Reef, Rivers and Rainforests – September/October 2018 - Day 11 - Cairns

BONZO · 10 Dec 18, 06:07 PM

Day 11 – Tuesday 2nd October 2018 – Cairns and Kuranda

Reef, Rivers and Rainforests – September/October 2018

Link to trip report index – including pre trip report:
Here

Super early start for us this morning and we decided breakfast was for wimps (it wasn’t that good anyway!) as we made our way to the station to pick up the 07:40 train to Sydney. It was quite busy this morning with a mix of commuters and tourists but we did just about have enough time to grab a coffee and muffin at the station.

We settled down on the train and got chatting to a lady from Dubbo, who was quite provincial and opinionated on a number of subjects but interesting all the same to get a “locals” view of the world. Later we also got chatting to a lady from Tasmania who had retired and was going completely “off-grid” – fascinating stuff but a bit scary for us townies!

Well, time passed quite quickly after engaging with these lovely ladies and we changed at the main station to connect with the train to the airport for the next leg of the trip.

The airport was quite quiet this morning and we easily managed the self-service luggage drop, just love this facility, really nifty piece of equipment.

We went through security (there is no restriction on liquids on domestic flights here, slightly bizarrely), then walked over to the lounge and settled down with a coffee from the barista and some pastries, again, no booze until mid-day but not a bad thing really. It’s funny that all of the Qantas lounges we’ve been in in Australia are all exactly the same, huge, clean and well managed but slightly lacking any personality. A bit later on we did make use of the bar after it opened!

We checked the time and soon it was our turn to board, interestingly there were a number of youth groups on the same plane as us and all seemed to be carrying large amounts of Krispy Kremes with them, good luck with those in the overhead lockers kids!

We settled down on the plane (we’d booked extra legroom seats for $30 each which we thought was worth it for a 3+ hour flight) with a couple of soft drinks and logged onto the Qantas App to operate the IFE, I can see a number of operators going down this route in the fullness of time, so convenient. Included in the app was free Wi-Fi for the flight duration, a little sluggish but welcome all the same.
Not long into the flight it was snack time and today’s choices were 3 pies selection or mini pizza followed by a lindor chocolate. The pies were tasty but I don’t think the pizza was up to much to be honest.

The rest of the flight passed quite quickly without any incident and us and all of the youth groups disembarked the plane promptly

before we went down to baggage reclaim, we still have to make ourselves remember to do this every time as it’s still a bit of a novelty for us.

We waited and waited before the initial bags came onto the carousel when I had noticed a small child running around the area. Soon enough, curiosity got the better of him and he pressed the emergency stop button and blaring sirens sounded. The child scuttled back to his parents as security came along to check what the issue was and re-set the belt.

After this minor delay and much eye-rolling and tutting from other travelers we went over to the Avis desk to pick up our hire car. The lady on reception was really friendly and chatty and pointed out a few local places to eat and drink, a really nice personal touch and introduction to Cairns.

We found our car, a small Hyundai i30 which was going to be just the job with the pair of us and no extensive driving planned during our hire period. We loaded our bags and got in and boy was the interior roasting. I fiddled with the air-con but it wasn’t like the fierce super quick American systems and we started to melt, even having the windows wound down whilst we sat there didn’t help much. We mulled over the driving directions which we disagreed with and had a minor falling out, the only one of the trip which must be some sort of record!

Grumpiness over and we were on our way, nice being able to drive on the same side of the road, negotiate roundabouts correctly and have nearly all of the other road users being kind and courteous. I guess there’s no need to rush about like a mad thing as in London and the surrounds.

The only minor thing with the controls was having the indicators and windscreen wipers on different sides of the car controls, I think the locals figured out my extensive windscreen washing meant that I was turning here and there!

The air con had kicked in nicely as we made our way to the Shangri-La Hotel and parked up and checked into to the hotel for the night.

Again, really nice people on reception chatted to us and checked their systems for our reservation. They said that as there were some ongoing refurbishment work (which we knew about in advance) and it was a quiet time of year we’d been given an upgraded room…actually it turned out to be a DOUBLE UPGRADE!

Wow! That sort of thing never happens to us, we hear about it a number of times but not us. On the other hand it’s typical that we were only staying for one night – Oh well, very grateful for the upgrade all the same.

We went up to the Club level floor where our room was and walked down the endless corridor, really felt like being in The Shining and half expecting two little girls to approach us on tricycles.

Eventually we found our room and WOW! Simply Wow!

It was a suite and it was huge! Complete with patio door and huge outside balcony overlooking the harbour – Stunning! On the whole we’ve really fallen on our feet with hotels this trip, I really hope this situation carries on. The room was outstanding in every way and we were going to make the most of the one night stay.

Before heading out to explore the hotel grounds and facilities we thought we’d check out the lounge which turned out to be not that impressive to be honest in comparison to the room. It had all the usual lounge items and the staff were polite and nicely turned out in their corporate uniform but it just lacked a certain something.

