THE MOORES HOLIDAY TO CAIRNS....

 Sarah and Colin have been planning a rather special family holiday for two years now. Sarah has been putting away regular savings each week so that they could have this holiday.  They were fortunate enough to snap up a deal with extra money supplied by the government for excursions which actually allowed them to do a few extra excursions.  

Their special deal allowed them 10 nights accomodation in a Hotel right on the beach front with breakfast included each day, along with their air fairs, a hire car for 6 days, 2 days snorkling on the Great Barrier Reef, a visit to Hartley's Crocodile Sanctuary, a visit to Koala Word and Bird World at Kuranda.

The rest of the time, they visited the local attractions around the area, including, the water falls, and Josphine Falls, Babinda Boulders, the Crater Lakes and Crystal Cascades.  Their time went all too quickly and there is still so much they didn't get to see.  In fact, I am sure they plan to go back and visit again in the very near future...

 Day 1 saw them heading to the Airport.  The kids were pretty excited as it has been a while since they have flown anywhere.  In fact Max probably would have had very little recollection of ever flying, although as a baby he has flown quite a lot especially when we flew to Denmark in 2016 when he was 6 months old...

At the airport ready to take off...

Willow and Sarah at the airport.

Willow and Max on the plane....

Day 2 was spent just relaxing and getting their bearings around where they were staying.. They hotel room had wonderful views of the beach and ocean,  they enjoyed a full on cooked breakfast each morning in the hotel restaurant.  I think Sarah more than anyone appreciated this.  Just getting up getting dressed and walking downstairs where everything was taken care of for you.  Not preparing and no cleaning up.  A real treat...

They then wandered into town to have a bit of a look around,   had a swim on the beach front in the lovely pool there, a play in the playground...  A swim in the pools back at the resort and dinner out at the restaurant...

Great breakfasts in the hotel restaurant each morning..

A swim in the pool's resort..

Enjoying the swimming in the pool at the resort..

The views from their balcony

Beach front in Cairns

Wandering along the board walk in Cairns..

Sarah and Willow on the balcony at the resort.

Day 3 saw them head out to on their Great Adventures  Outer Reef  Tour for a day snorkling on the Great Barrier Reef.  This was to be one of the highlights for them.  They walked down to where the tour company left from.  The tour included both morning and afternoon tea and lunch so they didn't need to pack anything other than their togs, raz shirts and gear for a day at out on the water...

They had invested in a special snorkel mask for Max so that he could enjoy the day without having to stress about a mouth piece, goggles and snorkel.  It was all built into his face mask.  It did it's job well...

Mas absolutely loved this day, he loved snorkeling alongside the fish and even enjoyed the large fish swimming by.  Willow was not as keen and the big fish freaked her out a little...

Heading off for their great adventure

Sarah and Willow on the boat

Max and Colin on the boat...

A family photo... heading to Outer Reef on the Great Barrier Reef...

Getting on their wet suits and getting ready to snorkel on the reef...

They saw some amazing big fish..

Sarah snorkeling on the reef

Willow snorkeling on the reef

They saw some amazing fish and coral

Day 4 was the day that they got to pick up their hire car which they had booked for the next 6 days.  Today they decided to venture a bit further afield and head down and check out Josphine Falls and the Babinda Boulders...

They loved Josephine Falls and had an absolute ball sliding down the rocks into the pools of water below...

Some massive butterflies were seen around here..

The sliding fun begins.  They spend a couple of hours exploring and enjoying this beautiful area...

From Josephine Falls they headed to Babinda Boulders.  This is a beautiful area and the walk along the boulders is really not that long.  You cannot swim in the rock pools along the track, but there is a lovely swimming area back at the picnic area and they all enjoyed a dip in the water here...

Day 5 saw them head back out onto the water again for another snorkeling adventure.  Today they were heading to Green Island with the hope of seeing and snorkeling with the turtles.  They were not disappointed.  

