After leaving our Babinda campsite early, we headed into Cairns- our next major destination. We were able to check into our van park- Big 4 Cairns Coconut. Cairns Coconut is renowned for being one of the prime van parks in Australia and boy, was it big! 4 pools, 2 jumping pillows, adventure playground and bike track, water park, 18 hole putt putt and outdoor movies- this place is kids central! Of course, these things don’t come cheap- we are guessing that at $95 a night for our powered site, this would be our dearest van park on the trip.

Once we had set up and threw on the customary loads of washing, we headed into the city centre to meet up with Joe’s parents, who were holidaying in Cairns. It was wonderful to see them again and we enjoyed an afternoon of lounging in their beach side apartment and swimming in the Cairns Lagoon. As the Cairns Festival was on (yey- we made another festival!), we were able to  join in with a steel pans workshop. We had a great time and the boys are now keen to join the steel pan group at their school when we return.

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That night, Samir and Souzy joined us for a BBQ dinner back at the van park and we introduced them to Putt Putt- they are both naturals!

The following morning, we all headed up to Karanda via the scenic railway. It was a lovely trip through the rainforest and it was amazing to go past the Barron Falls. At Karanda, we meandered through the shops and enjoyed mango smoothies and watched some sweet making. You could also visit the butterfly farm and river, but we were all having one of those hot and bothered days! So we joined the skyrail and headed back down the mountain. The Skyrail was absolutely amazing and treks  over 7.5km of rainforest. There are 2 stations to get off at during the journey. At the first stop, we followed a board walk through to a couple of lookouts towards Barron Falls, as well as some hands on interaction at the Rainforest discovery centre. At the second station, we joined a ranger for a short guided walk through the dense rainforest. Coming down the mountain on the final leg of the Sky rail was stunning. Whilst the whole day was on the pricey side, it is quite a unique trip and a must-do when visiting Qld.

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The following day, the 5 of us headed down to the marina and joined a Sunlover cruise out to the Great Barrier Reef. Based on a pontoon out at the reef, we had a wonderful day out. We all had a go snorkelling through the reef, the boys even swimming off by themselves a couple of times. Kaytlin enjoyed the kids pool area and even came out onto the reef with Melinda. She wasn’t  to keen on the snorkel, but used the goggles and flippers a couple of times.

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We saw some amazing coral and huge variety of tropical fish. We also enjoyed a trip on the underwater sub, glass bottom boat and a delicious buffet lunch.  We were really happy that we hired an underwater camera and went to town with it, taking over 300 photos. After returning it, we simply took out the memory card and the photos came with us. That night, we watched the movie ‘Cars’ at the Cairns Coconut outdoor cinema.

On Saturday, we enjoyed a day at the caravan park, swimming in the pools and spending hours at the water park.  Joe’s parents joined us for the day, as well as for a BBQ lunch before they flew back to Sydney in the evening. Tetta even had a go on the jumping pillow!  The kids also enjoyed a ride on the parks’ little red fire engine.  We had a wonderful time in Cairns- a lovely place to visit.