So, tonight we find ourselves back in Sydney in the Railway Square YHA (my fav hostel of all thus far). Got a super-early flight from Cairns to here. Cairns was great, but I’m not a humidity-lovin’ tropical kinda gal.Yesterday we went to Kuranda, a rainforest “village” a little ways from Cairns. To get there you have three options: road, Scenic Railway or Skyrail. Since we didn’t have a car and the Scenic Rail was closed due to mudslides last week, we took the Skyrail, a gondola over the rainforest and up the hills. It was a little frightening to be so far up, but the view and the sounds of the rainforest were amazing. In Katoomba, we opted to see some wildlife exhibits, specifically Birdworld, Butterfly Sanctuary and Koala Garden. Birdworld was great but a little freaky as birds have a tendency to land on some people (specifically, they seem to like Brian.. he liked them less so, especially when one dude tried eating his shirt) and buzz past your head. Butterfly Sanctuary was beautiful and informative… I now know more about butterflies than I ever have. Koala Gardens was less informative but much more fun - I got to hold a koala and we hand-fed kangaroos and wallabies!! Last night, after arriving back in Cairns, we cruised the Night Market for miscellaneous goodies and called it a night.

After arriving at the hostel this morning, we didn’t waste much time in making our way back up to Darling Harbour to check out the Chinese Gardens of Friendship (a traditional-style Chinese garden, created for Australia’s bicentennial) and Powerhouse Museum (a museum with exhibits in fashion, science and technology and so much more - we stayed until they closed it up).

Gonna go grab a bite to eat and maybe enjoy some duty-free Australian wine. :) Be back in four days or so!