Joan's landmark 80th birthday was a good reason to celebrate in style, so she organised for the entire family (all of Joan and Al's kids and grandkids) to head up to Cairns for a few days - with the bonus of escaping the chilly Victorian winter! We decided to travel up before the rest of the family to spend three days in Port Douglas before returning to Cairns to meet up with the other fifteen members of the clan.
We made an early start on Tuesday 8th July, leaving home at 7am for the drive up to Melbourne airport. Peak hour traffic around Melbourne can impact this journey considerably so we left plenty of time - and it was an uneventful and largely unhindered trip, seeing us pulling into our pre-booked "Value" long-term car park at 8.45am. A shuttle bus arrived soon after we'd managed to find an empty spot and we were in terminal 4 by 9am. Once check-in opened for our JetStar flight, we navigated the self check-in and had time for a relaxing coffee while we awaited boarding. Our 11.20am departure was slightly delayed due to the airport running on only one runway because of the high winds, but we made up some time on the flight up to Cairns, landing about 30 minutes late at 3.10pm. Our bag took a while to appear and then it was a short bus ride out to BettaCNS car hire to collect our wheels for the next few days, a Toyota Yaris Sport. With the formalities completed, we were on the road by 4.20pm and it was an easy hour-long drive (albeit with many sets of roadworks) up to Port Douglas. We checked in to our accommodation, Port Douglas Retreat, at 5.20pm and our small apartment was perfect for our short stay. A quick freshen up and we were ready to head to dinner, having not enjoyed anything substantial since breakfast at home. The only vegan place in town happened to be close to our accommodation (not a coincidence!) so we quickly walked to Bam Pow and managed to sneak a table without a booking, then ordered their "all in" selection meal to avoid having to make any choices from their large menu! The food was amazing (as we'd expected from reviews) and we enjoyed the variety of dishes we had. We didn't want to miss out on eating there again so made dinner bookings for both Wednesday and Thursday evenings before we left! Wandering back into town, we picked up a few essential supplies from Coles before returning to the apartment to crash out after what felt like a long day on the road.
We enjoyed a relaxing start on Wednesday, with breakfast on our balcony overlooking palm trees and the resort's pool. It was just a short distance to Four Mile Beach and we soaked up the warm morning sunshine with a long walk along this beautiful stretch of coastline. With a thirst built up, it was time for the first of a few visits to the excellent Origin Espresso coffee shop, before stocking up with some locally grown coffee beans courtesy of Coffee Works. Heading off around 11am, we drove for about 25 minutes north to reach Mossman Gorge, where we struggled to secure a parking spot due to the large number of visitors! We didn't need to wait long for a shuttle bus though and so we were soon enjoying the walks around the gorge. We completed the large rainforest loop walk before enjoying our hard-earned picnic lunch near a watering hole. It was warm and relaxing in the gorge and we headed back to Port Douglas at about 3pm. Another walk on Four Mile Beach was in order, continuing up Flagstaff Hill and then down into the town centre. A quick shop at Coles on the way back to the apartment and it was soon time for us to head back to Bam Pow to make our 5.30pm dinner booking. We opted to choose dishes, selecting several small plates plus a large plate - it was again an amazing and delicious meal (and it was awesome to see how busy this vegan place was!).
It was a ridiculously early start on Thursday to take in the sunrise from Four Mile Beach. The beach was the place to be with many people there to enjoy the same spectacle, with the sun finally emerging in full at about 6.45am. Wandering into town afterwards, a decent coffee from Captain & Co did the job before we returned to the apartment and packed up ready for a big day out. The drive to the Daintree ferry was straightforward and our early arrival (8.45am) meant there was hardly any queue, so we got on the ferry almost immediately. The short trip across the river on this chain-drawn ferry was very smooth and we were on the road again by 9am. Our first stop was at pretty Thornton Beach before we continued north as far as the lovely Dubuji boardwalk and beach. The rainforest was impressive and the beach a lovely spot. Heading north a little further, we enjoyed a very long walk along the beach at Cape Tribulation before feasting on our picnic lunch on the beach. The furthest we could drive north in our little hire car was just far enough to allow us access to another rainforest experience, the Kulki boardwalk. As we made our way back towards the ferry, we enjoyed our final rainforest walk at the Madja boardwalk. Arriving back at the ferry at 2.45pm, there were only a handful of cars in front of us so we easily got on the next ferry run across the Daintree river and it was an easy drive back to Port Douglas by 3.30pm. After relaxing in the apartment after our long walks, we wandered back into town for a refreshing drink from Fresco juice bar, which we enjoyed overlooking the wharf area in the nice afternoon sunshine. Chilling back at the apartment for a while, we easily made our 7.30pm dinner booking at Bam Pow and we enjoyed another great meal, taking in some of the same awesome dishes as well as trying a few new ones! We were very grateful to have such inventive vegan food a stone's throw from our accommodation.
