Page 14 - Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens - May '22

Page 14, Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens
Cairns: Gateway To The Great Barrier Reef
By Don Kiselewski, MCC,
D.S., Palm Beach Gardens
Travel Leaders
First things first: The
residents of Cairns, Australia,
are very proud of their name,
and get somewhat perturbed
when foreigners try to
pronounce the name of their
beautiful city using all of the
letters in the spelling. Quite
simply, it’s “Cans,” like cans
of beans (or beer).
Located in Queensland
on the northeast coast of
Australia, Cairns serves as
the transportation hub for
visitors to the Great Barrier
Reef, with an international
airport and deepwater
port. While it is true that
Cairns is the gateway to
some of the world’s greatest
natural wonders – a tropical
rainforest and the Great
Barrier Reef – it’s also true
that Cairns has its own
special charm. A dugong feeds on sea grass offshore, at small islands or
Palm Cove
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Couples Camron & Kaitlin and Lesly & Mackenzie,
enjoyed their time in Cancun, Mexico.
All-inclusive resorts are a great summer away.
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We are located at 11360 N. Jog Road, Bldg. A, Suite 102-6
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(561) 694-9696
“We help you see the world . . .”
The city has colonial-style
homes, broad avenues lined
with palms, fig trees and giant
bougainvilleas, and a pretty
esplanade that leads to an active
downtown area. The buzz in
the downtown area centers
around the casino being built in
the center of the main complex
of hotels. This, coupled with a
convention center, brings the
city into an urban setting.
Although an oceanfront
community, Cairns does not
have any beaches, so for those
looking for that white sand People keep cool at the Cairns Esplanade’s public swimming lagoon
experience, you’ll have to go offshore to Green Island,
or head north to one of the
six wonderful beaches just
north of the city on the Marlin
Coast. The city has created a
man-made lagoon with sand
beaches for visitors to save the
trip north. Touching the ground
isn’t important to most who
visit the area. The excitement
they seek comes 35 miles
floating platforms that hover
over the Great Barrier Reef. Green Island, located on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
Stretching along
Queensland’s coast,
Australia’s Great Barrier
Reef is the largest, most
beautiful and complex single
reef system in the world. It
covers an area of 217,526
square miles, which makes
it half the size of Texas. The
reef harbors an incredible
array of marine life, with
more than 400 types of hard The Kuranda Scenic Railway overlooking Barron Gorge National Park in tropical Queensland
and soft coral, and more than
1,500 species of fish. Quicksilver fleet are aluminum-hulled vessels that skim the
Coral reproduces by spawning annually. The eggs are water with over 300 passengers aboard. There are numerous
released in polyps varying in color from bright pinks and destinations that these sleek crafts visit; the most popular is
reds to blues and greens. The coral spawning is synchronized the floating aluminum oasis of the sea. The floating platform,
over several nights following a full moon in October or anchored above the reef, is self-contained and allows for
November. The reef is also a breeding ground for such the docking of the Quicksilver. All snorkeling and diving
endangered species as the humpback whale and the dugong, equipment is on hand, kept in top-notch condition. The
an herbivorous marine mammal. platform also provides dockage for semisubmergible vessels
Visiting and enjoying the reef has become a special tourist that take viewers below the water to capture views of the reef
adventure that can be experienced from many of the towns without getting wet.
that stretch along the 1,200 miles of reef, but none is quite
like Quicksilver. The 2,000-horsepower catamarans of the Cairns: Gateway To The Great Barrier Reef on page 15