Sunday 20 July:
Took an Air NZ Flight Tauranga to Auckland and spent overnight at the Airport Novotel.
Monday 21 July:
With a 7:10am flight departure for Cairns on Air NZ I was up 4:30 to check-in at 5.00. I had breakfast at Blue Marble Lane Restaurant (which opens 3:30am daily) before heading through security to departure Gate 2. Cairns arrival was around 11:00am local time (1:00pm NZ) so I arrived 12 noon at the Novotel Oasis Resort and was able to check-in early as my room was available.
My fourth floor room looked out on the pool area with its swimming beach frequented by enthusiastic children ——-
—– and its pool-facing bar occupied by two early imbibers sitting on two of the fourteen underwater bar stools available.
After unpacking and setting up my room for the week I took off on the three block walk to Cairns Central, the huge mall which had direct access to the Railway Station. I had to report to the station by 8:00am next morning to pick up my ticket for the 8:30 departure on the Kuranda Scenic Railway, so checked out the station environs and also the mall shops. As I walked back into the mall from the station rain had started to fall, so as well as needing a sunhat for the week I also needed an umbrella to get me back to the hotel (I had left my folding brolly in my room when I arrived, not expecting rain in my walk to the station). Kmart had a solid looking folding brolly for $12 and a smart enough sunhat for $15, so these two items saw me safely back to Novotel.
Tuesday 22 July:
Rain was threatening as I arrived for my 8:30am departure to Kuranda.
The railway station is located alongside the mall and under the upper level carpark.
The 12 carriages on the train were booked out for the trip up, with the main travellers being Chinese families. Rain started to fall as we headed north ——-
—– passing sugar cane crops as we neared the entrance to the Barron River valley and the steep climb through rainforest up to Kuranda.
The railway was built 1887 to 1891 to provide a transport link up over the Dividing Range onto the Atherton Tablelands to service goldmining, timber milling and eventually farming areas. It was a major engineering achievement with its 1 in 30 gradient (hence the two engines to power it uphill and hold it back coming downhill) and incorporating 15 tunnels and 55 bridges. The 2 hour trip over 33 km is slow and steady with a 10 minute stop to view the Barron River Falls near Kuranda.
There were two major bends enabling views of both ends of the train.
Horseshoe Bend on the climb up ——–
—– and on the return journey.
The most famous bend is at the Stoney Creek Falls viaduct which was shrouded in mist on the journey up, but with good views on the return journey in the afternoon.
Approaching the viaduct and falls on the way back to Cairns. This view is close to ——-
—– the view depicted on the classic logo for the Scenic Railway which appears based on ——-
—– this stock photo view from the internet.
The opening of this viaduct in April 1890 was celebrated by a special lunch in a marquee erected on the bridge deck, but speeches to commemorate to event ——-
—— had to be abandoned as the noise from the waterfall flowing under the bridge drowned out any chance of hearing the speakers.
At the Barron Falls Station on the way up it was impossible to see into the valley because of low cloud, but on the return journey (above) ——
—– we were able to get a glimpse of part of the falls as the fog cleared briefly.
The Centenary Cairn celebrating the June 1891 opening of the line is topped by a pick and shovel which represents the only tools used by the 1500 workers in hand digging the cuttings and tunnels, with dynamite being used to break up hillside rock during excavations.
The mural on the engine represents Buda-dji, the Carpet Snake who, in the aboriginal dreamtime, carved out the Barron River and the creeks that join onto it from the coast to the Tablelands.
Wednesday 23 July:
I spent today on a Reef Magic Cruise boat travelling out to a pontoon moored on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef, an hour and a half journey from the Cairns Marina.
The Great Barrier Reef stretches 2,300km south from near Papua New Guinea to just above Fraser Island off the coast north of Brisbane. It comprises several thousand reef systems which began forming some 20,000 years ago, with many distinct habitat differences north to south and lots of variations reef to reef.
For many years during the growth of communities on the coast of Queensland the Reef was not seen as the complex ecological system it is, being well off-shore and visited infrequently by coral collectors during low tide. As advances in photography, microscopy and underwater diving improved, the extraordinary nature of the reef ecosystems emerged with much of the scientific background work coming out of Cairns. A large part of the reef became protected as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in 1975 and it was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981. Marine Park status was aimed at limiting the impacts of human activities like fishing, contaminant discharges and tourism. However, scientific studies show the reef has lost more than half its coral cover since 1985 and been subject to widespread coral bleaching events, the most notable in 2020.
