Cairns: meet the bizarre and beautiful Great Barrier Reef locals
A UNIQUE aquarium and family friendly cruise offer a great introduction to one of the world’s seven natural wonders.
Inner South
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YOU’LL find much more than Nemo at Cairn’s one-of-a-kind aquarium.
The attraction houses more than 15,000 animals from the bizarre (giant burrowing cockroaches) to the deadly (highly toxic stonefish).
It was designed to showcase the plants, animals and habitats found only in Far North Queensland.
GOURMET GETAWAY ON THE MORNINGTON PENINSULA
Founders Daniel Leipnik and Andrew Preston wanted to give visitors and locals a chance to experience and lean more about the unique region and its two World Heritage listed environments — the Daintree Rainforest and The Great Barrier Reef.
An afternoon at the aquarium was the perfect start to our Cairns adventure.
We spent hours exploring the unique habitats including rainforests, mangrove flats and coral reefs. We gazed in awe at catfish and giant prawns, freshwater sawfish, whip rays, sharks and box jelly fish — all no more than a hands span away.
Our guide Jenna Happy also took us behind the scenes to meet Dianne — a green turtle rescued off Moore Reef by Sunlover Reef Cruises dive staff.
“When she was found she had a big chunk including one of her back flippers and part of her shell were missing,” Ms Happy said.
After an eight month stint at the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre Dianne moved to the aquarium for the last stage of her recovery.
She was released back into the wild last week.
Inspired by Dianne’s story we joined Sunlover on their full day cruise to Moore Reef Pontoon to experience her backyard for ourselves.
It’s one of the best options for families wanting to get closer to the Great Barrier Reef with an enclosed kids pool for little ones to familiarise themselves with their fins and mask before venturing into deeper water.
The coral is just a few fin kicks from the edge of the pontoon and large buoys floating above the reef provide handy spots to rest and observe the marine life below.
We saw turtles just like Dianne from the semi-submersible and got hands on with sea cucumbers and starfish during a touch tank presentation.
However, it’s the theme park style water slide on the side of the pontoon that our six year old is still talking about.
He’s already planning a return visit for another attempt at breaking the 183 record run set by another youngster.
All the activities we enjoyed were including along with flotation vests, snorkelling gear and a tropical buffet lunch.
We also had the option of paying a little extra to go scuba diving, join snorkelling tours and see the reef from above in a helicopter.
The journalist’s visit to Cairns was supported by Cairns Aquarium and Sunlover Reef Cruises.
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