Visit to Cairns
 

Can anyone tell me how Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, Skyrail Rainforest Cableway and a visit to Kuranda are? Are they worth going to and missing an extra day or extra one-half day at the GBR?

Hello Loves_to_travel,

I haven't been to Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, but people here say it's interesting. It's close to the base of the Sky Rail that takes you to Kuranda, and I believe it would be possible to do Tjapukai as well as the trip to Kuranda in a single day. I enjoyed the Sky Rail ride, Kuranda itself, and the return trip down the escarpment by regular train. The Sky Rail departure point is easily accessible from Cairns and the small resort towns in Far North Queensland.

That said, I would not put Kuranda or, for that matter, ANYTHING ELSE, ahead of the GBR. The GBR is absolutely the #1 thing to see in the area, and the boat trip to a reef, snorkeling or diving at the reef, and the boat trip back, takes up the better part of a day.

The next priority in the area, after the GBR, is the tropical rainforest. There are other rainforest areas in FNQ, but the most popular one for day trips is the stretch between the Daintree River and Cape Tribulation. Again, this takes the better part of a day. It can be done as a self-drive exercise, but receiving explanations from a guide makes the rainforest and mangrove ecosystems more fascinating, so I recommend a guided day tour.

The next most interesting thing, after the GBR and Daintree, in my opinion, is the Sky Rail trip to Kuranda. That is how I would spend my third day in the area (and I think it would indeed be interesting to include Tjapukai in that package).

A potential challenge with your trip, as I see it, is that you said in another post that you would be in Cairns on December 23, 24 and 25. I haven't been in the area around Christmas, so I don't know if the tours, Sky Rail, etc., operate on Christmas Day.

Perhaps this is something that someone else would be able to clarify.

Yes, we arrive in Cairns about 11:00 a.m. on 23rd, so we have that afternoon free. We will be going on a 1/2 day trip to Green Island (through our tour company) and I do not yet know if this will be morning or afternoon. Again, we will have 1/2 day free to do other things or we can try to make this a full day on GBR. We are booked on an all day outing to the reef on Christmas Day, since it seems that nothing is open on that day. We will be able to snorkel and dive on that day. Since we already have 1 1/2 days on the reef I was wondering if we should try to do Skyrail and Kuranda on one of those days and the Aboriginal park on the other afternoon.

I don't want to be a wet blanket, but we found our excursion to Green Island a waste of time and money. When we were there it was run by a Japanese company with apparently the sole objective of separating their countrymen from their hard-earned yen while giving very little in return.

OK, now I've got that off my chest, can Pat or anyone who's visited GI lately tell me if I'm being a knocker?

Well, Loves_to_travel, as I said before, I would assign a higher priority to the Daintree forest than to Kuranda. I would go on a day tour to Daintree. If you are interested in pursuing that option, you might consider looking at Trek North's website at www.treknorth.com .

You could then spend your remaining half day at Tjapukai. Something you also might want to take into consideration is that Tjapukai offers a night show. Still another option is to skip the half day at Green Island and do a one day Kuranda - Skyrail - Tjapukai tour.

You might want to do a word search for Green Island here at Fodors. Neil is not the only person to have made negative comments about it. I've never been there, and know about it only from this forum. Apparently it used to be a great place once upon a time, but it reportedly has seen better days.

Sorry, Loves_to_travel, I was lazy and didn't check Trek North's URL before giving it to you in the previous post. It's actually

http://www.treknorth.com.au/

loves to travel - North Queensland is not too geographically far from SE Asia (although its north to us), therefore we have a lot of package tourists from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and more lately mainland China. The Japanese company, Daikyo, mainly caters for them and owns the resort on Green Island and Great Adventures which run large catamarans to Green Island and Norman Reef. Most of these tourists do not speak English. Green Island is a favourite with them because of its accessibility (its the only half-day reef experience), but unfortunately it is showing the signs of being loved to death. It's still a pretty beach, but the coral is degraded. A far nicer island experience is Frankland Islands, south of Cairns (pick-up at Cairns and Palm Cove accommodation) - said by locals to be "how Green Island was 30 years ago". Its serviced daily by only one much smaller boat and the islands are still pristine. But its a full day trip, at this stage, still running on Christmas Day. Whilst not strictly an island, easy snorkelling from sand cay at Michaelmas Cay full day trip is available with Ocean Spirit, and they are running on Christmas Day. There aren't a lot of half-day other options though, you would just have time to take Skyrail to Kuranda and return on train - to include Tjakupai you'd need a full day. To save time on Skyrail/Train trip International Coaches and Tours will pick you up at airport and deliver you and your luggage back to your accommodation - email is [email protected] Another half day trip which is hugely informative with professional naturalist guides, experts on flora, fauna and history of area is Cairns Discovery Tours - email [email protected] Fantastic value - a 5-6hour trip for AUD$56pp. Or you could consider a night-spotting native animal trip to tropical Tablelands with Wait-a-While - small groups, expert guides, picks up at about 2pm and gets you back by midnight.

