East Coast Beaches & Reef

Cairns is not only the gateway to Tropical North Queensland, but also the Great Barrier Reef, that enormous swathe of World Heritage-listed coral that hugs the Queensland coast. Take today easy, because the next few are going to be jam-packed with adventures. Join your Travel Director and fellow travellers for a Welcome Dinner.

Hold onto your hat as you zip over the Great Barrier Reef aboard a high speed catamaran. Pause to snorkel over immense fans of coral, a verdant habitat for six of the world’s sea turtles as well as so many fish you won’t know where to look. If you prefer to keep your head above water, the marine world can also be glimpsed from an underwater observatory and glass-bottom boat.

From the reef to the rainforest... Enjoy some perspective of the Wet Tropics on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, lifting you above the canopy of the Barron Gorge National Park to Kuranda. The Atherton Tablelands awaits, this high tropical plateau a tangle of dense forest – look out for the heritage-listed Curtain Fig Tree. And waterfalls, like Millaa Millaa, where enormous iridescent Ulysses butterflies like to dance.

Some days, the journey matters just as much as the destination. Sit back and enjoy the scenery as you travel south through sugar cane fields and rolling green paddocks, all framed by the ocean and rainforest-clad mountains. Stretch your legs en route to Airlie Beach and soak up this steamy part of the state.

Powdery beaches and rainforest unite in the Whitsundays, 74 tropical drops of land all ringed by the Coral Sea. There are endless ways to explore this part of the Great Barrier Reef – today, we’re letting you choose. Perhaps rise early for an optional helicopter ride over Heart Reef. Or catch a catamaran to Whitehaven Beach, with sand so high in silica it squeaks underfoot.

Life is sweet in Sarina, Australia’s sugar capital, where your guided tour takes you behind the scenes of processing and distilling sugar cane at the Sarina Sugar Shed. And yes, you get to sample the wares. You’ll be bouncing off your seat all the way to Rockhampton, another town with a big title: this is the country’s beef capital. See if it deserves its accolade at any of the restaurants that line the streets. Ask us for dining tips.

More beef awaits after you cross the Tropic of Capricorn, GPS set for Langmorn Station, where the Creed family will welcome you with afternoon tea and a tour of the immense (and historic) cattle property – the original family homestead was built in 1873. The Creeds love nothing more than a good yarn about life on the land. Your next destination involves water. Lots of it. The ferry ride to World Heritage-listed K’gari (Fraser Island) is a highlight, particularly during whale migration when these gentle giants come to the calm, protected waters to calve. Alight on the world’s largest sand island, and the only place in the world where rainforest grows from the sand.

The island also has a really long sand highway. Jump in a 4WD and zip along 75 Mile Beach, all the way up the east coast to the Pinnacles Coloured Sands, calm Eli Creek and the Maheno shipwreck, which offers quite the photo op. Just when you thought the island couldn’t get any prettier, Lake McKenzie appears on the horizon, this dazzling patch of blue formed only with rainwater. It’s a hard act to follow, but the ancient rainforest at Central Station and Wanggoolba Creek lives up to the challenge with its huge satiny, scribbly gum and kauri trees.

Back on the mainland, follow the waves of Hervey Bay south to the Gold Coast, where you can be surfing one minute and surrounded by rainforest the next. This afternoon, fall into beat with locals and explore the city’s booming food and wine scene. We have a few restaurant favourites…

The hardest thing you have to do today is decide which direction to set your compass. Perhaps stay close to your Surfers Paradise base and explore long stretches of sand and achingly cool cafés. The city also breaks records for its extensive network of canals, which you might opt to explore on a leisurely cruise. Or go further afield to see another side of the ‘Goldie’ in the Mt. Tamborine hinterland – a hub for creatives and foodies.

Australia’s most easterly point is the stuff that postcards were made for, as you’ll discover when you reach the Cape Byron Lighthouse, standing proud over the Pacific Ocean. Dolphins are a common sight year round, and they’re joined by whales during migration. Keep your eyes peeled all the way to Coffs Harbour on the mid-North Coast of New South Wales. This pocket of paradise has some of the state’s most impressive beaches. Follow the breeze (and lead of locals) to the beach for a dazzling end of day sunset.

Your final stretch of East Coast Australia takes you to the ‘Harbour City’, one of the prettiest of its kind anywhere in the world, in our humble opinion. If you’re not quite ready to say goodbye to life on the road, chat to your Travel Director about extending your trip to take in Sydney’s legendary sights.