FLYING into the tropical Australian city of Cairns, Australia, is as colourful as it's people, weather events and fauna.

The vegetation beneath you is as emerald  as anything Ireland has to offer but it's not the stuff of meadows.

The green carpet below you is made up of mangrove, rainforest and swaying blades of sugar cane, and the dark water wending its way through it is not a country stream but the life blood of the mangroves: muddy, brackish, crocodile-inhabited water on its way to the Pacific Ocean.

The ocean itself is lined with golden beach sand and, as an aircraft passenger, you can see the bean green of the shallows and cobalt blue of the deeper water beyond.

Unless it's cyclone season, the movement of the sea is gentle because these are not surf beaches you're looking at. 

The city's coastline is protected by the structure of the Great Barrier Reef, which snakes its way all the way to Bundaberg, about 1400km south.   

The ocean, however, is not the only thing that's blue.

While the mountains your plane drops down through are green up close, in the distance, they take on a blue hue because of the blue/green leaves of Australia's famous gumtree, something you'll get plenty of opportunity to check out up close when you land.

Landing in Cairns is a rough and ready delight that European tourists could well cherish for the rest of their travelling lives.

When you disembark your jet - or much smaller aircraft if you're flying domestically from anywhere other than  southern Australian  - you are hit in the eyes by sun so glaring you're blinded, and temperature and humidity so  high, it leaves your clothes damp and your face glistening with perspiration before you even enter the airport.

The heat, of course, is largely because you're not far from the equator  but matters aren't helped by the fact that, often, you actually walk across the tarmac to reach the terminal - land bridges are thin on the ground here. 

Inside, the airport experience is much the same as anywhere else but the queues are shorter and the staff more relaxed because Cairns is nothing if not laid-back.

It is also under-populated. 

With a city population of 130,000 and its surrounding district made up of sparsely-peopled rural land, Cairns makes travellers feel like locals off the beaten track wherever they go in the Cairns region. 

The wide open spaces are a reality here. There are hardly any people on the beaches, the streets are far from crowded, the parks are almost empty and the roads are uncluttered. 

Cairns does a roaring tourist trade but there are simply too many beautiful spots to go around.  

So, when you roar out of Cairns airport by either bus or car, you'll know what lies ahead of you: an experience rich in vibrant colour from the Daintree rainforest to the north, the ocean to the east, fields of sugar cane and bananas to the south, and the rolling green hills of the Atherton Tableland to the west. 

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