My trip to the Beautiful & Tropical Far North Queensland! (In my best Australian accent)

After two months with the kiddos, it sounds bad but I'm going to be honest and say it anyways, I could not wait to get away!  Destination: "Beautiful & Tropical Far North Queensland" (I heard that multiple times on every tour so thought I would just pass it along), and by that I mean the city of Cairns (pronounced like "Cans"), the surrounding Atherton Tablelands, and of course, the Great Barrier Reef!!!

My trip started with Claudia and Veronica dropping me off at the bus station where I would take the bus to the Melbourne Airport.  I don't think I have ever had a goodbye like the one I received from Veronica! With quite possibly the slowest bus driver ever, Veronica had almost a full 7 minutes to stand outside the bus and jump up and down and dance and wave and yell "Goodbye, Audrey! Come back soon! I'll miss you!" over and over and over again! But it was good to know that I would be missed despite needing a break so badly.  I don't think the other passengers had ever received a goodbye like that either!

So, I was on my way and anxious to see more of Australia.  But, my first discovery happened to be the Victoria's Secret in the airport...and if you've travelled you may be able to relate that you while you are of course out and about to see and do new things, you also tend to gravitate towards things that you find familiar and that remind you of home.  And I don't think I ever go in the mall at home without also going into Victoria's Secret.  However, it was all browsing and no purchasing seeing as my favorite lacies here were $6 more than in the States making them a whopping $17! For underwear! Oh wait..or 3 for $45! Something like that.  Anyways, this post was not supposed to be about panties.  Back to my "Beautiful & Tropical Far North Queensland" story...

Now this was only an observation, but if you had seen my flight you would have thought I was flying to Asia instead of "Beautiful & Tropical Far North Queensland" (maybe I should shorten it? B&TFNQ?!) so in case you didn't know, Australia has a huge Asian population, especially in the North.  Similar to the Hispanic population in Texas.  My flight arrived late on a Saturday night and the very first thing I took a picture of was this on the back of the bathroom stall door in the airport...

 

In case you needed a refresher course in How to Sit on a Toilet
 



As you might imagine, I was laughing out loud in the bathroom stall. 

Moving forward...

My first day was spent strolling through the streets of Cairns, browsing the souvenir shops, and just taking in all the new-ness! I love travelling to new places - it's completely addicting.  The weather there was amazing. About 33 degrees...I'm being converted to the use of Celsius...so that's about 90 Fahrenheit..and sunny everyday! I also walked along the Esplanade boardwalk area with a view of the bay.  Cairns itself is not very beachy and where there is a small sandy area you see signs like this...

...so when in Cairns the lagoon is the place to be to soak up the sunshine and cool down in the refreshing water.  There is also a lawn area with lots of palm trees if you want to lay out but escape the rays of the sun, which as I had heard and learned first hand is incredibly strong in Australia.

The lagoon before the busy hours!

 

The highlight of my week in "Beautiful & Tropical Far North Queensland," as can be expected, was the Great Barrier Reef!  Although Uncle Brian's tour of the Atherton Tablelands came close and I'll get to that in a second.  We visited two sites on the reef that spans for 1600 miles and the first one, Hastings Reef, was reached in a little over an hour from Cairns.  That's not really that bad but I was feeling queasy nonetheless so I was in a hurry to get off the boat and in the water!  It was also my first time wearing a wetsuit...it's not jellyfish season but they still recommended wearing them for sun protection and judging by the tan/burn line on the back of my legs it was a good idea that I did!  Our second reef of the day was Breaking Patches.  I preferred it to the first, though they were both spectacular.  The second had huge reef areas amidst white sandy ocean floors and the clearest water.  And the money I spent on renting the underwater camera was probably the best money spent my entire trip!

 

At the reef! :)

 

Can you spot Nemo?

 

This is a parrot fish and they were everywhere! See it's beak?

My little reef shark friend!

A Giant Clam! I didn't notice quite what I was swimming over until it moved!

