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Kuranda is awesome. If it’s not on your ‘hit list’ – shame on you! Put it on right now!

Words and photography by Simone Costi

I love Kuranda. It’s hard not to. What isn’t to like about rainforest, mountains, waterfalls, arts, crafts, tasty food, beautiful animals and a peaceful atmosphere? And at only 25km away from Cairns, you can’t go wrong.

Follow the signs from Cairns and you’ll get to the Kuranda/Mareeba turn off. The freeway then turns into curvy mountain roads that snake up through the ranges. The roads are easy to navigate, but travelling through the bends at the signposted 80km was a bit too quick for me. That’s okay though, as there are lots of overtaking lanes all the way up the mountain.

That’s if you’re driving. Alternatively, you can catch the Skyrail or the Scenic Railway from Cairns. Since Kuranda is a very popular day trip, people do tend to go up this way. The scenery you see coming up on the Skyrail or Scenic Railway is stunning, but I’d recommend driving up and taking in the beautiful village for a couple of days instead.

The Skyrail and Scenic Railway are two of Cairns most popular attractions, but they have the price tag to go with it. The Skyrail takes you over the heritage listed rainforest, and the railway takes you through it, with the most famous sight being the Barron Falls. But, you can do a medium length walk from Kuranda to the falls for free! It’s a good idea to check with the Information Centre before heading out, as they’ll be able to tell you if the waterfall is raging or not. When I was there, it hadn’t rained in a while, so the info centre told me that I’d be lucky if I saw a trickle.

Now, since Kuranda is dominated by day trippers, nothing really happens in town till about 10am. There is a rustling at 9am-ish, when some of the market stall holders are setting up, and before long, the rest of the village shrugs the sleep away and eases into the new day.

There are three market areas to shop at – the Heritage, The New, and The Original. Plus there is a shopping complex. A lot of the product is aimed at Japanese tourists – kangaroo fur bags, didgeridoos and Croc Dundee hats. But sift through it and there’s quite a bit of good stuff.

There’s a huge range of beautiful jewellery made from coconut shells, wood, shells, coral and precious gems. It’s all very well priced too, but I’m sure you could bring the price down a tad if you barter. I picked up some red coral bracelets (five for $10) and they are gorgeous.

If you’re into foody stuff – particularly macadamias, then you’ve come to the right place. You can get choc-coated macadamias at the markets here, but they’re the same brand you can buy from Woolies, Coles or Safeway back home, so don’t bother. However, it’s well worth checking out the plethora of jams, chutneys, honey and wines made from all sorts of fruits.

And there are a few fantastic art and photography galleries with brilliant Australian works. My favourite was the Peter Jarver gallery, and although his some of photography is expensive – it is extraordinary.

In the way of places to eat you have more choice than a Westfield food court. And it is all pretty yummy and reasonably priced. But places start closing down around 3pm, so make sure you grab something before then.

But my favourite thing to do in Kuranda centre arounds the animals. I adore wildlife and there are more than enough things to keep animal-lovers amused for hours.

The Kuranda Wildlife Experience entails Birdworld, the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary and the Koala Gardens. You can buy entry to each of these separately or by the experience ticket for $36. Alternatively, you can just do Birdworld and the Butterflies for $23.

I went to Birdworld first and it was fantastic! I spent close to one and a half hours in here watching the beautiful native and exotic birds. The best time to go is at opening, as the birds have just been fed and are very active.

Upon entry, you receive a great coloured bird spotters guide. On the front are pics and names of all the native birds you can find in the aviary and on the reverse, all the exotic birds. I reckon there are at least 50 varieties of feathered friends in there.

The easiest one to spot is the cassowary – after all he is the largest (and the most frightening). He’s kept behind an enclosure (thankfully).

Birdworld has a paved loop for you to wander along through a dense rainforest type aviary. At the entry/exit, there’s a large patio area for the birds (and humans) and this is a perfect place to spot many of them. I saw the blue and gold macaw and the scarlet one (who showed off by flexing his wings for me). I also saw an Alexandrine parrot, sun conures and Lutino ringneck among many others.

In the centre of the paved loop is a beautiful waterfall and pond. In my wanders I also spotted a stunning forest kingfisher, lorikeets, rosellas, red-tailed black cockies, regular cockies and galahs.

I thoroughly enjoyed Birdworld. The birds are just as curious about you as you are of them. Birdwatchers and photographers alike will be in their element. My only piece of advice is to wear a hat inside – just in case…

The next place to visit on the Wildlife Experience ticket was the Koala Gardens. Here you can hold a koala or a snake (why you’d want to I have no idea!) and get your photo taken for an extra fee. However, I must say that I think the Koala Gardens wasn’t all that impressive. There were some Aussie animals – only a select handful and only a couple of each kind – koalas, roos, wallabies, wombats, crocs, lizards and snakes. I think it was set up to appeal more to day tripping Japanese tourists who want a close up glimpse of our native animals.

All of the enclosures allowed you to get pretty close to the animals and take good pics of them. Actually I can’t comment on the walk through reptile house as I am terrified of snakes and absolutely refuse to go anywhere near them. However, it was pretty big, so it might’ve been good.

The best part of the Koala Gardens was the wallaby and roo enclosure. You could wander among them freely and better still, you could grab a handful of feed from a bucket and hand feed them! At other places, you’ve got to pay extra to do that.

So the Koala Gardens were average. Honestly, I’d give it a miss and buy the combined Butterfly and Birdworld ticket instead of the triple pass.

Last stop on the Kuranda Wildlife Experience was the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary – which was incredible. I absolutely adore butterflies! I spent over two hours in the sanctuary and could’ve easily stayed for longer.

Like Birdworld, there’s a paved circuit you can walk along, through loads of lush, tropical plants and ponds. The greenhouse-type enclosure the butterflies are kept in is rather warm, but not unpleasant.

Approximately every 15 minutes, there’s a guided walk through the sanctuary, where you can learn about all the butterflies, their lifecycle, what they eat and just about anything else you can think of.

The butterflies fly freely around the area and occasionally will land on you. I had a number land on my head, as they are attracted to some scents used in our shampoo and perfume. They are also drawn to certain shades of white, pink and red, as they are used to extracting nectar from flowers of the same colour.

Then, on your way out, there is a small museum where you can learn a bit more about moths and butterflies.

The Australian Butterfly Sanctuary is simply stunning – and if you don’t visit it, you’re missing out on a magic place.

Another great animal orientated place to check out in Kuranda is Batreach. It’s down a path next to the Fire Station and is pretty neat. Batreach is a rescue and rehab centre for flying foxes and bats. It’s staffed by volunteers who look after the cute little critters, either nursing them back to health for release into the wild or simply caring for the handful that can’t be released.

Entry is free, but donations are greatly appreciated. I really enjoyed my visit here, the volunteer was very friendly and extremely knowledgeable. She showed me a couple of adult bats, as well as a sweet little baby one.

As mentioned earlier, Kuranda is primarily a day trip location, but I spent a couple of days here and relished in the relaxed environment and particularly in the peaceful evenings once all the day trippers went back to Cairns. The van park to stay in is the Kuranda Rainforest Accommodation Park, which is excellent. The place to eat at once the village closes down in the arvo is the Kuranda Veranda, located in the van park. The Kuranda Veranda has delicious food and a lovely outlook.

Visit Kuranda. I know you’ll love it – I surely did.