Day 5 North QLD - Kuranda Butterfly Sanctuary

As if we weren't getting enough butterflies in nature, I've had a longing for ages to go to a butterfly sanctuary so it was bye bye to cairns and off further north to kuranda but not before checking out the big things cairns has to offer...

The Big Marlin and the Big Captain Cook!

Captain Cook was easy to find, along the hwy and as I'd previously snapped a picture with him (above) so I knew the deal. Unfortunately he is now all fenced off which made the shot a little bit less pretty (below)

The marlin on the other hand was an elusive beast, well not really but he was outside a shopping centre and I got my shopping centres mixed up but never fear, after chatting to a lovely but nervous older gentlemen he lead me to the big fish!

2 more ticked off the list!

Off to kuranda we go!

You probably know where this post is headed, pics of butterflies!

See this dude's tattered wings it means he doesn't have long left. The more frantic butterflies have the shortest life span because they use their wings too much! The lazy ones, even some that hibernate, live the longest, a nice comparison to life and stress really!

Before going I did intensive ten minute googling on what butterflies are attracted to, colour wise. In my head they were all going to flock to me in some disney-esque moment. I read about pink and red being the winners but I feel I got wrongly told! You see, butterflies see in UV light, think of when you go bowling and that friend wearing the white shirt glows up! Well that's the trick people. Ultimately I think a white hat with a white flower on top would be the best...you heard it from the source! :P

The actually sanctuary is just one room, quite small but the photographer in me could have stayed for hours and hours, Ben left and I soon followed. As you walk out they had glass displays of butterflies and moths *gasp* Ben had to wait quite a while for me :P

And that was how we spent our Wednesday morning :)

Now I want to collect butterflies!

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Day 4 North Qld - Great Barrier Reef

So it was time to say goodbye to Mission beach (for now anyway) and head further up North to Cairns to go snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef! It was one of my favourite things I did last time I was up here so made sure to go back!

As we were waiting in cue I had judgments on the operator we choose as they were straight out rude to some Asian travellers to whom English was obviously a second language. That made me sad to be Australian, especially when travelling to Japan when I had no Japanese and yet I was made to feel so welcomed!

So yeah I wouldn't recommend the Osprey charter purely for that reason alone....anyhoo, people suck but nature doesn't and it wasn't too long before we were out on the reef!

Our first reef was Normans reef, they tell you to stay in a certain area so they can keep an eye on you, which is good for me because I'm a really poor swimmer.  I made sure to wear every safety precaution they could give me. I watched the first few peeps jump into the water, they seem to struggle a bit with the current, so I made sure to try and get off to a good start and swim in the opposite current direction. I obviously swam to far.  Apparently (though I didn't know this at the time) the lookout man kept blowing his whistle at me to tell me I was too far out..opps!

The last time I'd been to the Great Barrier Reef it was a beautiful fine day, which made swimming conditions perfect. Today's swimming conditions, were quite scary for me, so I went back to the boat and hoped on the "safety ring ride" lol. I think this was only meant to be for kids, but the guy pulling the ring, seemed happy enough for me to hop on with the others! Ben and I eventually found out later that there was a huge storm in cairns whilst we were out.  Causing a shopping centre to be evacuated because of flooding.  That made me feel slightly less weiner like!

despite the conditions, it was actually very pretty beneath the water!

Whilst I snorkeled like the weiner I am, Ben went scuba diving for the first time and loved it!

Pretty Coral!

So many colourful fishes, I think this was taken at our second reef for the day, Hastings reef, much calmer so no need to be pulled along :P

Our brochure promised us Elvis playing didgeridoo. Well the man' name was Elvis, but unlink my visions he wasn't in costume, though he didgeridoo skills weren't bad. His jokes were though and that combined with some weird arrogance/meanness rated him low on the tour guide rating system!

We got back into cairns late in the arvo, wandered around

cute shop!

and then found our accommodation for the night at Traveller's Oasis, which I would definitely recommend!

cute decor, reasonable prices and friendly staff made it a win win!

they recommended we head to the woolshed for dinner, clearly a backpackers dream, but it suited our old people-ness just fine :)

Cairns was good to us!

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