Posts Tagged ‘free family fun’

Whitsunday Reef Festival

Monday, September 21st, 2009


1. Adventure Whitsunday Park Fun 2. Shute Harbour 3. Adventure Whitsunday Playground 4. Adventure Whitsunday Pool 5. Gloucester Island from Hydeaway Bay 6. Bicentennial Walkway 7. Hydeaway Bay 8. Airlie Beach Markets

Now in its 8th year, the Reef Festival is a vibrant and colourful celebration of the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsundays. The festival aims to highlight the unique Whitsunday lifestyle, and is a celebration of the local community.

The Whitsunday Reef Festival was started in 2001 as a celebration of the region’s wonderful natural assets. It is a four day festival consisting of a fireworks extravaganza, live music on the beach, Comedy Gala, Fashion parade, Sand Sculpting competition, Street Parade, family fun day, starlight movies at the Airlie Beach Lagoon and much more. The event is organised by a dedicated committee of local volunteers representing small businesses and organisations in the Whitsundays, and runs on the generosity of local business sponsorship. A must do on the Whitsundays’ social calendar.

The festival will be held from 15th - 18th October 2009, for full details of the festival program visit www.whitsundayreeffestival.com.au

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Exploring the Cassowary Coast: Warrina Lakes

Monday, September 21st, 2009

An interesting place to visit while you’re exploring the Cassowary Coast is Warrina Lakes. Here you’ll find a great playground, small botanical garden and a charming lake with water lillies, ducks and turtles.

Just minutes from the centre of Innisfail, Warrina Lakes has all the facilities you need for a great day out with the kids, there are barbeques, picnic tables, shady trees, toilet facilites and a large undercover area. The recently installed playground is fully fenced and great for children of all ages, with slides, tunnels and plenty of climbing features. Smooth pathways through the gardens are very pram friendly and are great for bikes or scooters too.

Innisfail is an hour south of Cairns, famous for its distinctive Art Deco architecture and riverside location, you’ll also find the Australian Sugar Museum, the Johnstone River Crocodile Park, Paronella Park and the Ma:mu Canopy Walkway nearby.

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Exploring Cooktown

Monday, May 18th, 2009
The quaint Grassy Hill Lighthouse

The quaint Grassy Hill Lighthouse

The amazing view of Cooktown and the Endeavour River from Grassy Hill

The view of Cooktown and the Endeavour River from Grassy Hill

The picturesque Finch Bay just minutes from Cooktown

The picturesque Finch Bay just minutes from Cooktown

Exploring the Cooktown Museum

Exploring the Cooktown Museum

The beautiful heritage building of the Cooktown Museum

The beautiful heritage building of the Cooktown Museum

These are some photos from our recent trip to Cooktown. They have a great museum where we learnt more about the Aboriginal culture as well as Cook’s landing and European settlement of the region, the view from Grassy Hill is exquisite and we could see all the way to Alkoomie Station. We also enjoyed exploring Finch Bay just a short walk from the leafy avenues of the Cooktown Botanical Gardens and the local Visitor information Centre which includes an interpretive area, a gallery, giftshop and cafe.

Read more about our Cooktown adventures:

Outback Cattle Station

Guurrbi Tours

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Clifton Beach

Sunday, May 17th, 2009
Clifton Beach

Clifton Beach

The Clifton Beach Playground

The Clifton Beach Playground

clifton-beach-playground02

cliftonbeachexpedition

Clifton Beach is a great place for families, it’s quieter and more family-friendly than Palm Cove, yet Palm Cove is right next door so its just a quick trip to the restaurants and boutiques if you want to go.   The Playground is in a quiet part of the street and the beach has less people, there’s also lots of places to take kids for a walk, including a mangrove boardwalk (which leads to the playground pictured above), 2 beach walks and a path that takes you from Clifton Beach to Palm Cove which I’ve written about here.   Cairns Tropical Zoo is just down the road too.

The very family-friendly and beautiful Sea Salt Beach House is here at Clifton too.

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Scooter escapades

Sunday, May 10th, 2009
Clifton Beach

Clifton Beach

Our weekend activities at Sea Salt Beach House were a perfect mix of relaxation, wildlife encounters and family fun.

I had packed our scooters as an afterthought but was so glad I did as we found lots of interesting paths and trails for kids to explore.

Argentea Park Palm Cove

Argentea Park Palm Cove

Our first expedition took us from Clifton Beach through a lush rainforest and out into a neatly manicured park, part of the first Argentea Resort Development. Once in the park we found picnic tables, bench seats, bridges and an adventure playground. We couldn’t resist stopping for a play here and the kids had fun climbing, digging, sliding and running around.