Since it was our last morning in Port Douglas, we again rose early on Friday to appreciate the sunrise from nearby Four Mile Beach. It wasn't as spectacular as the day before but it was still a nice way to start the day. We slotted in another visit to Origin Espresso before packing up and checking out of our apartment. The drive back to Cairns was easy enough and we dropped into the large and well-stocked The Healthy Hub to enjoy a coffee as well as stocking up on a huge pile of takeaway food to last us the weekend in Cairns (with all of the local veg/vegan places being closed at weekends!). We drove to our home for the next five nights, the Mantra Esplanade apartments, and Ky stayed with our gear while Lee headed out of the city to return the hire car (then catching a bus back into the city centre, for the princely sum of fifty cents). Ky stocked up on yet more yummy food from Snoogies Health Bar before our apartment was ready by about 1pm. It was a large one-bedroom apartment, nicely furnished and with everything we needed for the short stay. The other 15 members of our family group arrived safely into Cairns just before 3pm and made their way to the apartments. While we awaited their arrival, Lee popped over to Blackbird Laneway for a coffee - this place had the best reviews in Cairns for coffee and deservedly so! Once everyone had settled in, we all went for a walk along the Esplanade and grabbed a group photo near the lagoon, before going our own ways for dinner (we enjoyed some of our Healthy Hub and Snoogies haul in our apartment). Reconvening in one of the massive two-bedroom apartments, we celebrated Joan's birthday with a cake and the huge surprise of her present (some Tiffany jewellery). An early night was in order for the weary travellers and we were also happy to relax after a busy few days.
It was another fairly early start on Saturday as we'd booked a day trip, but Lee still had a chance to secure a morning coffee - this time from another well-reviewed cafe, Caffiend - it was a decent coffee but didn't justify its stellar price ($9.50)! Picking up some of the others at the apartments, we wandered over the road to the ferry terminal and checked-in to our 10.30am ferry over to Green Island. The warnings about rough seas didn't bode well and it was a choppy 50-minute ride out to the island, but most of our group survived the trip pretty well. We quickly secured a couple of loungers on the main beach and enjoyed the sheltered spot, with our picnic lunch from the Cairns vegie places serving us well again. At 1pm, a few of us got to sample the reef close up with a glass bottom boat trip. The water was crystal clear and the abundance of fish was incredible to see. Meanwhile, the rest of our group continued to enjoy snorkelling around the island. On our return from the boat trip, we explored the island thanks to the excellent boardwalk before relaxing back on the beach. 4pm check-in for our return ferry came around quickly and it was an unpleasant wait on the jetty in gale force (and cold!) winds until we could board and head back at 4.30pm. Although the group didn't all partake of the same activities, it was a good day on Green Island and the inclement weather didn't really impact us too much. Back at the apartments, we continued to devour our stash from The Healthy Hub and Snoogies before a wander along the (very crowded) main strip in the evening to round out another long day.