The only reason we were going to Green Island is because it was included in our tour package. If it really is as bad as the boards say, maybe we should skip it. I looked at both Ocean Spirit Cruises and Quicksilver just a few minutes ago on the web. I really do not have to go to an island. We just want a good trip to the reef. I emailed just about every cruise/tour operator I could find about being open on Christmas and the only one to respond was Passions of Paradise. We have booked that on Christmas Day so we would have something to do. According to the web, both Tjapukai and the Skyrail are closed on Christmas. Do you suggest another trip to the GBR on the 24th or Tribulation/Dantree?

I forgot to mention that we can go for the entire day. The trip that was included was only 1/2 day.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the last 3 trips I mentioned are not running on Christmas Day. As mentioned, Ocean Spirit to Michaelmas is, I was speaking to them just this morning.

I'd go with Judy on first choice of GBR, then put Daintree over Kuranda/Skyrail. Another GREAT alternative to Daintree which gives plenty of Wet Tropics rainforest experience is Cairns hinterland - Wilderness Eco Safaris, it's a day trip where 4WD is actually necessary and Steve, the operator has permits for restricted roads so you don't see another tourist. www.wildernessecosafari.com

Hi loves_to_travel
Firstly In my opinion Kuranda, Tjapukai and the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway are well worth a visit. Ok its touristy and a little tacky however as a tourist its probably what we are looking for.
I personally didn't enjoy the train ride and would have taken the cable car both ways. In saying that many people like the train.
I guess you just have to make up your own mind on that one.
The Tjapukai theatre was interesting the Aboriginal dances were fun and my son was pulled up on stage to dance with them which raised a chuckle.

Moving swiftly on to Green Island, I have to agree with Neil its dreadful. It was the worst day of our first trip to Oz. Ok the beach was nice and the BBq on the boat was ok but the coral is just white. The island itself is packed full with hundreds of Japanese. There are; as Pat says far better islands to visit, there are plenty of reports on this forum about Green island, many bad.
My impression was that this island has been sacrificed to tourists to keep them from spoiling other parts of the reef, perhaps I am wrong but its how it seemed to me.
In order to see any quality reef we would have needed to book an additional trip from the Green island resort to the outer reef which seemed pretty pointless to me. Anyway you must decide for yourself.
One thing that amazed me was that the Japanese who stay on the resort overnight accept the onslought of day trippers, I would be pretty annoyed if I was staying on a seemingly exclusive island only to find hundreds of day trippers arriving to crowd the place out.
I hope you can decide for the best and enjoy the trip.
By the way Palm Cove is simply beautiful not sure if your going there but please try to do so.

Last year we were in Queensland for christmas and we chose to stay on Moreton island Tangalooma wild dolphin resort off Brisbane due to the possibility of dodgy weather further North, I am not sure if that was justified, Pat and Neil will fill us in on normal weather I am sure.
It was great and santa even found us there too ... :-)

Good luck

Muck

The train/sky rail/kuranda was a bit of a disappointment to me. My husband loved the sky rail though. The skyrail was the best part of the trip.

Kuranda has been ruined in my eyes. It is a town you question if any actual people live there. It seems to have 98% business geared to tourism. However it does have the cutest railway station.

We spent a long long time waiting in queue for the skyrail. When we got off at the other end we were told our transport back to town was another hour plus away. No-one told us about the regular bus that we found out about when we saw it disappear into the sunset. So we called a cab increasng the already high costs of our day out.

I guess it seemed to promise more than it delivered in my eyes but then other people rave about it so it is a question of what you are looking for.

