Cairns

Lori and I had a quick get away last weekend to Cairns. The first thing you need to know about Cairns is how to pronounce it. The i and r are silent (sort of). The closest I could get is pronouncing as Canz. Anyway, it's a lovely resort town in Queensland and it's only 90 minutes away by air.

We had nothing planned and no objective to our mini-vacation except to getaway from our restrictive life in PNG. We went for walks, did some shopping and ate in some great restaurants. It may not sound like a thrilling vacation to most, but to us, it was heaven. You don't truly appreciate safety and freedom until you don't have it anymore. I also got to enjoy some really good Australian craft beer.

It's not everyday you see a kangaroo playing guitar outside a McDonald's. This wasn't even Halloween, just a Friday night.

We got to see some real wildlife as well. These pelicans were hanging out along the shoreline.

I didn't get any pictures of them, but we saw some enormous bats at night. I thought they were pretty cool, but Lori wasn't too impressed.

Cairns is a great departure point to get out to the Great Barrier Reef. We took a day trip out to Green Island to do some snorkeling.

The island is fairly small, you can walk around it in about 40 minutes, but there is a resort on it. There is a strong chance we will stay there in the future.

I don't have an underwater camera, so I couldn't get any pictures of the incredible fish we saw while we were snorkeling, but this guy came to check us out as we were leaving.

It was a great weekend and I have a feeling we will see a lot of Cairns over the next few years.

db