School holidays have been and finished and now that school’s back, so am I. During the holidays we decided to escape the heat and isolation of our little mining town and ventured north for an amazing week in Atherton then a wonderful few days in Cairns.
Unfortunately I had to cut the holiday short to dash to my family, it was bittersweet seeing them again as we farewelled our much loved Nanny.
But I thought I’d share some of the amazing things we got up to in Atherton.
Atherton is a hub of good food and produce, being so elevated from the coast with it’s rich volcanic soil just lends itself to good growing conditions. For years it was the leading source of tobacco in Australia, but now it’s rich in Arabica Coffee, Tea, Sugar Cane, Dairy and many fruits and veggies.
Easily a food highlight for me was experiencing the Coffee Works museum. So much history about my favourite drink! There’s literally thousands of coffee vessels, ranging from the what’s thought of the first few attempts at brewing coffee to the modern espresso machines. I spend a good hour and a half in the Museum and would have easily only read half of what’s there.
Another highlight of the trip was to Gallo Dairyland where they offer Lactose Free Camembert. And Brie (though they called it Baci). And Haloumi. OMG. It was amazing. Someone send me more. Like, now.
But the biggest point was spending time with my little family. By the end of the first week both of my kids were more confident swimming in the pool at the Atherton Big4 where we’d been staying, by the time we got to Cairns Noah was attempting to swim and stroke on his own. Not something he’s done in ages.
Proud Mumma here.
In Atherton we went to nearly every waterfall we could find and I sent Phil off one afternoon to go fishing while the kids and I took an afternoon off sight seeing and adventuring to just chill out. We did the full on tourist journey, taking in Crystal Caves, a woodwork gallery, the local dams and lakes, volcanic craters and everything else we could find.
At the beginning of our holiday I gave Noah a little notebook and every afternoon he would sit and write our days adventures in it, along with a little drawing of what he remembered. It was a great little way for him to focus so I might dig it out every holiday we have.
Cairns was beautiful but for me it was a little marred while I grieved the loss of Nanny. Before I flew out we took the beautiful Historic rail up to Kuranda and spend the day there, checking out the local markets and gelato, then jumped on the Skyrail back to Cairns at the end of the day.
Not the best place to be for someone with a massive fear of heights….
If you get the opportunity to venture to the Atherton Hinterlands take it! It’s such a beautiful part of Queensland to experience.
