Magical Far North Queensland

Words and Photos: April Pressler, FCA Member

Winning the Tourism Australia (TA) prize of two return air tickets to anywhere in Australia at last year’s FCA Christmas Party was wonderful! It provided me with the opportunity to visit Cairns and one of my favourite regions of Australia – Far North Queensland (FNQ). My last visit there was in 2014 with then Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd in 2014, when we took 100 Ambassadors from Canberra plus foreign and Australia media on a familiarisation tour to Brisbane and FNQ. My 2024 visit was even better, as I enjoyed six splendid August days in the region, where it was sunny and 28 degrees every day, and took one of my friends, Gwen.  TA’s Senior PR Executive, Will Cook, organised our tickets perfectly and we flew Qantas from Sydney to Cairns and back, in comfort and without problems. I arranged accommodation for six nights (just $800 total) at a 5-star Airbnb at Edge Hill in north Cairns. It was ideal and immaculate, with a charming apartment and very helpful host, Christine, who had thought of everything anyone would need on holiday in the ground floor apartment (one of two at the location), set in tropical gardens. We were just a five minute walk to Edge Hill shops, where we found the world’s best bakery with the freshest, most delicious pastries, fabulous coffee and more. Beside a small supermarket that had everything we needed, there were some top restaurants at Edge Hill – and we found it was just a 10-minute walk to the beautiful Cairns Botanic Gardens! And it was only a 10-minute taxi or Uber ride into town, or Cairns city. We were so lucky too that it was the annual Cairns Festival, which meant we had extra things to see, including some wonderful art exhibitions at gorgeous galleries in the city, and a festive air everywhere we went, with colourful lights decorating the streets and along Cairns Esplanade. We took a ride on the Cairns Eye right on the Esplanade, alongside the water – a gigantic Ferris wheel, like London’s Eye, which gave us a huge view of Cairns. Restaurants and food in Cairns were top quality and we found Vitalia, the best Italian restaurant outside Italy with amazing food. We had organised a number of tours before we left Sydney, so our program was set to go from the first day after arrival. We went to the beautiful uninhabited Normanby Island in the Frankland Islands group, about an hour by boat from Cairns, and we snorkelled in the warm blue waters, relaxed in the sun on the pristine, white sand, took a glass-bottom boat tour around the reef – which was in good condition with beautiful fish and corals. The tour operator organised a wonderful lunch of seafood, salads, fresh fruit and much more, with an endless supply of cool, clear water for drinking! We also took a tour to the magnificent Mossman Gorge and rainforest walks, a boat down the Daintree River to see a crocodile called Lumpy (according to our boat skipper), beaches, and the exquisite Port Douglas. We went up to the beautiful rainforest area of Kuranda on the historic train, visited the butterfly sanctuary there, had lunch, checked out the shops, Aboriginal art gallery and more, and went back to Cairns on the Skyrail, with sensational views as we descended the mountains back to Cairns. Our visit to the Cairns Botanic Gardens was so magical – the tropical flowers, trees and other plants are wonderful and it is such a colourful, relaxing and cool place to be. It even has an excellent café plus amazing art galleries housed in gigantic round concrete tanks that used to store oil that was shipped to Cairns back in the day.  Our final night was a luxury catamaran dinner cruise on Cairns Harbour – fantastic! About 70 people, individual tables with white tablecloths, table service for drinks – and a brilliant buffet of virtually everything anyone might feel like eating. It was an amazing way to end a wonderful holiday in FNQ. On the last day, our super kind Airbnb host, Christine, even took us to the airport for our Qantas flight back to Sydney.

Thank you so much to Tourism Australia – and the FCA!