Politician Warren Entsch, a Queensland member of the Federal House of Representatives for 26 years, championed the protection of the reef from the impacts of overfishing, tourism, pollution (particularly from plastics) and climate change. As an advocate within the federal parliament for reef health he was made a Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef in 2019, fulfilling this role for 3 years through to 2022. The Cairns Museum had an exhibition of local cartoonists’ portrayals of Warren’s political life including several related to his role as Reef Envoy ——–
—— illustrating his efforts to secure funding for reef protection efforts and ——-
—– showing his concern for managing pollutant impacts.
Wednesday became brilliantly sunny as we cruised in smooth seas out to the pontoon, passing a couple of whales en route. We spotted another pair on the return journey in the afternoon, this being the migrating season as they travelled north up the coast from the cold waters of the Southern Ocean to mate and breed in the warmer waters around the reef system.
We watched this whale cruise along at the surface for some 5 minutes to gain breath before slowly submerging to continue on its way.
As we passed this pair one did a “tail up” dive, no doubt to have a “snack” on the journey north.
The Reef Magic tour boat had a 260 person capacity, with some 20 crew including marine biologists. There were 220 on today’s cruise, including a large proportion of Chinese families, with public announcements in both English and Mandarin.
The Pontoon moored permanently at the reef has a 400 person capacity. Everything for the day’s outing had to be carried out on the boat, including supplies for the buffet lunch (along with the chefs and serving staff). There are no toilets on the pontoon, the boat toilets being available throughout the day. A caretaker is permanently stationed on the pontoon to provide 24 hour security.
A few hundred metres north of our pontoon was the Great Adventures unit, this one smaller, but with a more modern submersible reef viewing boat.
On arrival at the pontoon —–
—– I immediately headed for the submersible reef viewing experience ——-
—– followed by the glass bottom boat experience. In this view the submersible is in the shallows beyond which waves are breaking over the ocean edge of the reef – the glass bottom boat is in the foreground.
The coral viewed from the side window of the submersible was mainly blue or green in colour ——
—— with closer and clearer views from the glass bottom boat.
The real variation in coral colour and species variation could only be appreciated when I visited the aquarium at the weekend where ——
—– the coral garden was a real hit with families including this baby.
As we returned from our glass bottom cruise the submersible was leaving on one of its continuously operating ½ hour excursions.
We had a good view of the snorkelling area, which was watched over by lifeguards —–
—– with kids (here viewed from the underwater observatory) having a great time.
The observatory provided good views of reef dwellers during the 1.00pm feeding time ——
—– including this yellowtail fusilier (does that mean it’s a “gun” fish?).
In addition to the cruise cost there were extras you could purchase for the day including a 10 minute helicopter flight (around $200) plus guided snorkelling or aqualung diving accompanied by a marine biologist.
So, as we headed back to Cairns at 3:30pm the Great Adventures cruise boat from the neighbouring pontoon followed us.
Thursday 24 July:
A Skyrail bus picked me up at 9:30am for the trip out to the Smithfield Terminus for the gondola trip over the rain forest to Kuranda.
As with other days this attraction was very popular with Chinese travellers, many being families with young children.
Being high season the demand meant that each 6-seat gondola had to be shared with other travellers.
And so it was up over the top of the Dividing Range to the first transfer base where ——
—– there was a Rain Forest Visitor Centre before changing gondola’s for the next stage to Barron Falls overlook.
Ranger Reg provided an excellent background to the indigenous people’s foundation story for the Barron River Valley, as well as information on the many plants and wildlife inhabiting the area.
The Visitor Centre included this diorama of a cassowary family.
I then headed to the next stop at the Barron Falls Lookout.
The river is dammed at Kuranda to provide water for a power station in the gorge as well as irrigation water for agriculture on the Atherton Highlands, so only a trickle of flow is normally visible, ——-
—– except when the dam is full and the river is in flood during the wet season (which commences in January).
