But a distant memory

We got back to Aotearoa barely 2 weeks ago, but already our short sojourn in Far North Queensland seems like a long time ago. Where to start? Perhaps a run-down of some good and not-so-good stuff.

Good stuff: Australian prawns - yum! way better than we get here;  Mango smoothies - the ones at Soul 'n'Pepper in Port Douglas were fabulous (smoothie and prawns pictured); the Kuku-Yalanji tour at Mossman; the stunning Kuranda skyrail trip over the rainforest and sleepy Kuranda itself (even despite the tourist trap that was Main Street); the Great Barrier Reef - justly feted and teeming with life; the Daintree rain-forest - like the reef, it is a World Heritage site and equally fascinating; Cairns - perhaps a surprising inclusion given its luke-warm description in most guide-books; Rehab cafe in Port Douglas - amid a bunch of over-priced and sometimes mediocre eateries, this cafe was a real find and they even sold NZ's own Supreme coffee; and the amazing bird and animal life (like the rainbow lorikeet pictured below).

Not-so-good stuff: By a country mile, the no 1 not-so-good thing was the weather. The first 2 days we were there it was sunny and hot (as pictured below in the shot of the harbour at Port Douglas), as were the last 2. While it was warm the remaining 5 days, it was also overcast (as during our trip to the Daintree pictured below) and pretty windy, which didn't exactly make for a fun beach holiday (which is a shame, because there looked to be some pretty nice beaches around, including Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas). Runners-up in this category include Port Douglas itself - we were clearly spoiled by our wonderful trip to Fiji last year and this fairly charmless town, which was 'tastefully' developed from an earlier fishing village, was no comparison. Given that the weather meant we couldn't really spend our days idling on the beach, this was a bit of a problem as there wasn't a lot else going for it. Some of the restaurants - OK we expected to maybe pay a bit more in some places, but we also expected it to be good. We had a run of bad luck and struck a few places that were both over-priced and mediocre to poor. If you're ever in this neck of the woods avoid the following places like the plague (unless very drunk): Going Bananas and Zai Japanese restaurant.

Other random stuff: the coverage of Olympics from an almost totally Australian perspective. My favourite was gob-smacked Sally McLellan who won the silver-medal in the 100m women's hurdles, who wasn't sure where she'd placed at the finish and then completely freaked out when she found out she was 2nd - 'did you see me? did you see how pumped I was?' Hilarious. You can check it out here

Coming soon to a post near you: pictures and ruminations on Kuku-Yalanji, Kuranda, the Daintree, Great Barrier Reef and Cairns v Port Douglas.