G’day Mate! 👋🏼 In July this year my family and I popped over the other side of the ditch for a holiday in Port Douglas, Australia. 🇦🇺
It felt great to escape the bitter Auckland winter and enter Northern Australia’s winter… if that’s what you can call it. With a temperature of 25 degrees by 7:00 in the morning, it proved hard to believe we were in the middle of winter! ☀️
Our accommodation in Port Douglas – Mandalay Apartments
It was warm enough to go for a walk along the famous 4-mile beach, watching the sunrise yogis and surfers, climb to the top of the lookout and go swimming in the pool – all before breakfast!
The lookout point 
View of 4 mile beach from the lookout point
With the pressure of school internals, dance exams, and of course preparing for my exchange, I had not had the time to sit down and read a book, until we came to Port Douglas. We were on island time! 🌴 One of the many highlights of this trip was certainly being able to wake up, get out of bed, jump into my togs, grab a good book and sit by the pool reading (while tanning… or burning) while the rest of my family slept in.
However, no good book could beat one of the 7 natural wonders of the world I was lucky enough to visit… Great Barrier Reef. 🐠
We decided to go on this adventure through the awesome company ‘Reef Sprinter.’ Travelling at a speed of 80km/h on the jet boat out to the reef we had no time to be seasick! In under 20 minutes we had reached Low Isles and were ready to go snorkelling! But first, our tour group of 12 moved from the jet boat to the glass-bottom boat where we saw huge clams on the sea floor, the vibrant coral colours, and a sea turtle! Once we set up on the beach, we put our snorkelling gear on and hit the water.
The two hours in the water just flew by when I realised I was the only person left in our tour group in the water… I didn’t want to get out! Over these couple of hours I saw a sea turtle (pictured above), the vibrant orange, greens and reds of the coral, many strikingly colourful fish (including Nemo and Dory), large sea clams and most memorably, a peaceful reef shark cruising along the sea floor. 🦈
The tour guides soon called me out of the water and our group were ready to go for a walk around the island. Despite being fortunate enough to view and listen to the native birds, watch some turtles bobbing along the surface of the water, and visit the giant lighthouse, there was definitely one truly memorable moment of this tour… visiting the shed in which Australian legend Steve Irwin passed away in. This tragic event took place on the 4th of September 2006 after the barb of a stingray pierced his heart multiple times. When we were given this information the mood in our tour group completely shifted. However, we all felt honoured to have this opportunity to have a greater understanding of the rich, precious history of the island, and the significance it held for Australia.
Low Isles Lighthouse 
The shed in which Steve Irwin passed away
Another highlight of this trip was the ‘Skyrail Rainforest Cableway.’ We took the Gondola on the way up to Kuranda, stopping off for short periods of time at multiple points such as the Barron Falls and lookout point (pictured below.)
The view from the Gondola 
Barron Falls 
Lookout point
Once we made it to Kuranda we stopped off at the Wildlife Zoo and saw the kangaroos, wallabies, snakes, birds and of course, koalas. 🐨 By that point we were all pretty hungry, so took a detour to the ‘Petit Cafe Kuranda’ situated amid the busy liveliness of the Kuranda markets.
Savoury crepe from ‘Petit Cafe’ 
KOALA!
From Kuranda, we travelled back down to the base of the Skyrail via the charmingly vintage train. This cableway reached 7.5km, running above Barron Gorge National Park in Queensland’s World Heritage Area.
Overall, this trip was a surreal experience in which I had the opportunity to connect with the locals and learn more about Australia’s rich culture. It was an incredibly memorable trip and I can’t wait to go back one day soon… hopefully. 🤞🏼
Hayley 🙂
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