Cairns 2014: Day 4, Monday 24 November

Monday 24 November, 2014

Drive to Daintree, Port Douglas.

Stop at Daintree Village for lunch.

Catch the Daintree ferry  ($24 return) to cross the Daintree River and drive up to Cape Tribulation.

Stopping at the Daintree Discovery Centre ($32 adults - Mark paid).

Self audio tour.

Alexandra Lookout.

Catch the ferry back and drive to Port Douglas.

Take a walk around the marina.

Drive up to Flagstaff Hill lookout.

Quick dinner after a long drive of rice with sausages, onions, cucumber and tomato.

Cairns 2014: Day 3, Sunday 23 November

Sunday 23 November 2014

Morning drive to the esplanade.

Walk along esplanande, past swimming lagoon.

Also checked out local shops on the street.

Then drove to airport to pick up Kaylene.

Then drive back to city for lunch at Pho Viet.  I have a cold bowl of vermicelli, pork with salad

Back to Rusty's Market - only open Fri - Sun for last min buys.

Walk city some more, before driving back to resort.

Kaylene catches up on zzz's.

Janet preps dinner, roast pork with sweet potato, carrots and choy

Cairns 2014: Day 2, Saturday 22 November

Saturday 22 November 2014

Drive in to city and park at Cairns Central Shopping Centre - 3hr free parking.

Walk to Rusty's Markets for more shopping. Souvenier and fruit and veggies.  More stalls open today, as they were closing up shop when we got there the day before.

Check out the stalls. Locals selling betel nuts and dakka - haven't seen those for a long time.

Spot an Asian Grocery store across the road, so we go and check it out. Not cheap. Don't end up buying anything.

Head back to Cairns Central for lunch in the food court.

Fish and chips with salad for me.

Same shops as Sydney.  Lots of Christmas decorations.

Head back to resort.  Go for a swim in the pool. Nice and warm.

Have rice with prawns, pork, beans and carrots and bok choy for dinner

Cairns 2014: Day 1, Friday 21 November

Cairns 2014: Day 1, 21 November 2014
Sydney to Cairns

Mark, Lily, Janet and I fly from Sydney to Cairns.

Have a Red rooster chicken schnitzel roll for breakfast at the airport.
Lunch on board is chicken and mushroom pasta, bread roll with butter and mango weiss ice cream bar.

We land at 3.30pm local time

Head to Baggage Claim to get luggage.

Go to pick up hire car, Toyota Corolla Accent sport from Avis rentals.

Drive to city, park at Rusty's markets and go shopping for the weeks fruit and vegies.

Check in to Trinity Resort Apartments, Unit 117.

Big apartment, with 3 bedrooms.
Mark and Lily in the main bedroom.

Janet and Kaylene share another with single beds.

I have one to myself.

We are on the ground floor with the back patio next to the swimming pool.

After checking in we take a drive to Stockland at Earlville for more grocery shopping.

Head back to unit and Janet makes dinner.

For dinner that night we have rice with pork chops, steamed fish and bok choy.

Darren's 24th and Janet's 52nd Birthday

Saturday 8 November

Invited the Seeto's over to help celebrate Janet and Darren's birthdays.

There was a festival on at Burwood Park, so Evan, Kaylene and Megan took a walk down to check it out.  It turned out to be a Tongan Festival with lots of stalls selling Tongan food and products.  As we'd already had lunch, we didn't buy or try their food. After the park, we walked to Strathfield Woolworths to buy ice cream to make Darren's ice cream birthday cake.

So we had dinner at home. The ice cream cake turned out to be pretty sweet with lots of maltesers ( I may have over did it), but it turned out ok.

Darren cutting the ice cream cake, which he was surprised we had made.

Tongan and island products for sale

These leis looked very colourful.