Cairns and Wonga Beach - Snorkeling, Horse riding, Port Douglas and much more

We were looking forward to hitting the East Coast again and checking into the much talked about Cairns Holiday Coconut  Resort. Unfortunately I ended up in the Cairns Hospital Emergency Ward instead!
To cut a long story short a troublesome cyst of mine decided to rupture making the winding decent from Kuranda down to the coast a very painful one.  So I hung out at the hospital for a few hours, (feeling much better after a couple of doses of Valium) while Scott and the kids went and set up camp.

It was a bit of a shock to our system landing in a big town and during school holidays.  Suddenly we were surrounded by others, within close range! The Cairns holiday Coconut Resort is rated 6 stars and I was interested to find out why.  Wow it deserves the rating and the name 'resort' instead of caravan park.  The grounds are immaculate with well maintained tropical gardens.  As far as activities go, the resort pretty much covers everything and more. It was the perfect place for me to rest up and recover, as the kids were quite happy to stay at the park all day. Check out their website for all the details at http://www.coconut.com.au/

When we did drag ourselves away from the resort we headed down to the esplanade for a walk and went to the night markets.  We also went out for dinner a couple of times at the Marina, the restaurants were fantastic thanks to some  good tips from a local chef Scott played golf with in Cairns. 

On Scotts Birthday we played golf and then went out for dinner with his Dad, and Jan who came up from the Gold Coast to join us for a couple of days.

Fitzroy Island was another great tip Scott's golfing mate gave us. The ferry drops you off in the morning and picks you up in the afternoon. We had the whole day to snorkel (which was surprisingly good just off the beach) laze on the beach and have the lunch provided.  The last part of the afternoon we had a cocktail overlooking the gorgeous water.  In the morning the captain let us know that the boat would be leaving at 4pm in the afternoon. I made the most of the day casually walking towards the boat and along the jetty at 3.45pm, stopping to take photos here and there thinking I had plenty of time. What I didn't realise (and much to my families embarrassment) was that I was the only one that hadn't boarded, and the crew, and passengers were waiting patiently for me to depart!  

Of course we had to take the kids on the scenic rail up to Kuranda, and the skyrail back. Its always a good day out. 

After our stay in Cairns we headed up to Wonga Beach which is about 40mins North of Port Douglas. The http://www.pinnaclevillage.com/ Caravan Park was quite nice with plenty of grass, set behind the beach front. The park owners were lovely and organised a jazz night with free sausage sizzle and home made deserts.  The kids soon found some friends to play with and had fun on the Pools slippery dip and playing spot light and cane toad catching at night.

Hannah and I went on a horse ride with Wonga Beach horse rides.  http://www.beachhorserides.com.au/
It was a great ride, taking us through the dense cool rain forest then onto the beach.  Hannah was very keen to have her first attempt at trotting. As soon as she was given the "ok" to go on the beach she took off, leaving me behind, calling out "be careful, hang on tight!" We were gone for around 3 hours and it was  great to see Hannah so excited and proud of herself in the end jumping up and down with excitement. I on the other hand was just trying to stand up straight and walk reasonably normal.

While we were staying at Wonga Beach we also took a trip into Port Douglas for a stroll around the Markets, lunch and our first swim at a surf beach since we left home 5 months ago!

We have two very excited kids today as tomorrow we are going snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef! Hannah has her waterproof bag to hold her ipod touch in, so hopefully the next post will have some good underwater shots.