Sunset at Cairns Esplanade Lagoon. Photo / Tourism Tropical North Queensland
There’s a lot to take your breath away in Cairns, both above and below the water, writes Neil Porten
“Always, always, always...breathe! Breathe! Breathe!”
Scuba diving instructor Ada’s mantra is all well and good until you come face to face with the breathtaking Great Barrier Reef.
In two days, I’ll experience two World Heritage sites: the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics of Queensland rainforest. Both are on the doorstep of Cairns.
Cairns is a compact city, so a walking tour is a good way to orientate yourself.
“Hip” may no longer be the way to describe who’s cool (“cool” probably isn’t either), but Cairns Urban Walking Tours’ hipster tour tells all. MoveHub.com’s hipster index ranks cities on the number of vegan eateries, coffee shops, tattoo studios, vintage boutiques, and record stores. In Australia, Cairns comes in second, after Gold Coast.
Guide Peter Schleifer meets us outside Cairns City Tattoos, whose owner’s great uncle inked US soldiers here in World War II.
Caffeind cafe sells Tattooed Sailor coffee beans, the saucy packaging modelled on the logo of nearby adult shop Bombshell Secrets. After strolling through ‘80s shopping arcades with wholefood stores, record shops and smoothie bars, Peter leads us to a laneway adorned with graffiti and giant murals.
Peter’s ‘hip’ tour ends after we’ve peeped into more tattoo parlours and barber shops. I’m not tempted to go under the needle, but I do consider a souvenir t-shirt.
Further exploration on foot is best left until it cools off, or at least with the aim of finding a place for a drink. In the early evening, if you are lucky, you’ll be treated to the spectacle of flying foxes arriving to roost in the downtown area after a day in the hinterland.
I stood stunned at the corner of Lake and Alpin streets as wave after leather-winged wave of these big bats flapped in from the hills to swoop, like jets returning to an aircraft carrier, into an enormous tangled tree by the roadside.
It’s appropriate then, that the promised cold drink is in the handsome Cairns RSL building right on the Esplanade. There’s time for a pint of Tooheys Old dark ale – Australia’s best beer, according to a friend from Brisbane – to be poured and a seat found in the shade outside overlooking the war memorial, before an alarm sounds; at the going down of the sun, everyone is upstanding for The Last Post and a rendition of For the Fallen. It is a simple, moving daily ritual of remembrance.
Cairnsites clearly love their Esplanade at any time, but after dark, sea breezes, plenty of lighting and amenities for all ages bring out the locals and visitors alike. Walking south, the kaleidoscopic LED light display on the 35m-tall Reef Eye ferris wheel and its reflection in the sea is a double-disc dazzlement.
The Cairns Esplanade Lagoon is a popular, and essential, public swimming pool for a part of the city where swimming in the sea is impractical. As one day ends on the edge of the water, tomorrow I’m heading for the hills.
I’ve volunteered to see the world’s oldest continually surviving tropical rainforest from one of Skyrail Rainforest Cableway’s canopy gliders, an open-top gondola. Ranger Marc assures me it’s the best - if wettest - way to experience the treetops. He’s right.
We can stand up and look down at some of the 2800 plant species found here, 700 of which are found nowhere else. I’m soaked, but ecstatic as we reach Red Peak station. From the boardwalk, Marc shows me the dangling red roots of the strangler fig; its seeds germinate in crevices high in the treetops, the roots wrapping around the host tree until eventually reaching the ground.
An enormous female golden orb spider clings to a web. Marc points out the male spider, a tiny orange dot above the female, likely destined to be her lunch.
A cockatoo perches on the highest pylon as the gondola takes us to the Barron Falls stop, where the new Edge Lookout platform provides a spectacular view of Barron Gorge. The final leg of the cableway to Kuranda is an opportunity to marvel again at the rainforest canopy, while keen-eyed Marc spots a crocodile lolling in the Barron River below.
The Kuranda Scenic Railway takes me back to Cairns in vintage luxury. The 33km journey includes 15 hand-carved tunnels, 98 curves and 55 bridges, including the impressive Stoney Creek Falls bridge. In the gold-class carriages, with their silky oak-timbered detailing and pressed-tin ceilings, refreshments are enjoyed along with views of the Barron Gorge National Park and the coast.
