremely poor visibility and cold water.

Day 8 Friday: First rainy day all trip. We hiked up to the old World War II forts on Magnetic Island. The highlight was seeing wild koalas.

Day 9 Saturday: Another travel day. We had a bit of a layover in Townsville but we found a neat little café and played Star Wars chess until it was time to go to the airport. Made good time back to Coogee to make Lars’ last night in Sydney celebration.