Cairns is great!!!!

Of course, it would help if we knew how to pronounce the name of the city! Mike and I firmly keep pronouncing it as "C-A-I-R-N-S," ennunciating every letter. Australians, however, tend to drop Rs and add them again in funny places, so Cairns becomes "Cannes, Australier." I think they're just hoping to envoke memories of the real Cannes. But French Riviera or no, this was a lovely tropical paradise!
Our weather was perfect the whole time--in the 80s, sunshine, light breeze. (None of us got completely fried by the sun.) We spent a good deal of time laying on the beach with the turquoise ocean in washing on the shores. I never entirely knew if I could trust the pictures supplied by travel agents about the color or tropical oceans--actually, you can!
I think Carins will be best described in a picture blog, so here goes:



A beach outside of Cairns, to give you a feel for for the lay of the land. (That's the Coral Sea!)









On the second day, Emily (you'll see her in a minute!) went on a diving trip to three spots out on the Great Barrier Reef, and Mike and I went out to Michaelmas Cay. That's a small island about 40 miles off the coast that was created by the decay of the reefs. See what I mean about blue oceans?!




Mike went snorkelling and I laid on the beach and did nothing. :-)









The cruise we took did have a semi-submersible boat that would take you around the reefs and look for wildlife in cozy, dry conditions. We saw a bunch of parrot fish, the world's largest clams (huge!!!) and two sea turtles!! Alas, our cameras weren't fast enough to catch much moving wildlife--we'll have to be content with pictures of the reef.


On Wednesday we went up to Karunda Village, about 30 minutes up the mountain from Cairns. There they several wildlife parks--Birdworld and the Koala Gardens were our favorite. When we arrived at Birdworld, we were one of the first groups to show up that day, and as you get to feed the birds, the birds are thrilled to see you!!!




This is Emily. She was the unlucky person holding the bag of food when we entered the park, so was mobbed by several hungry birds. Actually, don't you think she looks ecstatically happy to have a bird on her arm? Birdy here was trying to eat through the plastic bag.








Koala Gardens was another great place, because you could Cuddle a Koala! For $15 we could hold a koala and have our pictures taken. Obviously, we jumped at this chance!












Finally, I'm going to leave you with the Hysterical Signs of Cairns. Quiz of the week: do you know what these signs are for?!?!?!?!






~Ruth Ann