The sky is blue as the Passions III catamaran leaves Marlin Wharf, heading to the Great Barrier Reef. World Heritage area number two is a two-hour, 55km cruise away.
I’ve opted for an introductory scuba dive, requiring no previous diving experience. Instructor Ada is sparky and efficient in her briefing and once we arrive at Hastings Reef - there is no monolithic Great Barrier Reef, but over 2900 individual reefs - I’m in the first quartet into the water.
We practice regulator drills and equalise the pressure in our ears, then Ada deflates our buoyancy compensators and we submerge. Tiny Ada has a pair of novice divers clutching each of her outstretched arms. I try not to squeeze too tight, remembering to breathe normally, air bubbles streaming past my mask to the surface.
The twenty minutes go by in a flash. I take in my aquatic surroundings in wonderment (there’s a giant clam!), let go of Ada’s arm long enough to pose for photos, and return to the boat exhilarated.
It’s only when I’m snorkelling after lunch, when we have moved to the Breaking Patches reef, that I can properly appreciate the glories of this place.
The edge of the reef drops steeply into deeper water. A shoal of robust fusilier fish, golden swallowtails lit by the sun, cruise along the drop-off. Spiny chromis fish, looking like neenish tarts - white back half, black front half - pass a clump of neon-green turtle weed. A regal angelfish - all gold, white and royal-blue vertical stripes - investigates tree-like blue staghorn coral.
Shafts of sunlight, refracted through my mask, stream past my face from above as I scan the seabed searching for more treasures. Trippy.
The lookout’s whistle blows and it’s time to reluctantly return to the boat.
Master reef guide Russell Hosp dispels some myths during the return to Cairns: the reef is not dead yet - it’s healthier now, he believes, than it’s been in years; coral bleaching - where the algae that lives in the coral dies when the water temperature rises too high - does not mean the coral is dead. Still, the reef’s outlook has recently been downgraded from “poor” to “very poor”, so conservation efforts are as important as ever.
I would love to bring everyone I know back to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef.
Returning to my hotel from the wharf, I pass a couple on the boardwalk taking an evening stroll with their pet yellow-crested cockatoo. A flock of pelicans cruises along the mirror surface of the water near the seawall. Enticing in the heat is the Esplanade’s lagoon swimming pool. I follow Ada’s mantra to “always, breathe”. In tropical Cairns, the air is sweet.
It’s the tropics, so you’re going to get thirsty. Luckily, Cairns will take care of that, and feed you too.
In the heat in Kuranda, an electric-blue Ulysses Ginger Beer, brewed in-house, was the ideal midday pick-me-up to accompany a large bowl of fries at the historic Kuranda Hotel.
Coral Brewing Co will serve you a cold one from a tiny bar behind a roller door in a back alley. It’s packed on a Saturday afternoon - that’s about eight patrons. The Tropic Ale was just right on a warm day.
The range at the Sauce Brewing Co brewpub is extensive, so a tasting flight is necessary. The Peach Sauce weissbier is tangy, fruity and refreshing. Caribbean Fog is a hazy pale ale.
At Hemingway’s brewpub on Cairns Wharf, the crisp Prospector pilsner, a nod to the region’s gold rush in the 1870s, is just right to drink with dinner. Try the reef fish tacos.
At the Pier Cairns complex, overlooking Marlin Marina, the seafood platter was excellent at Tha Fish.
There’s an authentic taste of Indonesian at Bayleaf Balinese Restaurant. The smoky satay and sambal kacang skewers were a hit. A Marlborough Bladen gewurztraminer works with the ikan bali - the grilled Spanish mackerel fillet’s firm white flesh is smothered in a sweet chilli tomato sauce. The kambing mekuah - lamb stew with cardamon and coriander - found the right balance between warmth and spice.
They distill and steep their own gins at the bright and cool Wolf Lane Distillery. Both the Dragonfruit Spritz and the Davidson Plum Sour were excellent. I bought a bottle of Navy Strength gin to take home. Across the lane is sister bar Three Wolves, where the Moonshiner Mac - bourbon, local macadamia liqueur and walnut bitters seemed the perfect cocktail for the dark speakeasy vibe.
GETTING THERE
Qantas and Jetstar both fly from Auckland to Cairns with one transit in Brisbane.
DETAILS
tropicalnorthqueensland.org.au
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