Tjapukai & Kuranda

Another beautiful day in Cairns Australia today.  We were picked up from the hostel this morning and brought to the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. I'll help you out with this one, it's pronounced like "jab-a-guy" or at least that's closer than what I was saying before.

The first part of our day was filled with different shows. A didgeridoo show,  theater performance of the aboriginal creation story, and then a Tjapukai dance performance.  I have to admit I was a little disappointed that neither Mesa or myself were chosen to go dance on stage. Ha, I think we would have done a good job. We also received an explanation of aboriginal food, medicines, hunting and weapons. We got to try our luck with spear and boomerang throwing too.  Unlike the blowdarts in the Amazon, spear throwing was a little more difficult. We didn't hit any of the targets, but we didn't do a horrible job either.  I think we were both a little better with the boomerangs!

We had a buffet lunch and then I went and bought a pretty decent sized didgeridoo that is being shipped home. Mom & Dad it's coming to your house! So watch for it. You'll need to open it if it comes before I come home because if it's damaged I need to report it within 48 hours. It's pretty cool. Brings me back to my band geek days, only this seems a little more difficult to play. I did get a little private lesson from the guy in the shop of how to play it. Maybe you can all try your luck at Christmas!

After Tjapukai we took the Skyrail up to Kuranda. It's a 4.7 mile cableway that was built in 1995 that brings you right over the rainforest. I read that all of the towers were lifted into place by helicopter to avoid disturbance of the rainforest. The tallest point on the cableway is at the Red Peak Station - 1,788 feet high.

The views were spectacular. Everything was so green. We saw the Barron Falls waterfall and the Barron River and were able to get out and go to a few different lookout points before getting into Kuranda.

Kuranda village is pretty quaint, and full of cute little streetside shops. We walked around for a bit and did a little shopping before catching the Kuranda Scenic Railway to bring us back down. There were 15 tunnels to go through and the views were impressive. The railway officially opened in 1891 to serve the bustling gold fields.

We made it back to the hostel around dinner time and now we need to repack our bags as we leave for Alice Springs in the morning. I don't know if we are going to have WiFi access while we are there (we definitely won't have it in the outback) but I will still write the blog and just post all updates once I can connect again.