It goes without saying that the Mini Cooper we hired for Jayne’s birthday was superb fun. So much so, in fact, that we’re almost certain to buy one when we buy a second car.
Anyway, I was just hunting around on YouTube for some feel-good footage and I found these. They’re great. Watch them.
I’ve uploaded a whole heap of our holiday photos to Flickr. See them at flickr.com/photos/jayneandmarty/sets. There are 130 photos over 7 pages. Each photo is clickable or you can see the whole lot as a slideshow.
We’re back from our FNQ holiday. I’ll write about it properly over the next few days and am in the middle of setting up a Flickr photoset to showcase some of the 600+ photos we took, but in the meantime here is one photo from each day of the holiday…
Here is an abridged version of the holiday, courtesy of the notes we made each day.
Day 1
An 8am flight from Tullamarine to Cairns meant a 5am start from Geelong. It was early and cold and we had to park the car so far away from the terminal that we might have been in the next suburb but we made it on time and settled in for our four hour flight.
Somewhere over outback NSW (maybe Walgett?!)
At Cairns airport we stepped from the plane into the welcome warmth and humidity (and light rain), grabbed our bags from the carousel and hired our car - a blue el cheapo Toyota Corolla. I’d been to Cairns and Palm Cove before, so I knew roughly where we were going and had us out of the airport, past all the sugar cane and at the Grand Mercure Rockford Esplanade Palm Cove reception in less than half an hour. It looked great - a nice lagoon pool surrounded by trees and low-rise apartments, open air bar, restaurant and reception area - but then we were told we were in the complex next door. Mildly concerned (but not overly, as we’d seen pictures of the rooms when we booked over the internet), we drove around to our undercover park and wandered around for 10 minutes before we found the room.
The 10 minute wander was great, as it allowed us to take in the complex (the Amphora run by Stella Resorts). We were staying there as some of the apartments were operated/managed by Grand Mercure. Didn’t matter to us - the pool was even better than the other one.
The Rockford Esplanade reception
The inside of our 1br apartment
Looking back from the beach end towards our apartment and the pool
After unpacking we strolled lazily up the street to check out the cafes and restaurants, stopping for a burger and a beer when we finally felt hungry. The Esplanade’s not long, maybe a km or so, but the entire strip is lined with hotels, apartment complexes, bars, shops, restaurants and huge, beautiful melaleuca (paperbark) trees. It’s very laid back and quiet - not at all like Port Douglas (see tomorrow) - and just what we were looking for.
A bit later we went back up the street for dinner at Colonies, which seemed to have a well-priced and varied menu. It was a fantastic meal with great service - I had Moreton Bay bugs and king prawns while Jayne had a steak - and we also noticed it was BYO. It went in our book for a return visit later in the week (two, actually).
Jayne exiting Colonies
Inspecting a paperbark tree
Day 2
We started the day with a swim, a play with the new underwater camera and a tropical breakfast, then jumped in the car and headed for Port Douglas. Parts of it really are beautiful - the beach is amazing and the houses on the clifftop need to be seen to be believed - but the main shopping and cafe strip (Macrossan Street) was too busy for our liking. We had a good morning there poking our heads into the shops and restaurants but were glad to leave in the end.
The underwater camera getting a workout
On the coast road between Cairns and Port Douglas
Meandering down Macrossan Street
On the esplanade behind Four Mile Beach
In the afternoon we went to Hartley’s Crocodile Farm, which is between Cairns and Port Douglas. It was set up for kids, in our opinion, but there was plenty there for adults. We started on the lagoon cruise then walked around the farm marvelling at the huge salties in the pens. We had our photo taken holding a baby croc then watched the snake show (I held one but Jayne couldn’t do it) and the croc show. It was about $30 to get in (I think) and was good value.
This one was called Paul and was almost 5m long
Paul again
The crowd in the main saltwater enclosure
The snake show
The croc show
We finished the day enjoying the warm night air with a lazy cocktail at a restaurant near our apartment (Angsana).
Day 3
Today was even lazier than days 1 and 2. After a morning swim we walked along the beach towards Clifton Beach, the next village down towards Cairns. Then we spent time lounging around by the pool, reading and swimming before another stroll up the street where we bought some beautiful necklaces from cGems for Jayne’s birthday.
We had dinner at Far Horizons at Angsana, but to be honest it was disappointing. The service was fine but the meal at Colonies was far cheaper and much tastier.
Day 4
If you can believe it, day 4 was even lazier than day 3. My notes just say “swim, stroll, picked up Mini”, so here are some pictures of that.
The Mini was cool. Late in the day we decided to hire one and spend tomorrow (Jayne’s birthday) cruising. Pics below.
Day 5
We woke up early and drove to Daintree River via Mossman Gorge. The weather was unpredictable, so we played a bit of Russian Roulette with the roof - we wanted it down as much as possible. The car’s interior didn’t get too wet, all things considered.
All smiles in the Mini
Mossman Gorge
It was pouring with rain when we reached the Daintree River and whilst that didn’t bother us it must have bothered everyone else - we were the only people on our 1.5hr cruise. We got lucky early in the cruise and tracked a 4m+ croc for ten minutes or so, then moved on to see snakes, a wild pig and plenty of other wildlife. Our guide’s information didn’t correspond with what we heard at the crocodile farm earlier in the week (nobody killed by a croc in 60 years versus 3 people killed in the same period), but he certainly knew where the snakes were hiding. He found heaps.
The ticket office
Tracking the 4m croc
Snake
Another cruise (with people on it)
We drove back to Port Douglas for lunch, then tried to get back to Palm Cove but the road was blocked by an accident so we turned around and went back to the Port Douglas Rainforest Habitat instead.
An evening swim cooled us down and then it was out to Colonies for a slap-up feed with more bugs, barramundi, prawns and champagne. A great birthday day for Jayne!
