Cairns was the first stop on my 2 week Australia East Coast trip! I flew into Cairns late Thursday night and arrived at 1:30a on Friday. Just enough time to crash in a hostel before getting up at 6:15a to go diving! When we got off the plane I felt the way I had when I first landed in Sydney, then Brisbane, the humidity was stifling, and I felt like I had gone somewhere completely different. This was a immediate reminder that Carins is much further north of Brisbane, and in the tropics instead of the subtropics. The reason that we chose to start in Cairns is because it is the city that is closest to the Great Barrier Reef. It's about an hour by boat to get out the the reef, and a friend and I really wanted to go diving on the reef. I'll do a separate post about our diving experience, but we were also able to spend an evening in Cairns before heading on to our next stop.
Cairns is a small touristy city. It has so many people leaving from there to go the the reef or rainforest that it is a bit of a stop over. The streets are lined with dive shops, information booths, hostels, and bars. For all of that it's actually a really nice place. Tropical vegetation lines the wide boulevards (see above and belwo left), making the city feel like it is in the middle of the rainforest (below right). The CBD is vibrant. The colors from all of the shops and bars beacon the curious traveller.
We walked to the esplanade, which is the main street of the CBD and leads from the harbor where the diving trips leave to a lively nightlife scene. We strolled along it until we came to a pub, and grabbed some ciders and pizzas for dinner. Afterwards we walked to the Lagoon (see below). This is the swimming area of Cairns. Similar to Streets Beach in Brisbane, the Lagoon is a pool and beach that borders an actual body of water. It is backed up to the ocean, but because of all the jellies (box jellies and Irikanji are deadly and live in the waters of the coast of Cairns) you cannot swim in the ocean without a stinger suit. So Cairns has an artificial beach set up for those who choose not to risk it. There are metal fish statues in the Lagoon and they are quite beautiful at night (below).
After strolling along the beach, we headed to the Night Markets. These are goods and food markets that are open from 5p to 11p. They have tons of souvenirs and goods for sale, as well as some really great food. We walked around all of the twisting corridors between the stalls (below left). I bought some shorts with the Australian Flag on them, and my friends bought some cool bracelets. We also grabbed some dessert, I got a yummy green tea crape (read about it here: ) It was a wonderful way to spend the rest of the evening! We finished at the night markets and then spend our final few hours in Cairns playing cards at our hostel, before catching a night Greyhound Bus! We slept on the bus, and it took us to the next stop on our journey: The Whitesunday Islands.
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