After crossing over the Barron River above the dam, we entered the Skyrail Terminal ——
—– where I popped down to the railway station right next door to see if I could recover my folding brolly inadvertently left at their café seating on Platform 1 while having a Devonshire Tea on Tuesday. I only found the brolly was missing when I got back to the hotel Tuesday afternoon, not needing it on the way back as the rain had stopped. When I told the young lady behind the gift shop counter that I had left my brolly on the platform on Tuesday she turned to the bench behind her and said “is this it”, holding up my Kmart $12 purchase. “I wondered where that came from” she said – “I thought one of the staff must have left it behind yesterday”.
Today’s 200m walk into the village at Kuranda was dry and sunny compared to Tuesday, and I took the opportunity to lunch again —–
—– at the Rainforest Restaurant which Lexie and I had enjoyed from our past visits in 2003 and 2008.
As I queued at 2:00pm for my return Skytrail trip —–
—– I was able to look down on the train leaving for its return journey to Cairns. When my gondola crossed the river and headed for the Barron Falls Lookout I could see across the gorge —–
—– to the train just leaving Barron Falls station after its routine stop on the way back to town.
And so to end the forest overview we passed above the very steep and winding road from the coastal plain to Kuranda to arrive ——
—– back at the Smithfield Terminus after a great day out.
Friday 25 July:
GSL Aviation picked me up from Novotel at 9:15am to take me to the General Aviation area at the airport for my 40 minute flight out to and over the Reef.
After a safety briefing and the donning of life jackets five of us joined pilot Ben on the 7 passenger plane. We were given specific seats based on our body weight so the plane was evenly balanced.
As we headed out over the sea Ben told us to watch for whale spouts as the earlier flight had spotted several whales travelling north.
We did spot one but my photo missed the spout and instead showed the whale below the surface with disturbed water behind from where it submerged to continue its journey after breathing.
The offshore edges of individual reefs were clearly defined by the deep blue ocean waters —–
—– with good views of coral structures on their landward sides. When the tide exposes reef surfaces windblown sand can become stranded ——
—– on high spots on the reef, and over time a small island develops, growing vegetation from bird-carried seeds to create a mini forest such as that at —–
—– Green Island, now a tourist destination. Ben said it can take around 2,000 years of sand accumulation and vegetation growth to get this level of island formation.
And so it was back to a smooth landing at the airport ——-
—– followed by Ben taking —–
—— a souvenir photo as a record of the outing.
Back in town I headed up to Rusty’s Markets, selling mainly produce ——
—– with extensive fruit and vegetable stalls. I had a Greek takeaway lunch while photo’ing several —–
—– of the wall murals.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent at Cairns’ three art gallery buildings. The first was —–
—– the Mulgrave Gallery in the old Mulgrave Shire office building with its exhibition of —–
—– indigenous artworks such as these shields which relate to an Aboriginal legend.
The second was —–
—– the Courthouse Gallery with its exhibition of “anti-colonial” artworks such as —–
—– this banner, and the commentaries ——-
—– on extremism and —–
—– racism. The background text in the above poster includes a whole string of quotations such as:
I’m not racist, but …. They’re a very primitive people, and …. I’m not racist, but …. they never wore any clothes before we came, and …. I’m not racist, but …. they just sit on their Missions and Reserves and do nothing, and …. I’m not racist, but …. I don’t know why Aboriginal people can’t look after their houses properly, and …. I’m not racist, but …. My family have been here for 200 years and my father worked hard to buy this land, and …. I’m not racist, but …. I think giving them back their land is asking too much, and ….
The main city art gallery had two exhibitions, both from indigenous artists.
Maljah Cathy Snow, from Normanton in the Gulf of Carpentaria, used textiles to examine life cycles associated with plants and animals.
Melanie Hava’s work “Marngare – Where Stories, Spirits and Country Meet” comprises —–
—– a panorama illustrating tropical vegetation, waterfalls and creeks of Northern Queensland.
Only a third of the work is shown above (it spans three walls of the exhibition room) with the next panel along —–
—– illustrating the variety of growth and life in the landscape, with the detail of some of the creatures (birds and animals) —–
—– imbedded in the panels being exquisite, such as this cassowary and family.
My last outing for the day was the Night Markets which comprise —–
—– clothing, —–
—– jewellery, —–
—– souvenir and massage stalls, —–
—– along with a large food court.
