We made it to Cairns on time!


When we were planning our initial itinerary our daughter and son-in-law decided that they would bring 

Three smiley faces in Cairns Airport

our three grandchildren from New Zealand and meet us for a couple of weeks. After lots of discussions of when and where it was decided that we would meet for a week in Cairns followed by another week in Port Douglas arriving on Tuesday, 19 July.

As we left Melbourne on the 4th July we decided to take an inland route and plan to arrive in Cairns by Monday 18th July so that we could be set up in a camping ground before we go to the airport for their 10.30 am arrival.

So the good news is that we have made it! We woke to a beautiful morning and another visit from the feisty cassowary. I stayed well out of his way and it was quite a challenge for Peter to pack up the chairs etc and bring the awning in. We left Babinda stopping in the small shopping center to spend a few dollars in support of this small town that was so badly affected by the cyclone. As we only had sixty kilometers to travel we stopped off again at another small area called Gordonvale. Peter was keen to visit a hardware shop to buy some plastic pipe to fix the waste water as we had broken the pipe possibly as we drove over some roadkill in the outback. There wasn't a hardware but the lady in the pool shop was extremely helpful and had the right stuff and Pete was able to fix the problem.

We could book into Coconut Resort from midday and we arrived just before. This is the only five star caravan park in Australia and I had originally seen it on Getaway on television. The park has all the facilities you could ask for and lots of entertainment for children including watersides, pools, etc. On arrival we were taken on a tour of the park on a golf cart! We had a few challenges putting up the annex for the first time with this van, but all done now. It is great to have warm temperatures and a holiday atmosphere - it reminds me so much of being in Fiji as there are coconut palms all around the park.

We have spoken with Jake and Zoe today (Tim was out on the farm helping Dad with the final chores) - they are all packed and ready to come. They have an early start as they have to be up at 3 am to drive to Auckland to meet their early morning flight. We are so looking forward to sharing their holiday with them.