Hi Jane - yes, agree with you about main street of Kuranda village - you could fire a gun through it after the last train/Skyrail leaves, but only a few minutes walk out of the village there's lovely rainforest scenery with walking trail. Barron Falls are spectacular in wet season. Butterfly sanctuary, Birdworld and The Aviary bird and reptile park are worth a visit - I prefer the less-visited Aviary which has only native creatures and there's wonderful pair of very gentle red-winged black cockatoos which will alight on your shoulder and "show you around". The scenery from Skyrail would be hard to beat and it goes over a different area to the train. There are now two different trains - the original was steam driven and was converted to diesel and has been running as a tourist train for years - there is now a an original steam locomotive train as well, runs from Freshwater Connection (not Cairns City station) to Kuranda and can also be combined with Skyrail.

Pat

Also.. Loves to Travel.

When I went through Barron Gorge it was quite dry. They had even stoppped the white water rafting trips.

but..

Loves to travel is going in Summer, potential wet season so then it could well be totally amazing. A very different experience to what I had. In fact in summer I would probably prefer that to another day on the reef.

At other times I would probably prefer another coastal experience.

So my recomendation would be to wait until the time. But the nature side of that trip is the best, not Kuranda or the train but rather the view from the train/skyrail. You see the gorge from different angles so maybe just one leg either the train or skyrail. Mind you if there is cyclonic winds I would give the skyrail a miss lol. the skyrail actually lets you out for a walk in rainforest along the way.

I also just read in this mornings newspaper about the raging Thunder. I had seen it advertised but never took any notice. Apparently you take the ferry for the day to Fiztroy Island. From there you take this speed boat type thing to the outer reef. It only takes 24 mins. Then snorkell away. Sounds fantastic and has given me reason to plan another journey :)

Unless Pat tells me it all sounds ten times better than it is!

Do try and see some rainforest, they is a fair bit about in pockets along the ranges north and south of Cairns. The Daintree is fantastic but really to a novice not that different from some areas I have seen.

loves_to_travel, are you by chance on a Globus tour? If so, we may be taking the same vacation with you!

Yes we are. It is the 17 day Independent tour starting in Sydney. Is that the same one that you are on?

We're on the same vacation! We're thrilled to be going.

Your ideas about where to visit are right along the same as ours; your research is further along than mine though. Look for the married couple with two tall red-headed teenagers - that's my family.

Hi Jane - that fast trip out to the reef is on something called Reef Rocket - known to the locals as the "submarine" as it sank on its first outing with about 45 passengers who had to be rescued by the crew of another boat at Upolo Cay (I think). Looks like they've got the bugs out of it now, hopefully. I don't know that a boat going at the speed it does is very conducive to the well-being of marine life, turtles would need to duck, but GBR Marine Park Authority must have given it the OK. Personally I'd prefer a more leisurely trip to reef, particularly in sailing catamaran such as Ocean Spirit, which will still get you to outer reef in one and a half hours.

Pat

You have a good point, bit like taking a barking dog into the national park.

Mountain Gal,
Where are you from. We are from Atlanta. There are 4 of us going, me and my husband, my brother and sister-in-law. I am a bit disappointed to learn that Green Island is not very good. That is probably why it is included in the trip, because it is inexpensive. I don't know if we will do another trip to the reef that day or maybe Cape Tribulation/Daintree.
Pat, do you know anything about Passions of Paradise?

There would be marine stingers at Green Island in December I would think. The snorkelling there is not too bad, I saw a ton of fish mainly under the jetty so was fun. Not like the reef though,no coral.

Still there is no way anyone would get me to swim there in December, NO WAY!


I would be real angry if there was any suggestion by the tour company that water sports would be part of the activity for the half day. If they have I would ask in a very very :) nice manner that they schedule another excursion in place of it.

loves to travel - Passions of Paradise is good value and caters mainly to younger, backpacker travellers. Very friendly crew and Upolo is a clean white sand cay with very easy snorkelling from the sand. On a sunny day the water around the cay is a brilliant turquoise/aqua. Another which takes less people (20 max) and is the same price is the yacht Ecstasea - I'm not sure if its running on Christmas Day and snorkelling is off the boat from Upolo Reef, not the sand cay.

