TRAVEL INFORMATION

Scott's Roadtrip - Part V

TIME TO DAYDREAM AND EXPERIENCE CAIRNS

With his adventurous family including wife Kerry and two children Billy (8) and Eloise (6), bestselling author and travel writer SCOTT PODMORE hightails it from the deep south of Victoria for Queensland’s east coast on an unforgettable road trip. This is the fifth of a five-part blog series ‘On The Road Again’, exclusive to Tourism Queensland.

WITH another lengthy road trip on the agenda, we decided to break up the Mackay to Cairns leg of the journey with a stopover in Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsundays.

Though it’s only a short-ish trip of less than two hours, it’s a place well worth marking down on your itinerary; we could have stayed for a year, let alone a few days. It really is quite amazing for the adventure and fun that can be had in the town itself, the views and the friendly people, but the allure of the experiences that await in Australia’s world renowned national treasure simply known as The Whitsundays, a group of more than 70 islands off the central coast of Queensland, is irresistible.

We decided to live it up a little and give the DriveNow campervan a break by scooting out to Daydream Island for pampering and play after a relaxed afternoon and night at the Big4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort – one of the best holiday parks in Australia. This place is one with the lot, and is more a mini resort than holiday park.

Daydream Island is definitely a place for families, more so than a romantic escape, and the kids couldn’t have possibly had any more fun. They tore into the resort’s activities that included guided fish feeding, the stingray splash and the Living Reef Rangers Club. In saying that, for us grown-ups, Daydream Rejuvenation Spa was the ideal “trip-breaker” for some seriously good massage and other treatments in a beautiful, calming environment …. while the kids went totally nuts outside! It provided them with a magical world to indulge in and us with the perfect R&R to recharge our batteries.

On that note, we collected our camper after a night on Daydream and swiftly swung back on the road again. Thanks to a few tried and tested activities with the kids on long journeys, the eight-hour trip seemed to race past as we made our way to sunny Cairns.

Cairns can have a tropical kind of heat that tests southerners, but it didn’t take us long to adapt. We set up camp at Cool Waters Holiday Park (the name alone led us there), a four-star beauty just out of town in a quiet and peaceful spot. Ancient trees, towering palms and beautiful gardens make for a shady, cool atmosphere and the park itself is clean, roomy and boasts first-rate facilities.  It was the launch pad from which we could explore all that Cairns and surrounds had to offer us adventurous Victorians, including the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway and Kuranda rainforest, Paronella Park (Spanish castle in the rainforest!), a huge outdoor swimming pool park and play area at Cairns Lagoon and plenty of lazy time spent moseying around town checking out the eateries and shops.

We all decided it was time to start winding our way back down the east coast to explore some of the places we didn’t have time to see on the way up … even then we knew would have to return to discover all the others we had missed again!

 

 

NEARBY HIGH 5:

1. Daydream Island on the Whitsundays, an oldie but a goodie that is ideal for young families with loads of activities for the kids. Stingray Splash activity will blow your mind as the stingrays lap around your feet like puppies ready for a feed and the mermaid statues on the beach will stay with the kids forever. 
2. Adventure Whitsunday Resort, arguably Australia’s finest holiday park. 
3. Paronella Park, south of Cairns – a castle and a park “built on the dreams of a true visionary and romantic”. A Spanish Castle that blends in with the rainforest. 
4. Cairns to Kuranda Rainforest Tour. Wow. The Skyrail Rainforest Cableway is an experience that can’t be missed.
5. Cairns Lagoon. A big swimming pool area right in the heart of Cairns CBD is abuzz all day long. Also has some craft markets worth strolling through.