Cairns region's four top spots
Unique: Yuki Yokogawa feeds a kangaroo at Rainforest Habitat.
EVER wanted to dive with minke whales, pray in the world's smallest cathedral, stand where the rainforest meets the Reef or see eight species of kangaroos in the one place?
Then visit the Far North.
The latest top-100 list from the Australian Traveller magazine highlights these four Far North Queensland attractions as uniquely Aussie in a compilation that also includes seeing a blue-eyed koala and playing on the world’s longest golf course.
Australian Traveller editor Greg Barton said Queensland had upheld its “Where else?” reputation in the “Top-100 things you can only do in Australia” list.
Readers are told they can swim with dwarf minke whales off the coast of Cairns and Port Douglas for a taste of whale watching with a difference thanks to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park’s licensing of nine tour operators.
Port Douglas’s Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary has also been given a plug as the only place in the world where visitors can see eight species of kangaroo — from the classic eastern grey to the endangered Lumholtz’s tree kangaroo – in one Cairns wildlife park.
The list also recognises Thursday Island’s Quetta Memorial Cathedral as the smallest in the world, and Cape Tribulation as the “only place on Earth where two World Heritage-listed areas lie side by side in the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef”.
Far North Queensland's top unique tourism hotspots:
19: Roam with the most ‘roos under one roof – Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sancuary, Port Douglas.
22: Dive with dwarf minke whales – Great Barrier Reef.38: Pray in the world’s smallest cathedral – Thursday Island.
53: Stand where the rainforest meets the Reef – Cape Tribulation.
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