Cairns, Australia is a tropical paradise nestled in the far north of Queensland, offering visitors a unique blend of natural wonders and urban charm. This is Kay and my second visit to this northeastern Australian City. Cairns serves as the gateway to two of Australia's most iconic UNESCO World Heritage sites: the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest.
Cairns enjoys a tropical climate with two distinct seasons: a wet season from November to April and a dry season from May to October. The city experiences warm temperatures year-round, with summer highs around 88°F and winter lows rarely dipping below 64°F.When we visited Cairns for a week in 2005 it was in November, at the beginning of the wet season and we had excellent weather. This time we are experiencing the middle of the wet season and .....
With a population of around 165,000, Cairns is a moderate size city but still has a typical Australian "laid back" attitude, unlike larger cities such as Sydney.
Photo curtesy of The Cairns Post
We sailed into Cairns at 1:00 PM. The weather was the typical wet season, cloudy and misty. We had an excursion at 2:30 for the Cairns Aquarium. It was only about a 10 minute ride the modern facility. This aquarium was built in 2017, twelve years after our last visit.
First, I would like to introduce our new cabin steward, Ujjwal. Ujjwal came on board in Sydney to replace Raymond who had completed his contract. Ujjwal is from Nepal and of the 50 nationalities onboard, he is the only Nepalese. He is doing an excellent job assisting Aldrin, and we look forward for him being with us to our cruise's completion. Although Ujjwal has been sailing since 2017, he said he is still uncomfortable with the ship's movement. I joked that they don't have much ocean access in Nepal.
As we were debarking in Cairns, our restaurant manager, Antonio was on hand ,as always, greeting passengers and offering assistance. Antonio is always smiling and makes our day brighter. I joke that he never sleeps. I see him daily in every restaurant. This morning he was in the World Cafe before 6:00 AM while I was getting coffee. I then saw him at breakfast at 8:00 AM and at the pier. Lastly I saw him at dinner in the Restaurant at 7:30 this evening.
We made the quick 10 minute drive to the Cairns Aquarium.
I took a lot of photos, but not many were really good due to the low light, glass glare and just the crowd. I will share a few.
We walked back to the ship instead of taking the shuttle. It took about the same amount of time.
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