We walked around the grounds and pool area and even the gardens had their own individual organised tours by the head gardener who was rightly proud of his creation and upkeep although I guess it’s going to be lost on the business traveler. The only people drinking and dining in this part of the hotel was some corporate team having a bonding or sales session.

The light was beginning to fade fast by now as we went out for a walk along the promenade and the Esplanade Lagoon.

The lagoon is here as Cairns is essentially a harbour and no beaches to speak of. The lagoon consists of 4800 sq metre saltwater swimming lagoon with a year round safe swimming location. Saltwater is pumped from the inlet and filtered through a state of the art filtration and chlorination system, to meet Australian Standards.

There are sandy edges and zero entry making it kid safe. On the other side of the Lagoon, you can lounge on the timber decks in the shade. The other nice but unusual aspect here are the number of public gas –fire barbeque stations with flat stainless steel cooking surfaces – a bit like Tepan Edo / Japanese cooking places.

It was getting very dark by now so we strolled back towards the hotel, listening to the gentle waves lapping the sea wall and looking up at the stars. The whole place had a nice relaxed and safe feel to the area. In one way a real pity we weren’t staying here longer to explore further but it was the lack of beach that had put us off initially.

Once back in the room we were flagging a bit and decided to make use of our room credit that was a freebie from the travel agent we booked the room through and ordered a couple of burgers and drinks from room service. We sat on our patio area, eating burgers and drinking beers, overlooking the harbour at night time and feeling rather decadent in bathrobes!

Well, the food was delicious so we took the long corridor back to the lounge for a coffee and a couple of biscuits before calling it a night as we had a busy day scheduled tomorrow.

Transport count (running total!):

Flights: 5
Ferries: 2
Trains: 11
Trams: 2
Tubes: 1
Ubers/Taxis: 3
Coaches/Buses: 8
Step Count today: 8822
Total step count for the trip: 116522

Melbatb · 11 Dec 18, 05:32 AM

What a fabulous room! Cairns looks really pretty.

