Happy Birthday to Me!

This was going to be a busy stop! Why? I hear you ask… because it was my birthday and a lot of celebrating had to happen.

We pulled into the Big 4 in Cairns and that night we were met by our friend Richard – you all know the lovely Felicity, well Richard is her lovely husband.

Day 1 was a little look around the town and a walk down on the foreshore. Everything was roped off because of the impending Ironperson race.

Day 2 was the Birthday and after being spoiled with pressies, headed off to the Kuranda Railway. So excited! The plan was to catch the train up and the Skyrail back down.

The scenery was fantastic.

We only had a couple of hours before our sky rail time, so we hightailed it to the Butterfly Sanctuary in search of an elusive Ulysses Butterfly – of which they had one!

First of all – how funny is it that my green top picked up the green screen image!

You probably think that these photos below are all professional images from National Geographic and I think they should be submitted to the illustrious nature mag. The creator is none other than my mate, Matt. How good are they?

These were my attempts. The last butterfly was definitely the prettiest:

While Matt stayed to capture the butterfly magic, Tam and Larzy hit the markets… and Rich and I hit the Kuranda Hotel for some crocodile spring rolls.

Then….. just like that, it was Skyrail time…

We hopped off on the two stops on the way down to have a look at more waterfalls and a little walk through the rainforest. We alighted just in time for a free guided tour which was really interesting.

Then just like a hop on hop off bus, we were back onboard the Skyrail.

So elusive was the ulysses Butterfly that Matt saw the one in the sanctuary (he said it felt like shooting a fish in a barrel), but we also saw not 1, but 2 while we were on the skyrail – one flew straight at us – a taunt perhaps?

A great day, and we seemed to have brought a Ulysses butterfly home with us.

A birthday is clearly not complete without cake, and I owe thanks for Fliss for organising this one all the way from Victoria. Thank you lovely lady.

While everyone was singing Happy Birthday a little girl from the next cabin came over and asked if she could join in on the party and asked “how old is she” I answered “55”. She was mildly disappointed and said “oh, I thought it was her birthday” pointing to Larzy.

Day 4 was a recovery day on Green Island… lounging, digging, snorkelling and spotting turtles and reef sharks (from the jetty). An awesome day.