Cairns

By the end of our stay we were getting sick of the bad weather and of Port Douglas (in particular its overpriced eateries and smug character). So we hired a very cute little car and tootled down the very lovely Captain Cook highway to Cairns. On the way, we called in to some of Cairns' Northern Beaches, which, while beautiful, were suffering from the same windy weather as Port Douglas. It was like being back in Wellington ... except with sand.

And lo, the sun came out the further south we drove, so we ended up finding some sunny weather after all. We also checked out the boardwark on the waterfront, some very fine galleries and some very fine (and not overpriced) lunch. Cairns gets a big thumbs up from me, despite the snooty comments people made about it back in Port.