 

The nights in Cairns are pretty lively and its a popular city with backpackers.  Three of my nights there I ate dinner in this bar known as the Woolshed where my hostel along with several others provided dinner.  Your options for a free dinner were Chili Con Carne (they call it this...it's just normal chili not like Mexican food like it sounds) or Spaghetti.  The first night I ate there with my roommate from Austria who happened to have spent two years in the States as an au pair, and we also met a girl from England that had just finished her 10 months as an au pair in Brisbane.  It was awesome getting to hear their stories and hear from others that yes, being an au pair, nanny, whatever you want to call it is just plain hard.  Maybe that's because we were all young and had this amazing idea to travel and be a nanny when really we had no idea what we were in for!  Anyways, I found it comforting to know that the daily mood swings I experience while surrounded by three noisy, busy children are completely normal...those girls survived and so will I! :) And through it I have definitely learned some things I will do and won't do for one day when I have kids in many years way way way far down the road in the future!

 

Now on to my next little tidbit: Uncle Brian's Fun, Falls, and & Forest Tour!  If you are ever in the "Beautiful & Tropical Far North Queensland" area, it is understood that you will visit the reef but you must also go on this tour!  I won't possibly be able to describe it all to you here and what I do share will probably sound absolutely ridiculous...well that's because it is!...But this company has every minute of the tour planned out with a playlist of songs for different parts of the tour along the way.  Gus the Bus along with Elmo, yes Elmo, pick up all the tourists, who are all introduced to each other by the tour guide (Cousin Matty was the guide for my group),  and then travel along Bruce the Highway (the highway really is the Bruce Highway that part isn't just for fun) to the different waterfalls and rainforest areas of the Atherton Tablelands in "Beautiful & Tropical Far North Queensland."  Some info that Cousin Matty provided us with: Gus the Bus has a girlfriend named Volvina (spell check!) who is a milk truck in one of the towns we passed through and he also has a stalker name Vanessa the Undresser who is an ambulance; Gus also likes U turns and dancing so whenever there is a U turn if you happened to be a person on the sidewalk you would see a colorful bus full of crazy tourists pumping and waving their arms up in the air to I'm Sexy and I Know It while the bus driver hits the brakes over and over to make Gus the Bus "dance" while we drive around in circles.  Ridiculous, yes?! But fun, and if that isn't enough, well, Cousin Matty said to decorate the bus windows with dry erase markers so before the tour was over we were in a bus full of crazy, and might I say artistic, tourists, with artwork...and drawings of penises...all over the windows.  So I can't really relay much else...you'll just have to go on the tour yourself...and if dancing Gus the Bus and penis drawings aren't enough to talk you into then maybe these waterfalls photos will be!

 

Babinda Boulders

Gus the Bus!

At the top of Josephine Falls!

 

Going down the waterfall at the bottom of Josephine Falls with two girls from England! (Have I mentioned that I have only met two Americans since being here?  Everyone is from England or Germany it seems like!)

Millaa Millaa Falls

My Millaa Millaa Falls Hair Flick Photos!  The site of one of the first Herbal Essence Shampoo commercials!

Our tour group...being Cassowaries!  If you don't know what that is you soon will!

The last stop of the day was the beautiful volcanic crater lake, Lake Eacham!

And then it was Gus the Bus and the crazy tourists singing to YMCA and Journey and a bunch of other songs all the way back to Cairns in "Beautiful & Tropical Far North Queensland!"

 

 

While in Cairns, I also visited Hartley's Crocodile Adventure Park to check out the crocodiles and cassowaries among other Australian wildlife. 

 

Cute little Kookaburra :)

I took a boat ride through the lagoon at the park...this one was coming for us!

 

The Croc Attack show...and watching these guys come close to being eaten in front of a live audience.

 

This is a Cassowary - also known as an "Emu in drag"

Basically a dinosaur...look at it's feet!

 

Finally, after spending my last day soaking up the sunshine (a little too much of it!) at the lagoon, I headed back to Melbourne to spend the weekend exploring the city with a friend that I have made here.  I had originally planned to include that part in this post but seeing as this is a record long post, I think I'll save it for next time!  Stay tuned! :)