Tropical Beaches and Reef

Cairns, the gateway to two World Heritage Sites: the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics of Queensland. And you’re about to see both. Take it easy today, because the next few are going to be jam-packed with adventures. 

It’s not quite James Bond, but your high-speed catamaran over the Great Barrier Reef is certainly thrilling. Pause to snorkel over immense fans of coral, a verdant habitat for six of the world’s sea turtles as well as so many fish you won’t know where to look. If you prefer to keep your head above water, the marine world can also be glimpsed from an underwater observatory and glass-bottom boat. 

And now for that second World Heritage Site. Enjoy perspective of the Wet Tropics on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, lifting you above and through the canopy of the Barron Gorge National Park to Kuranda. The Atherton Tablelands awaits, this high tropical plateau a tangle of dense forest – look out for the heritage listed Curtain Fig Tree – where waterfalls drop from high escarpments. Millaa Millaa Falls is among the most dramatic, a natural magnet for iridescent Ulysses butterflies. 

Some days, the journey matters just as much as the destination. Sit back and enjoy the scenery as you travel south through sugar cane fields and rolling green paddocks, all framed by the ocean and rainforest-clad mountains. Stretch your legs en route to Airlie Beach and soak up this steamy part of the state. 

Sand, sun and seriously dreamy vistas are your outlook exploring the Whitsundays, 74 tropical drops of land all ringed by the Coral Sea. There are endless ways to take in this part of the Great Barrier Reef – today, we’re letting you choose. Perhaps rise early for an optional helicopter ride over Heart Reef. Or catch a catamaran to Whitehaven Beach, with sand so high in silica it squeaks underfoot. Decisions, decisions. 

Your day starts on a natural high as you venture into Sarina, Australia’s sugar capital. Your guided tour takes you behind the scenes of processing and distilling sugar cane at the Sarina Sugar Shed. And yes, you get to sample the wares. You’ll be bouncing off your seat all the way to Rockhampton, another town with a big title: this is the country’s beef capital. See if it deserves its accolade at any of the restaurants that line the streets. Ask us for dining tips. 

More beef awaits after you cross the Tropic of Capricorn to the Creed family’s Langmorn Station. If you’ve ever wanted to learn about life on the land, this is your chance – the Creeds have endless anecdotes to share over afternoon tea and a tour. Your next destination involves water. Lots of it. The ferry ride to World Heritage listed K’gari (Fraser Island) is a highlight, particularly during whale migration when these gentle giants come to the calm, protected waters to calve. Alight on the world’s largest sand island, and the only place in the world where rainforest grows from the sand. 

The island also has a really long sand highway. Jump in a 4WD and zip along 75 Mile Beach, all the way up the east coast to the Pinnacles Coloured Sands, calm Eli Creek and the Maheno shipwreck, which offers quite the photo opportunity. Just when you thought the island couldn’t get any prettier, Lake McKenzie appears on the horizon, this dazzling patch of blue formed only with rainwater. It’s a hard act to follow, but the ancient rainforest at Central Station and Wanggoolba Creek lives up to the challenge with its huge satiny, scribbly gum and kauri trees.

Back on the mainland, follow the waves of Hervey Bay south to the Gold Coast, where you can be surfing one minute and surrounded by rainforest the next. This is where we say goodbye, but you don’t have to – this sparkling Queensland city has 70 kilometres of coastline to explore