Cairns Cairns Cairns

Say Cairns 3 times fast. Alright, say it once :) Yeah, it's a weird name for a town and the even stranger thing is that it's pronounced "cans". It's a beach town of sorts and one of the main jumping off points to the Great Barrier Reef. The odd thing about this tropical "beach" town is that there really isn't a beach. Instead, they have a large chlorinated "lagoon". Why you ask? Three reasons that I know of are crocodiles, snakes, and deadly jellyfish. Yeah, Australia is much different from NZ in the respect that many things crawling around can KILL you.
the beach...We enjoyed some decent food at the local resaurants. Justin tried to devour all of Australia on one plate, consuming kangaroo steak, crocodile sausage, and ostrich medallions. He said they all tasted like beef, but were DELICIOUS ;)And of course, Cairns had a few obligatory "Mexican Restaurant" :)
Anyways, apart from the "beach" the other interesting thing about Cairns is that it's right on the edge of the rainforest. They even built a gondola that glides above the trees to a small mountain village...err...umm... tourist trap. But whatever, it made for a fun day trip :) Granted, it is a somewhat detached way to experience the rainforest, but fortunately there were a couple stops along the way. I'm beginning to lose track of how many waterfalls we've seen but I can never get enough :)Being a tourist trap, the mountain town had a couple weird things. Such as kangaroo hides for sale......restaraunts that offered "traditional" Italian meals such as "Lasagne & Chips". (FYI: chips = french fries in Australia). Lasagne & Fries...traditional? Huh?Oh, and watch out if you're walking the streets...After Cairns, we began the long journey down to Brisbane. For some reason we thought this would only take a day. WRONG! The roads aren't as good as those in the US which means you need to go a little slower. That and the fact that the distance was waaay further then we expected. Essentially the ride from Port Douglas/ Cairns to Brisbane took 23 hours....or the amount of time it would take to drive from BOSTON TO MIAMI...roadtrip! Needless to say this was one of the many times we looked around and said "Australia is really big". Good thing we had 3 weeks in Aussie :)

One stop along the way was the City of Townsville. For some reason I always wanted to go here when I was little. Yes, I know it's random, but I always used to stare at maps and globes and eventually I noticed this city's name. I always thought the name was funny and wondered what it would be like to live there. Well, this about sums it up......apart from the mountain view, the best part was the fresh mango sorbet and crocodile hot dogs. I don't think Justin will ever understand why I was so insistent on stopping here and wandering around to take pictures, but I'm really glad he put up with it :)

:) Ryan