Morning in Cairns
We had finally decided to visit Rainforestation park on our first day in Cairns. J. R. had preferred doing to Atherton Tablelands or another park to see more of the rainforest. Janie wanted to see koalas up close. After the change of our flights, we did not get into Cairns until really late so the shorter excursion to Rainforestation made more sense. We didn't have time to look for breakfast so we ate some energy bars we had left from our plane trip and met the bus at Night Market. The bus meandered all over Cairns picking up passengers from all of the hotels, which was boring and made us wish we had just booked our own tickets and walked to the central train station.
Kuranda Scenic Railway
Finally we arrived at the rail station and boarded the Kuranda Scenic Railway for our trip from Cairns to Kuranda. This is a diesel powered locomotive that travels the original track layout from 1891 when it was constructed to take miners from Cairns over the Great Dividing Range to the Atherton Tableland. There are 15 hand-made tunnels and 37 bridges on the climb from sea level to 1076 feet on the Maclister Ridge.
Barron Falls
We made a stop at Barron Falls, a cascade waterfall on the Barron River in the Atherton Tablelands.
Butterflies
We arrived at Kuranda station and had the option to either take a bus to the butterfly sanctuary or walk through Kuranda Village. We chose the latter option and looked at a few of the storefronts on our short walk uphill. We entered the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary and a tour was in progress so we joined it. The guide showed us some of the caterpillars and explained the difference between moths and butterflies and then we walked around the greenhouse and looked at both.
Army Duck
The bus to Rainforestation was early, or else we caught the wrong bus, but either way we were soon at the park and our first activity which was riding an Army Duck. Each of these vehicles is authentic from World War II and maintained as much as possible with original parts. It was raining during the first part of our tour but eventually let up as the driver took us through the rainforest and then down into a small river. We didn't see many animals except for a large spider which freaked out the young woman sitting in front of us.
Koala
Following the Army Duck tour, it was time for a BBQ lunch, which was surprisingly good for this type of attraction. Then after that it was time for the highlight of Janie's trip, her opportunity to hold a koala. We met in the gift shop and were taken down into the nursery where Janie was positioned and the koala was placed into her arms while J. R. faced her and patted the animal's back.
Aboriginal Experience
We next went to Pamagirri Aboriginal Experience where three dancers performed tribal dances for us. This was a little lame as one of them really didn't seem interested in the performance. Then we had a demonstration on didgeridoo music and boomerang throwing and got a chance to thrown one ourselves, which we were not good at. We did buy a boomerang to display at home, however.
Koala and Wildlife Park
Our last stop was the Koala and Wildlife Park, which was a very small zoo and not at all what we expected. But we saw kangaroos roaming free where guests could come right up to them and feed them, along with dingoes, wombats, crocodiles and finally, more koalas.
Skyride
Our return trip was via the Skyride, a cable car ride from Kurunda down to Cairns. Janie is not a fan of these types of attractions and was freaked out at the start, but calmed down as we came further down the mountain.
We got another tour of hotels on the way back to the Esplanade but luckily a lot of people wanted to go to Night Market, cutting our a lot of stops. We wanted to have dinner at one of the hotel's restaurants but the one we wanted was closed for renovation and the Italian restaurant didn't open until later. So we ate at the grill downstairs, which had good beer and cider and excellent food. We liked it so much we ate there both nights.