Saturday 26 July:
I spent the morning at the Museum in advance of the 12:40pm commencement of the Half-day City Sightseeing Bus Tour.
There was a very good display along with a video re sugar cane harvesting. In the early days cane cutting was a hazardous occupation as rats breeding in the cane undergrowth attracted snakes.
Workers petitioned cane farmers for danger pay, and when this was resisted one group of cane cutters set fire to the cane fields in retaliation against the inflexibility of the growers. However, this turned out to be a great move as it killed off the rats and snakes, cleared the undergrowth without affecting the quality of the cane, and enabled cutters to earn much more money as, being paid on the tonnage cut, the fire-cleared cane could be harvested much faster, increasing daily output per person significantly.
Today, of course, machines do all the work on cane harvesting and burning the cane fields beforehand is no longer necessary.
A network of cane railways pass under and across main roads ——-
—– with this line photo’d on my way to Kuranda at one of the railway overpasses.
Harvesting has just begun, but I did not see any trains, taking this picture from the museum’s video presentation.
The first stop on the City Tour was St Monica’s Catholic Cathedral which is famous for its stained glass windows.
The windows do not incorporate religious symbols and instead —–
—– focus on the creation story from the beginning of the universe —–
—— to the formation of landscapes and their habitation by plants, people and animals.
This detail is of the aboriginal encampment in the panel second on the left (see photo above this one).
We then headed for the Museum where the brief 20 minute guided tour was useful in filling out background to quite a number of items I had viewed during my 2 hour morning visit.
After a Devonshire Tea stop at a local café (this being part of the tour itinerary) we headed for the Botanical Gardens where our driver and guide Chris demonstrated his considerable knowledge of tropical trees and plants. Although there were plenty of Australian natives the gardens featured plants from all over the world, including ——
—– this silk floss tree from Florida, and ——
—– this Heliconia Pogonantha from Central America.
The Mount Whitfield Lookout gave us an expansive view of the coastal and inland suburbs ——
—– as well as the central city business district —–
—- including the accommodation area (the Novotel’s two red-topped towers are in the centre of this photo).
The final stop of the day was at Palm Cove, some 25km north of Cairns City Centre, a dormitory and tourist suburb with a sandy swimming beach.
Here in early 1943, at what was then a remote area along the coast, the beach was used as an amphibious landing training ground by the US and Australian military in advance of the battles for the Japanese held islands in the west Pacific.
Sunday 27 July:
The Aquarium visit occupied me for the whole morning with its extensive exhibits on river and sea life as well as reptiles and fossils.
Jungle perch represented one of the many freshwater fish, —–
—– with this blue groper ——
—– and lion fish being just a couple of the great range of seawater fish on display.
Two divers were in the 2-story floor to ceiling tank hand feeding fish while we watched through the glass, and then tidying up the bottom sand layer as this white tipped reef shark swam by.
I lunched at the Splash seafood restaurant down the street from the Aquarium, but it was no ordinary “fish & chips” as the salad was excellent, and the meal not overpowered by a massive heap of chips.
My afternoon visit was to the “Tomb of the Pharaohs” billed as an “Ancient Egypt Discovery Experience” which had opened 3 weeks ago. This privately funded and produced venture is intended to run for 4 years or so, and only in Cairns. It comprised 11 recreated burial chambers along with rooms containing over 450 museum grade display items. Photographs of walls and ceilings of burial chambers complete with original cracks and scuffed paint areas were printed full size and glued to timber surfaces to provide a realistic representation of the internal decorations of the underground chambers.
The tombs of Pharaohs and their Queens were on display ——-
—– along with both closed coffins (as above) ——
—– and open coffins showing the linen wrapped mummified body with its funeral mask and jewelled insignia of royal status. (There were even unwrapped mummified corpses on display – I will spare you the views of these.)
The recreation of King Tutankhamen’s funeral mask and insignia (on the right) was accompanied by the three coffins in which his body was laid, the coffins being used like Russian Dolls, one inside the other.
There was also a recreation of Tutankhamen’s Treasury Room containing all the objects and provisions he was likely to require in the afterlife.
So it was goodbye to Egypt and back to the Novotel to pack ready for the flight home next day.
Monday 28 July:
Cairns treated me well with a great package of activities and experiences. It seemed like I had been there a month as I reflected on my time away during the flight back to Auckland.