Sunday kicked off with a return visit to Blackbird Laneway for a nice coffee before we all headed out to the AJ Hackett SkyPark on an 11am minibus. Nine of the seventeen of us were booked to tackle the Giant Jungle Swing and we weighed in to work out our groups (with each swing limited to 200kg across a maximum of three people). Lee ended up in the second group, alongside Darcy and Petal, and it was a tense wait as we watched others complete the ride! When our turn came, it turned out to be great fun, if surprisingly high (at 48m into the rainforest canopy!) with a long freefall section to begin the swing. Everyone survived and much fun was had, even by those watching those of us crazy enough to do it! (You can watch short videos of our groups on the Giant Swing: Lee, Darcy and Petal, Russ and Tait, Tanesia and Xavier, and Meridien and Lewis.)A 1.30pm return bus saw us back in our apartment by 2pm to enjoy some more Snoogies salads for lunch. Russ was keen to play some pool so Lee and a few others were happy to oblige - our three-hour session at Rattle N' Hum was great fun (even with some local "culture" thanks to a large group of Aboriginal women who decided to have a full-on fist fight in the bar)! Back at our apartment, we knocked over the last of our Snoogies salads for dinner and popped out for an evening walk along the main strip again.
The Pearson family started their journey back home early on Monday morning, leaving the rest of us to continue enjoying our time in Cairns. Lee and Jase headed to Blackbird Laneway for a relaxing coffee and then scoured the shelves of nearby LP Records, an excellent and well-stocked independent shop. A few of us then went for a walk along the Esplanade before we returned to Snoogies to buy food for lunch and dinner. After enjoying our lunch in the apartment, we went for a nice walk around the marina area with Joan and Al before catching up with the others enjoying a swim and the sun at the lagoon pool. At 6pm, we all reconvened on the waterfront and most of us rode the Reef Eye ferris wheel. It was a fun experience and we timed it well to watch the sun go down and also see the city lights. The youngsters then headed off in search of their own dinner, while the adults had a fine Indian meal at Spicy India just a few doors from the apartments.
We started our Tuesday with a long walk, taking in the full length of the Esplanade boardwalk in lovely warm sunshine. We stopped off at the incredibly busy Muddy's Cafe on the way back, but Lee opted to wait until we got back into the city centre to make yet another visit to Blackbird Laneway for his coffee fix. We stocked up at Snoogies again for lunch, dinner and travel food, eating our fresh lunch in the apartment. A few of us had a cultured afternoon, taking in the numerous galleries in the precinct around the apartment complex. First, we headed to the modern Bulmba-Ja, before returning to the more central and historic Cairns Art Gallery. The exhibition of the enormous Bugan Mungan piece by Aboriginal artist Melanie Hava was the highlight and we spent a long time exploring this incredibly detailed and vibrant piece. Next stop was the Mulgrave Gallery housed in the old Shire building before finishing up at the Court House Gallery. This gallery was showing some more controversial works by modern Aboriginal artists and these were works of activism as well as art, so it was good to see such challenging material being presented here in the "Occurent Affair: Justice Now" exhibition. After all of our gallery exploration, we came back together as a group for ice cream at Gelocchio, with one of the largest selections of vegan gelato we've ever seen! Our Snoogies food then served as dinner again back at the apartment, before an evening walk along the Esplanade. We all caught up in Jason and Trace's apartment to round out the day, before packing became a priority for all of us with our departure looming the next day.
We made a fairly early start on Wednesday as we packed up and prepared to leave Cairns. We had time for one last visit to the wonderful Blackbird Laneway coffee shop as well as a decent stretch along the esplanade boardwalk in glorious morning sunshine. We met Joan and Al in the Mantra reception at 8.30am and it was a short taxi trip out to the airport, where we headed to the international terminal to check-in to our flight down to Melbourne. The rescheduling of our return flight onto an international leg rather than domestic one was a little annoying, meaning we had identity and border requirements to fulfil but the international terminal was very quiet and the time passed easily until the early boarding of our 11am JetStar flight. It was a pleasant flight and we arrived into Melbourne on time at 2.30pm. We had to clear immigration and customs and endured a long wait for our bags, then a packed shuttle bus back to the long-term car park. We hit the road at about 3.30pm, a good time to avoid the afternoon peak traffic out of the city, so were dropping Joan and Al off at home in Leopold by 5pm.
It was a busy week or so with family, but the chance to experience some warmer weather and celebrate Joan's big birthday was very welcome and appreciated by everyone. It felt like the end of an era in some ways and will likely be the last big family trip of its kind, making it all the more special and memorable.