We arrived in Cairns, Queensland, Australia on Monday, September 8 in a large group of Chris's colleagues (plus one other wife) and took a mini-bus from the Cairns airport to our hotel, the QT Resort in Port Douglas. The trip, which took a little over an hour, follows a very curving and pretty ocean-front road winding along the northeast coast of Australia. There was some debate on the bus as to where we'd end up if we jumped in the water and headed due east, but it turned out the real answer is somewhere near Santiago, Chile.
When we arrived at QT, we were a little tired from the travel, but happy to find a pretty and relaxing resort. The weather in Port Douglas was wonderful - upper 70's to low 80's and sunny. There was a nice bar area, where we had a late lunch, and then Chris and his colleagues headed off for a meeting while I had a nice relaxing read by the pool. I ordered a pizza from the bar and took it back to my room for dinner while Chris had a work dinner. We had a lovely 2-room suite, with a kitchen/living room area in addition to a nice-sized bedroom and bath. This was very comfortable for a week at the resort.
The whole purpose of the Australia trip was a week of business meetings for the Asian Pacific Management team, so Chris was in meetings all day, everyday of the Port Douglas week until Friday afternoon, other than the team snorkel on Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday morning, I got up and took the bus to downtown Port Douglas to walk around the main part of the small town and pick up a few things at the local grocery store to keep in our kitchen. Port Douglas reminded me, more than anything, of the kind of tourist beach towns that we saw while vacationing in the Florida Keys. The shops were mostly selling beach-wear, dressy clothing, jewelry, souvenirs, and floppy hats and the streets were full of restaurants, pubs, and hotels. There was a lovey ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Army Corps) park on the beach and beautiful views of the ocean, as well as a thriving harbor, but not a lot more to town. After picking up some groceries, I took the shuttle bus back to the hotel for a quiet walk on 4-Mile Beach and some quiet reading time before dinner.
That night, I accompanied the management team to dinner and was very glad that I did. We ate at Sassi Cucina, an incredibly good Italian restaurant with fantastic seafood. I had an appetizer of fried zucchini, which was lighter and better than I've ever had before, which was followed by the best risotto I've ever eaten - scallop risotto! Chris and his colleague Raphael shared a seafood platter that was huge and very good, according to them. It included scallops, oysters, whitetail (which are similar to smelt), and all kids of seafood, including something called bugs, which are somewhere between a crayfish and a langostino in the U.S.
Wednesday was a lot of fun for both Chris and me. He had a meeting in the morning, followed by a team snorkeling trip to the Low Isles, which is a closer part of the Great Barrier Reed. The snorkeling was very pretty, according to Chris, as that area is known for colorful soft coral. While they were busy with their snorkeling, I went on a tour to Kuranda with Christina, the other FHP wife on the trip. We were part of a group of 12 who went by bus back to Cairns, where we took the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway above the tree-tops of the oldest rainforest in the world. The curvy ocean-front road got to one of the kids on our tour, so we had to stop twice on the way to Cairns while she was sick. We eventually made it and it was beautiful - the views from the cable cars were incredible and we really enjoyed walking around the boardwalks at the Red Peak and Barron Falls Stations. We got off the Cableway at the Kuranda station and our guide picked us up and drove us the short distance to town of Kuranda, again a very tourist-oriented town. There were lots of restaurants and shops, so we stopped for lunch. I tried the kangaroo steak sandwich, because, after all, when else are you going to eat kangaroo. For me, never - it wasn't very good; very stringy. Then we went to the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary and saw more the Ulysseys butterflies we had seen in the rainforest from the cable car.
Our guide picked us up and took us to the Kuranda Scenic Railway for our train trip back to Cairns. The sights were beautiful and, given that we'd paid for the gold class upgrade, we had comfortable seats and some wine and snacks on our way back down the valley. After arriving in Cairns, our driver took us to Palm Cove, a small town on the ocean that was really quite pretty. It was a long day of touring, but very pretty and a lot of fun. Christina and I had a lot to talk about and both enjoyed taking a lot of great photos. We had a quiet dinner together in the hotel bar when we got back.