Jane, Green Island is far enough from coast to considered quite safe from box jelly fish and many local families take their kids there in summer to avoid any possibility of their kids getting stung on mainland beaches. At least there's some shade from the trees. As you say, there's plenty of fish under the jetty, waiting for a feed from the boats, but not the colours and variety of fishes you'll see where coral and giant clams are alive and well. Even the Japanese who can afford the expensive resort there take the Great Adventures boat further out to Norman Reef where coral is healthy.

Pat

Just call me paranoid lol. But if they go to the outer reef on Ocean Spirit or Passions of Paradise I think they will have best of both worlds. Better reef and miles and miles and miles away from stingers :)

loves_to_travel,

We're from Colorado; we live just north of the Air Force Academy.

I'm not entirely surprised that the Green Island excursion is more "touristy" than we'd prefer. I agree with you that it's been included due to the bulk price they acquired. I'm going to check out both Passions of Paradise and Ocean Spirit to see what they offer.

You seem to have more detailed information about the tour, such as times we arrive, etc. How did you get it?

(By the way, we're also going to do the Bridge Climb - can't travel around the world and miss that!)

Sandy

I liked the Aboriginal park. Wish I'd gone to the night show as well now. It looks like it would have been fun.

Kuranda is touristy, but it's worth a short stay. Spend more time on the Skyrail, and take the little guided walk they have at one of the stops. The guide points out some things you probably wouldn't notice on your own.

Yes, it's probably missing a half day on the reef to do these things.

Pat Woolford who posts here can point you to great things to see and do in the Cairns area. She and her husband also run a great B&B in the area (Lilybank), but you don't have to stay there to get great advice from her here. I would definately stay there again on my next trip to Cairns.

Sandy, You would not believe how much time I have put in to doing research. We have actually been planning this trip for 5 years, but really been doing a lot of research the last 6 months. I bought both of the Fodors books and have spent lots of hours on the internet. I feel like I have bugged the gal at Globus to death, but I have a list of all of our flights, what time we leave and what time we get to each place. We want to do as much as we can. We really don't expect to get there again. It's just too expensive. In others words, this is a once in a lifetime trip. As far as the reef trips go, my brother loves to scuba. I am going to do the introductory scuba this time. My husband will probably snorkel and I don't even know if my sister-in-law will get in the water. It might work out that me and my brother go to the reef for 2 days and my husband and sister-in-law do Cape Tribulation.

Hi LTT,
One tip for the introductory scuba.
You will probably have to complete a medical form of some kind before being allowed to dive.
If you have ever had asthma think twice about declaring it, they may stop you from diving.
I disclosed childhood asthma, 30yrs ago and I wasn't allowed to dive, despite the introduction being in about only 10ft of water.I really should have kept my gob shut.
Live and learn..
Muck

loves_to_travel, I hope you get to scuba - it sounds like so much fun. We're snorkelers, and can hardly wait to get out over the GBR. I'm sure that's how we'll spend the full "free" day there.

This is also a family "trip of a lifetime" for us. In 2 years our daughter heads off to college and then 2 more years after that, our son will go. We figured we could always "do" Europe, but that this would be an amazing active vacation they could tell THEIR children about.

I hope this turns out to be a wonderful trip for you and your family (and for us, too!).

Did you ever figure out what you were doing for Christmas Dinner (if you don't mind my asking?)

Sandy

I have no idea about dinner that day. We were more concerned with having something to do. According to the internet and the Fodors books, almost everything is closed. I found out that Passions of Paradise will be running on Christmas, so we went ahead and booked that. I'm sure we will find something good to eat that day. I would rather have some good seafood rather than a traditional Christmas dinner. As for the scuba, I have never had any kind of breathing problems or major illnesses. Last year on a cruise I tried snuba, which is very similar. You just don't have the tanks on your back, they float on a raft on top of the water. You still use the same breathing apparatus. I loved it, but there wasn't a whole lot to see on that trip. I am really looking forward to this. Both of our kids are already in college. They have known that we were going to go on this trip for 5 years, but now they are giving us fits about it. This is our 25 anniversary trip, so they were not invited. They both got trips when they graduated from high school and will also get a trip when they finish college, so I don't feel too bad for them. Hah!
Anita

Will you have no other chance for an aboriginal experience? We've heard it's not great at Tjapukai, but can't testify from first hand experience. We did go out to two island and to a pontoon 1.5 hrs. out, though, and we'd go snorkeling again in a heartbeat if we went back vs Tjapukai. Now, if you go to Uluru or Kakadu, we'd definitely recommend some particular aboriginal stuff, but how many times are you going to get to see the GBR?

