Tuesday, July 21, 2015

A Butterfly Birthday in Kuranda

It was July 6th - Day 10 - and Chy-Anne's birthday. We booked ourselves a day trip on the Kuranda Scenic Railway from Cairns to Kuranda (known as the village in the rainforest). The village is located in Far North Queensland and is surrounded by World Heritage Rainforest. 

On the Scenic Railway to Kuranda


We were all quite happy to be wearing shorts and tanktops - bring on the heat!

Cairns has many mountains in its landscape

Still love seeing the palm trees

The view of the train from "Horseshoe Bend" - a 180 degree turn


The carriages date back to the early-1900s and are made of silky oak timber (a real piece of history!)

Bryce was counting how many tunnels we went through

We dove deeper into the world heritage-listed rainforest

8 tunnels now...by the end we had travelled through 15 handcarved tunnels


We passed over some impressive bridges (this one is Stoney Creek Falls Bridge)

Stoney Creek Falls 




View of Cairns and the ocean from high above


Barron Gorge

Down below is the Barron Gorge Hydroelectric Station

Robb's Monument

Barron Falls




We arrived in the village and had the whole day to explore



The view out the window at our lunch cafe

Canada shout-out! 

More great artwork on the walls of some buildings

Doongal Aboriginal Art and Artefacts

Chy-Anne chose the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary for our Kuranda activity - it was her birthday after all. It had some steep competition from the Venom Zoo and Birdworld...


This is the largest butterfly flight aviary and exhibit in Australia (and possibly the best in the world!)

The butterflies were attracted to bright and light colours and we often found them sitting on our hats, shirts or other parts

Liam really enjoyed it


That's a happy boy!



Chy's white shirt was a hit with the butterflies!















We even checked out the breeding laboratory







There was an exhibit and museum at the end



We all loved the butterflies and Chy had a great birthday surrounded by beautiful creatures...
and the butterflies weren't bad either!

Next Up: The Outer Great Barrier Reef

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