We started with an all-day snorkeling trip on the Great Barrier Reef first thing on Saturday. We went on the trip with Christina and her husband, who arranged the trip and is a great scuba-diver. When we boarded our boat, Poseidon, on Saturday morning, we were all warned to take anti-seasickness pills, as the winds and waves were high that day, 15-20 knots, and we were in for a rough trip. It was truly rough and, even with Bonine and a seasickness patch, I was best if I sat outside at the back of the boat in the fresh air. We made 3 stops during the day for snorkeling. While the fish were incredible, I was a little letdown, as I expected more colorful fish and coral. We were told that the outer reef is home to hard coral, which is not as colorful as the soft coral of the inner reef. 
The incredibly rough waters made snorkeling a challenge and, although the water was warm (~78), the winds made me feel quite cold when I got out of the water and was still wet. We also had a lot of cloudiness rolling by, so there was less sunshine in the water to light up the coral and to warm us when we got out of the water. I snorkeled at the first and third stop, but was just too cold for the second stop, which Chris said was the prettiest of the day. The hotel had contacted the tour operator on my behalf to let them know about my allergies and they provided me with a spectacular meal of my own, making the food allergies less of an issue for me, which was really nice. It was a lot of fun and a great experience, although I'd love to snorkel the Low Isles for myself, to see the more colorful coral, and in calmer waters. We were so tired when we got back to the hotel, we had dinner in the hotel bar and went to bed early.
On Sunday, we were picked up early again for a full-day tour, this time of only 7 people, of the Daintree Rainforest. Our guide Helen picked us up and drove our group to the Mossman Gorge, giving us information on the rainforest, the trees, and the wildlife as we walked along a walkway through the forest. From there, we drove to the Daintree River Cruise, where we saw one large and two small crocodiles along the edges of the river, as well as some beautiful birds and lovely mountain views. When booking this tour, I spoke to the tour company about my allergies, as it was a full-day tour and included lunch and snacks. While Chris got to enjoy a traditional coconut lamington, the alternative energy bar they sent for me was also full of coconut and seeds, so I skipped it. We drove up to Cape Tribulation and walked the beach.
From the lookout spot above the beach, we could see where two UNESCO World Heritage Areas meet - the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. The beach was warm and sandy and really lovely - very peaceful. We stopped for a picnic lunch in a lovely private spot, owned by a friend of the tour operator. It was basically just a shaded spot deep in his property, which we were able to wander through a bit. Lunch was a salad of sorts, although the bread they sent for me, instead of everyone else's sesame seed bun, was full of other seeds, so I didn't risk it. After lunch, we stopped at the Daintree Ice Cream Company, where everyone tried the local flavors of the day, which included passion fruit and three others we'd never heard of. From there, we drove to another private property, switched to a rusted old 4-wheel drive, that started with a screwdriver instead of keys, and headed down a dirt path through a farm (thank heavens I had a Groucho Marx-style horn to move the cows off the road) to an incredible private waterfall and swimming hole. While they called is Cassowary Falls, we never did see a Cssowary (think mean and aggressive emu), although our guide talked about them and had us looking for them everywhere - even she admitted she hadn't seen one in 7 months. Anyway, the falls were gorgeous and although the water was cold, it was a beautiful spot. Helen drove us back to our hotel at about 5:30 p.m., exhausted but happy, where we had dinner in the hotel dining room and collapsed in our bed pretty early, again.
On Monday, September 15, we packed up our summer clothes and headed back down the twisty road to Cairns, for our flight to Melbourne. Port Douglas is a lovely spot, warm and relaxed and full of beautiful views. The weather was beautiful every day and the people couldn't have been friendlier. When they say "no worries," which they say ALL the time, they really mean it.
No comments:
Post a Comment