holiday weekend.

in australia, public holidays for easter include good friday and easter monday.  in fact, we learned that while most places are open on easter, most places were closed on good friday.  which actually makes more sense since Jesus was actually crucified on friday so they look at it more as a day of respect.  anyway, either way, we had a four day weekend to celebrate easter.  so, we decided to take advantage and take a trip to cairns (pronounced cannes).

cairns is about an 8 hour drive from mackay so we left right after work on thursday and split the trip up with a stop in townsville on the way there.  most of the drive on the way to townsville was spent in darkness, but we got a couple cool photos the following morning on the way to cairns.

cool rainbow since we were in the rainforest and, well, it rained.

the trip would not be complete without a little breathalyzer test.  that's right, at around 11am we were motioned over to take a mandatory test.

thankfully, we passed on those early morning shots.  kidding!!

when we arrived in cairns we went straight to the golf course.  since i had the rest of our weekend planned with other activities jim made sure that we squeezed in a round at paradise palms.  this course was AMAZINGLY beautiful and our golf games weren't half bad either.  i think i finally found my groove with my drives, and jim found his again after his hamilton island setback.

on saturday we went to the infamous kuranda.  kuranda is a little town and market in the middle of the rainforest.  All the locals and anyone you talk to about going to cairns recommends that you go here.

here is a little history:

we began our journey to kuranda on an old fashioned scenic train ride.

when we reached the market we were a little disappointed mainly because it was very overcrowded and we wanted some more authentic goods as opposed to the normal cheesy souvenir shops, but it did have some charm that we enjoyed.

and was a slight bit mullet-y...

the best part of the day was our journey home.  we took the sky rail which provided GORGEOUS views of the barron river and cairns.

jim was a little less enthused as he was literally waiting for the cable to snap and us all fall to our death. silly boy...

overall, i am glad we did the kuranda "tour."  the skyrail made it all worth it!

this post got really long really fast so i will post again VERY soon about the rest of our weekend.  i'll give you a hint, though:  the three beginning letters of each word are GBR!!!