After fully exploring the playground we were on our way again in search of adventure. And as with all real adventures there has to be an element of danger.

palmcovescooterexpeditionAs we traveled out of the park we entered into a mangrove and melaleuca swamp. Swamps are eerie places at the best of times but it was an extra scary experience for us as just metres away from the path we spotted a medium sized crocodile sunning itself on a log. Of course we were never in any real danger but it did add an element of suspense to our adventure as it silently slid into the murky water.

Before long we were out of danger and into the warm sunshine and swaying coconut fronds of beautiful Palm Cove.

palmcove02After such a great morning out we ordered icy poles all round and congratulated ourselves on an excellent adventure. I’m sorry to say that we didn’t happily scoot all the way back though. The kids voted on sending Dad back for the car while they waited at the Palm Cove playground instead!

Accommodation:

Sea Salt Beach House 

Cairns Accommodation 

Port Douglas Accommodation 

Palm Cove Accommodation

Kuranda Accommodation 

Green Island Accommodation 

Mission Beach Accommodation

Dunk Island Accommodation

Yungaburra Accommodation 

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Posted in Cairns, Travel tips | 1 Comment »

Halloran’s Hill

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

hallhill04
Halloran’s Hill is one of my favourite spots to for for a picnic in the Cairns Highlands. It’s a little off the beaten track, as you drive through the streets of Atherton to find it, but once you get there its certainly worth the effort.

hallhill03

It’s a public space that was designed to incorporate a range of public art, an amazing view of Bartle Frere and the surrounding region, native wildlife, play areas for children, rainforest walking trails and sheltered public facilities for picnics and barbeques.

Halloran's Hill

Our favourite thing is the play area here, there’s an excellent adventure playground but there’s also grassy mounds for kids to climb designed to mirror the hills of the surrounding landscape, and footprint trails featuring the pawprints of the native wildlife found here such as pademelons, bandicoots and dingoes.

pademelon-feature

This post is part of a collection of travel photos. Head over to delicousbaby.com to see some more family-friendly travel photos from around the world.

Accommodation:

Sea Salt Beach House

Cairns Accommodation

Port Douglas Accommodation

Palm Cove Accommodation

Kuranda Accommodation

Green Island Accommodation

Mission Beach Accommodation

Dunk Island Accommodation

Yungaburra Accommodation

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Cairns Botanical Gardens

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

The Flecker Botanical Gardens, Cairns are a beautiful place to visit. There is a superb collection of tropical flowering plants, both native and exotic, to be seen here.

My kids love exploring the gardens and playing hide and seek amongst the greenery. There are always interesting little creatures for them to spot too, like butterflies, dragonflies and frogs.

The Botancial Gardens Cafe is one of my favourite places for an al fresco lunch too, highly recommended!

The Gardens are located on Collins St in North Cairns. Just a short walk from the gardens is the Tanks Art Centre, which consists of two large converted oil tanks. One is a gallery space featuring changing collections of local and traveling art, photography and installation style exhibits. The second space is used for holding arts and cultural workshops, and a diverse range of music and performance events.

Accommodation:

Sea Salt Beach House

Cairns Accommodation

Port Douglas Accommodation

Palm Cove Accommodation

Kuranda Accommodation

Green Island Accommodation

Mission Beach Accommodation

Dunk Island Accommodation

Yungaburra Accommodation

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Muddy’s Playground, Cairns Esplanade

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

If you’re looking for free family fun in Cairns then don’t miss Muddy’s Playground! Located just minutes from the centre of town on Cairns Esplanade this playground features a number of great play areas for children of all ages and all abilities.

My kids love the water play best, its irresistible for most kids so bring a spare change of clothes. The playground also features a liberty swing for children in wheelchairs, plenty of climbing equipment for older kids and a special fenced toddlers area as well. Just a short walk further down the esplanade there’s an excellent skate park for the teens too.
You could easily spend the day here, Skippers Cafe is located right within the playground making grabbing drinks, snacks or lunch really easy. They do great fish and chips made with fresh reef fish and have a good selection of drinks, ice creams and coffees available.
Peace
Accommodation:

Sea Salt Beach House

Cairns Accommodation

Port Douglas Accommodation

Palm Cove Accommodation

Kuranda Accommodation

Green Island Accommodation

Mission Beach Accommodation

Dunk Island Accommodation

Yungaburra Accommodation

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