Hi loves to travel - instead of using up a half day going to daytime Tjakupai why not go to their night show with dinner included. The Tjakupai and Irukandji people actually own the land the park is on and their elders have overseen and approved the materials presented in the park. They have a substantial equity interest in this venture which has given so many Aboriginal people employment opportunities and a chance to regain pride in themselves. Its also a constant winner of national tourism awards.

<As for the scuba, I have never had any kind of breathing problems or major illnesses>

Correct answer !!

;-)

Muck

Regardless of what you do on your trip - DO NOT GO TO GREEN ISLAND (as every other poster has said). A few years ago I spent the worst Christmas Day ever there. The trip out was horrendous (as it can be that time of year - but it can also be fantastic) and the entire boat was sick. Before we even left Cairns, we were given an option of either snorkeling or visiting the crocodile enclosure thingie... Obviously due to the typhoon blowing, those of us who opted for snorkelling (which was most of the boat) were SOL and were not allowed into the crocodile enclosure because we didn't have the proper ticket. The captain/crew of the boat refused to leave until the day was up, so the 50 or so passengers huddled under 4 umbrellas near the only food stand on the island for day trippers. I think a coke was something like $5.00, and food was upwards of $20.00. After a couple of hours some hungry, wet & extremely unhappy customers marched back to the dock & threatened to take control of the boat if we weren't taken back to Cairns immediately. Obviously no one can control the weather, but if Mother Nature decides not to cooperate - then basically you are screwed on Green Island. Don't get me wrong, the GBR is not to be missed (I just returned from 1 week in Pt Douglas & visited the reef 2x)but my advice would be to get to Cairns, check out the weather forecast & even if it costs a bit more, go to a better part of the reef and RUN AWAY if anyone suggests Green Island.

Sorry, I've given you the wrong name when I mentioned the Reef Rocket - its actually now called Thunderbolt 1- as oppossed to Thunderbolt which sank. Make of that what you will.

Pat, I think we pretty much decided to do the Tjapukia at night. If we don't go to Green Island that will free up an entire day to either go on another reef snorkel/dive outing or go to Cape Tribulation/Daintree. I am afraid that this will be our only time to visit something Aboriginal. We also go to Sydney and Melbourne, but I couldn't find anything there that sounded very interesting on that note. Hopefully we can do the Skyrail and Kuranda the first afternoon we are there and then decide about which route to take for the 24th. Thanks for all of your information. I have really enjoyed reading all of the information on the boards.

If we are to do the Kuranda Park on our own..how can we do the skyrail there and the train back??...don't they depart from different places? We have a rental car but wondered how we do this? And how can we include a dinner show as well at the Tjakupai? Not sure of the logistics? Please help! Denise

Hi Deniseterry, Yes, Kuranda Train and Skyrail depart from different places. Book your trip through Skyrail - any tour desk will do it for you - Skyrail has a shuttle to take you back to your car whether its at Freshwater Station for steam train or at Skyrail. Tip: they will charge per person for the shuttle - Freshwater and Skyrail bottom station are only about 7 driving mins from each other - book shuttle for only one person who can drive back to pick up the other. Tjakupai at Night can also be booked separately - there's a pick-up service or you can self-drive. Tjakupai is next to the bottom Skyrail station and the day trip can easily be combined with train and Skyrail on daytime trip.

We traveled to Cairns in early August. We took a "KRST" package starting with a shuttle to Freshwater Station, followed by a Kuranda Scenic Railway trip to Kuranda, 1 3/4 hours in Kuranda, followed by a Skyrail trip towards Cairns, lunch and performances at Tjapukai Cultural Center, and a shuttle back to Cairns. Traveling with two girls aged 11 and 14, we had not enough time in Kuranda -- our girls could not easily leave the Koala Sanctuary and Birdland, leaving no time for anything else in Kuranda. My advice would be to skip the train, drive early in the day to the Skyrail base, take Skyrail to Kuranda, enjoy 4 or 5 hours there, take the Skyrail back, stopping at Barron Falls and the Rainforest walks on the way. Combine dinner at Tjapukai Centre with the Tjapukai evening performance (which, in my eyes, was authentic and worthwhile). This would be a full and worthwhile day.