10 Dec 18, 06:07 PM	#1
	10 Dec 18, 06:07 PM BONZO Imagineer
BONZO Imagineer Join Date: Mar 02	Reef, Rivers and Rainforests – September/October 2018 - Day 11 - Cairns Day 11 – Tuesday 2nd October 2018 – Cairns and Kuranda Reef, Rivers and Rainforests – September/October 2018 Link to trip report index – including pre trip report: Here Super early start for us this morning and we decided breakfast was for wimps (it wasn’t that good anyway!) as we made our way to the station to pick up the 07:40 train to Sydney. It was quite busy this morning with a mix of commuters and tourists but we did just about have enough time to grab a coffee and muffin at the station. We settled down on the train and got chatting to a lady from Dubbo, who was quite provincial and opinionated on a number of subjects but interesting all the same to get a “locals” view of the world. Later we also got chatting to a lady from Tasmania who had retired and was going completely “off-grid” – fascinating stuff but a bit scary for us townies! Well, time passed quite quickly after engaging with these lovely ladies and we changed at the main station to connect with the train to the airport for the next leg of the trip. The airport was quite quiet this morning and we easily managed the self-service luggage drop, just love this facility, really nifty piece of equipment. We went through security (there is no restriction on liquids on domestic flights here, slightly bizarrely), then walked over to the lounge and settled down with a coffee from the barista and some pastries, again, no booze until mid-day but not a bad thing really. It’s funny that all of the Qantas lounges we’ve been in in Australia are all exactly the same, huge, clean and well managed but slightly lacking any personality. A bit later on we did make use of the bar after it opened! We checked the time and soon it was our turn to board, interestingly there were a number of youth groups on the same plane as us and all seemed to be carrying large amounts of Krispy Kremes with them, good luck with those in the overhead lockers kids! We settled down on the plane (we’d booked extra legroom seats for $30 each which we thought was worth it for a 3+ hour flight) with a couple of soft drinks and logged onto the Qantas App to operate the IFE, I can see a number of operators going down this route in the fullness of time, so convenient. Included in the app was free Wi-Fi for the flight duration, a little sluggish but welcome all the same. Not long into the flight it was snack time and today’s choices were 3 pies selection or mini pizza followed by a lindor chocolate. The pies were tasty but I don’t think the pizza was up to much to be honest. The rest of the flight passed quite quickly without any incident and us and all of the youth groups disembarked the plane promptly before we went down to baggage reclaim, we still have to make ourselves remember to do this every time as it’s still a bit of a novelty for us. We waited and waited before the initial bags came onto the carousel when I had noticed a small child running around the area. Soon enough, curiosity got the better of him and he pressed the emergency stop button and blaring sirens sounded. The child scuttled back to his parents as security came along to check what the issue was and re-set the belt. After this minor delay and much eye-rolling and tutting from other travelers we went over to the Avis desk to pick up our hire car. The lady on reception was really friendly and chatty and pointed out a few local places to eat and drink, a really nice personal touch and introduction to Cairns. We found our car, a small Hyundai i30 which was going to be just the job with the pair of us and no extensive driving planned during our hire period. We loaded our bags and got in and boy was the interior roasting. I fiddled with the air-con but it wasn’t like the fierce super quick American systems and we started to melt, even having the windows wound down whilst we sat there didn’t help much. We mulled over the driving directions which we disagreed with and had a minor falling out, the only one of the trip which must be some sort of record! Grumpiness over and we were on our way, nice being able to drive on the same side of the road, negotiate roundabouts correctly and have nearly all of the other road users being kind and courteous. I guess there’s no need to rush about like a mad thing as in London and the surrounds. The only minor thing with the controls was having the indicators and windscreen wipers on different sides of the car controls, I think the locals figured out my extensive windscreen washing meant that I was turning here and there! The air con had kicked in nicely as we made our way to the Shangri-La Hotel and parked up and checked into to the hotel for the night. Again, really nice people on reception chatted to us and checked their systems for our reservation. They said that as there were some ongoing refurbishment work (which we knew about in advance) and it was a quiet time of year we’d been given an upgraded room…actually it turned out to be a DOUBLE UPGRADE! Wow! That sort of thing never happens to us, we hear about it a number of times but not us. On the other hand it’s typical that we were only staying for one night – Oh well, very grateful for the upgrade all the same. We went up to the Club level floor where our room was and walked down the endless corridor, really felt like being in The Shining and half expecting two little girls to approach us on tricycles. Eventually we found our room and WOW! Simply Wow! It was a suite and it was huge! Complete with patio door and huge outside balcony overlooking the harbour – Stunning! On the whole we’ve really fallen on our feet with hotels this trip, I really hope this situation carries on. The room was outstanding in every way and we were going to make the most of the one night stay. Before heading out to explore the hotel grounds and facilities we thought we’d check out the lounge which turned out to be not that impressive to be honest in comparison to the room. It had all the usual lounge items and the staff were polite and nicely turned out in their corporate uniform but it just lacked a certain something. We walked around the grounds and pool area and even the gardens had their own individual organised tours by the head gardener who was rightly proud of his creation and upkeep although I guess it’s going to be lost on the business traveler. The only people drinking and dining in this part of the hotel was some corporate team having a bonding or sales session. The light was beginning to fade fast by now as we went out for a walk along the promenade and the Esplanade Lagoon. The lagoon is here as Cairns is essentially a harbour and no beaches to speak of. The lagoon consists of 4800 sq metre saltwater swimming lagoon with a year round safe swimming location. Saltwater is pumped from the inlet and filtered through a state of the art filtration and chlorination system, to meet Australian Standards. There are sandy edges and zero entry making it kid safe. On the other side of the Lagoon, you can lounge on the timber decks in the shade. The other nice but unusual aspect here are the number of public gas –fire barbeque stations with flat stainless steel cooking surfaces – a bit like Tepan Edo / Japanese cooking places. It was getting very dark by now so we strolled back towards the hotel, listening to the gentle waves lapping the sea wall and looking up at the stars. The whole place had a nice relaxed and safe feel to the area. In one way a real pity we weren’t staying here longer to explore further but it was the lack of beach that had put us off initially. Once back in the room we were flagging a bit and decided to make use of our room credit that was a freebie from the travel agent we booked the room through and ordered a couple of burgers and drinks from room service. We sat on our patio area, eating burgers and drinking beers, overlooking the harbour at night time and feeling rather decadent in bathrobes! Well, the food was delicious so we took the long corridor back to the lounge for a coffee and a couple of biscuits before calling it a night as we had a busy day scheduled tomorrow. Transport count (running total!): Flights: 5 Ferries: 2 Trains: 11 Trams: 2 Tubes: 1 Ubers/Taxis: 3 Coaches/Buses: 8 Step Count today: 8822 Total step count for the trip: 116522 __________________ http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sign...igpic534_1.gif 1988 ~ Contemporary ~ Honeymoon 1989 ~ Off site 1994 ~ EuroDisney ~ Santa Fe 1999 ~ Off site 2001 ~ CBR (Aruba) ~ Poly (Tahiti) 2003 ~ WL & HRH 2004 ~ Pop Century, RPH, CSR, PBH, Contemporary 2006 ~ DLP ~ Newport Bay 2007 ~ POR ~ HRH ~ GF 2008 ~ All star sports, BCV, RPH, Vero Beach, VWL 2010 ~ OKW ~ BCV ~ HRH ~POP Century ~ Vero Beach ~ VWL 2013 ~ AKL ~ HRH ~ BCV ~ Vero Beach ~ VWL Edited at 06:18 PM.