The Travelogue Continues: Cairns

After five busy but blissful days in Sydney, we flew north three hours to Cairns (pronounced by locals as “Cans.”) While Sydney is a cosmopolitan, multi-cultural city, Cairns, located in the Queensland province, is, by contrast, far more laid back. Cairns has long been a haven for backpackers and divers. It’s filled with a small local population somewhat resentful of the burgeoning tourist industry that has exploded in its vicinity in the last couple of decades since the GBR and the rainforest were recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites.

It is here, in this steamy tropical location, that you can venture into the rainforest along the coast of the Coral Sea, or… explore the aptly named sea, where you can dive, swim and admire the Great Barrier Reef. In Queensland it is also legal to hold a koala, an activity not legal in the more eco-conscious province of New South Wales. When we visited the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, New South Wales, for example, it was possible to have your picture taken posing under a koala snoozing higher up in a gum tree, but in Queensland, you can actually hold the marsupial, in what is billed in their multiple advertising campaigns as a “Koala Cuddle”!

Sean handled this excursion solo with the girls while I did some solo shopping at the mall. They opted to have their koala cuddle experience at Cairns Wildlife Dome located along the Esplanade in Cairns above The Reef Hotel Casino (yes you did read that correctly!) This classy establishment boasts: “The Cairns Wildlife Dome is a spectacular all weather wildlife exhibit encased by a 20 metre high glass dome on the rooftop of the Reef Hotel Casino. Situated in the heart of Cairns, approximately 60 species of wildlife are able to wander and fly freely throughout the enclosure that replicates their natural environment.” (Except for the fact that its on top of a Casino!)

We had some good laughs about the zoo on the Casino, and other curiosities like the drive through liquor shop (where I actually saw a woman take a spin through with her husband who was in a wheel chair! He rolled out of the convenient bottle shop with a case of Victoria Bitter in his lap!)

 But… as Sean said of Cairns, “at least its not pretentious!” And it wasn’t. We enjoyed the slow lolling pace… Sean spent the first day on a dive, while the girls and I ventured to the local mall. We caught “Bedtime Stories” at the theatre, swam in the hotel’s pool and the saltwater lagoon along the Esplanade. The highlight of Cairns was to be the trip to the GBR, but if you ask the girls, the koala’s trumped Nemo!