We are so glad we changed our plans to get into Cairns a day early so we can get to Lizard Island earlier tomorrow. We headed to the Hobart Airport, dropped off the rental car and caught a 10:30am flight through Sydney to Cairns. We arrived in Cairns at 4:30pm so it was a big travel day for us. The weather in Cairns is absolutely wonderful, sunny in the mid 80’s. We checked into our hotel which is another apartment style room with a kitchen, living room, bedroom and laundry. Very nice. It is right in the center of town so we walked along the Esplanade to see the sights.
Cairns reminds us of Myrtle Beach. Very touristy with lots of souvenir shops, bars and more bars and souvenir shops. There is a very nice boardwalk that runs for several kilometers along the water’s edge. However the beach is not very nice and there are signs warning of crocodiles. Ai yi yi. It is very family oriented on the boardwalk with parks, playgrounds, skateboard and bike tracks, picnic areas and grills. The view of the water is beautiful with large hills and cliffs on either side of the beach.
We wandered through the city center and found a great wine store, (“bottle shop” in Australian) and bought a bottle of 1999 Clare Valley Mitchell Shiraz. Yum! We didn’t see any restaurants that were interesting so we ended up buying take out Japanese at a little restaurant right near the hotel that Fodor’s recommended. It was delicious!
Right now we are doing laundry, one of our favorite things to do, as many of you know we only packed one carry on suitcase each. It is great to travel light but you really enjoy getting clean clothes. The crazy thing is the wash cycle on these Australian machines is 65 minutes. So I think we have the cleanest clothes you can possibly have.
Tomorrow we’re off to the Great Barrier Reef!
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