Cairns

We have been pleasantly surprised by Cairns.  Who knew it was such a beautiful place to be?  Sunshine (yay) and balmy nights.  The esplanade has been made over around 2-3 years ago, and like Darling Harbour, and Newcastle, has long boardwalks and restaurants galore.    The city is wedged in between beautiful green mountains and ocean.  Great scenery whichever way you are facing.

We took a day to explore Kuranda, the markets were incredible (they just kept going and going) and the butterfly sanctuary was special, of course, with all the butterfly action we have seen in the past year.  Butterflies really are incredible, the way they undo themselves to recreate themselves again.  How majestic is God in his design!  We finished off a lovely day with a walk to Barron Falls which was perfect before the gorgeous drive back down the mountain to Cairns.

Take two - the children's love of icecream has been restored!

With the car in Toyota for our final day here, we relaxed as the kids climbed for hours in the tree house playground, then walked around for a few more hours of watching them in the lagoon.  Unbelievably, we spent an entire day sitting on the picnic rug watching them exhaust themselves.  How tiring it was.  They had a ball.  Seeing as though it was Monday, we did manage to squeeze in about 40 min of school work too – picnic style.