Christmas is the BEST!

Christmas in Cairns. Hot. Wet. Hot.

Cairns is one of the most beautiful tropical cities in Australia; remember the word tropical, because that became very important to us.

Kristin and Paul have 2 1/2 acres on the outskirts of Cairns with the Kuranda railway running right past the back fence. Twice a day, you can observe the tourist train on its way to Kuranda and back again. They also have a 25 metre swimming pool with a HUGE poolside deck, complete with big screen entertainment system and day beds. Perfect for entertaining large groups, or in our case two families. They have three children, Zoe (11), Nikita (9) and baby Benji for our children to entertain and play with for a few weeks.

Nikita, Paul, Benji, Zoe, Leisl, Barry, Rosa, Carol, Connor, Josie, Karen, Daniel, Kristin on a day trip to the Barron Falls Gorge

Over the Christmas period, we hosted many meals for Kris and Pauls’ family and friends. We were delighted to reacquaint ourselves with Pauls parents, Charlie and Marcia, and his siblings Graham, Fiona and Steph and their families.

When Barry and Carol arrived, we were all set for a great family Christmas. They had brought nerf guns for everyone as gifts, and so the war began. I am certain that even to this day, there will be nerf bullets scattered all over the house. A photo says a thousand words, and the sentiment that the nerf guns produced can be easily summarised by these two:

Connor and Kristy took to the nerf guns with vigour, not they they were too different from the rest of us, its just that they got caught on film.

We also managed to take a trip to Lake Tinaroo and meet up with cousin Richard from Longreach and his girlfriend. The effect of the floods can be seen up in the Atherton Tablelands too. Ordinarily, you would have to take a walk out on the pier to jump into the water, but as you can clearly see, we had to swim to the pontoon, walk along it, and then jump back into the water.

We also stopped at Barron Falls and followed the rainforest walk to the lookout. With the amount of rain falling around here, the falls was awash with a raging torrent.

So we had a fantastic time in Cairns, and look forward to spending more time with our family in the coming years. It is interesting that we spent more time with our family in the past 12 months, while we were travelling, than in the previous 10 years while we were stationary.

About 6:00am on Christmas Day, tropical cyclone Tasha crossed the coast between Cairns and Gordonvale. Fortunately for us, our camper trailer was parked in Kris and Pauls' carport, sheltering us from the torrential rain. The wind was a bit scary though, and we worried about damage to the tent. Cairns is a tropical city, and subject to cyclones, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. Thank goodness is was only a minor one!