The water was a little rougher today and Max found it a little harder being out in the water.  He was a little scared and after seeing and swimming with a turtle was keen to go back onto dry land.  Willow enjoyed this day a lot more and really enjoyed seeing all the turtles...

Heading out to Green Island for another snorkeling adventure

Green Island

They got to swim with the turtles today..

The children were totally exhausted by the time their day was over and both of them fell asleep on the boat on their way back home.

Day 6 saw them head up onto the Atherton Tableland where they went to visit the Crater Lakes.  They headed to Lake Barrine where they enjoyed morning tea and a walk around park of the lake.  You are unable to swim at Lake Barrine as it contains an algae that prevents them from allowing people to swim there...

Beautiful scenery

Lake Barrine

The restaurant at Lake Barrine where they enjoyed morning tea

A totally relaxed Willow

Enjoying her scone..

Max enjoyed his also...

From here they headed to Lake Eacham where they were actually able to swim.  They did not tell the kids though that there is a resident Croc that lives here.  After Willow's reaction with the fish on their snorkeling day, they felt it was better that she was left ignorant of the fact...

Ready for a swim at Lake Eacham

Time for a swim...

Willow ready to have a swim

From here they took a little drive to check out another famous tourist attraction within the vicinity. The big Curtain Tree Fig is quite famous and now heritage listed.

Day 7 was a big day as they had three tours booked for ttoday.  Their first was a visit to the Hartley's Crocodile Sanctuary. before heading up to Kuranda to visit both the Koala Sanctuary and then Bird World.

Max having his photo taken with the huge snake at Hartley's Crocodile Sanctuary.

They got to meet Pyscho Sally, the massive Burmese Python who was so huge that it could easily have swallowed a human.

They then boarded the boat to go out on the Crocodile tour, where the Croc was lured to jump for his feed.  This one wasn't too enthusiastic to jump too high, and had to be coaxed several times to get him to perform. 

From here it was up to Kuranda to visit Koala World.  Max was pretty keen to go here because he wanted to see a Quokka.   Normally you can only see these little animals on Rottnest Island off from Perth.  These are one of Max's favourite animals sot a visit here was definitely on the list of places to visit for Max. 

Max's favourite little animal at the moment...

From Koala World they wandered over to Bird World.  Again Max loved it here and Loved the birds.  Willow wasn't so keen.  She really didn't want them landing on her at all.

This little chicken was not too keen on the birds landing on her....

They had a great day and the kids were pretty  tired by the time they got home. 

 Day 8 - They should have delivered the car back but decided to keep it for one more day so that they could explore some more of the waterfalls on the Atherton Tableland.  They still had so many places to visit whilst up in this area of Queensland but time was running out...They ended up at Millaa Millaa Falls, Zillie Falls and Ellinjaa Falls.  All close by although they only got to swim at two of them.  Both Millaa Millaa and Ellinjaa Falls you were able to swim at and the water was freezing.  To get to Zillie Falls, there was quite a steel hike down to them, but definitely worth the climb as the views and the mist those falls created made for great photos. 

Ellinjaa Falls

Zillie Falls

Millaa Millaa Falls

Day 9 - the car went back today, so it was a bit of a rest day.  The last week has been totally full on, so it was nice to have a quieter day before heading home tomorrow.  It gave them a chance to get the packing started.  

There were some pretty awesome kids playgrounds across the road from the resort so a good part of the day was spent with the kids just playing at these parks before heading back to the beach front and having a swim in the wonderful lagoon on the water's edge in Cairns.

By now Max was pretty confident to swim in the pool on his own, so once they got back to the resort, Sarah was able to relax beside the pool with a good book whilst the kids had one last swim in the pool at the resort.

Relaxing by the pool whilst the kids had a swim

Views of Cairns from their balcony

Very happy tourists...

Day 10 - And with that their holiday has come to an end... The time has absolutely flown, but the memories will last a lifetime...  

The kids loved their holiday and loved even more that their Dad made a video for them for all the highlights from their time away.

I must admit I have enjoyed watching it also... You can see it here...

What a great keepsake for them...