Australian Butterfly Sanctuary – Kuranda

You guys are all going to fall down in shock, but guess what?  We had a little day out on the weekend, ticking one of the ‘must do’s’ off the list of things to explore in 2016 AND I am even going to blog about it only a few days after our visit – not weeks or months later – wahoooo says I, giving myself a pat on the back 🙂 🙂

So, due to the fact that everything Mr Blue Sky Produce Matt touched last week, broke down – including (and this is no exaggeration) – two tractors, the mower, two quad bikes and the dishwasher – we found ourselves on Sunday with a very unexpected day off mid mango season!  As we live up here in the country – most shops still do that thing of closing by 12pm on a Saturday, so there was no going into town for the required parts to fix all the broken down farm machinery.  Mr Blue Sky Produce was in a lovely mood (not!) so you can imagine just how happy he was when I suggested a family day out to the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary in Kuranda on Sunday.

However, he eventually came round with the bribe of a good Kuranda coffee from his favourite coffee shop in the Kuranda village and off we went!  I had done a little bit of googling about the butterfly sanctuary before we left so I knew to dress us all in bright coloured clothing to hopefully attract the butterflies and I also thought it would be a fairly low stress outing for the whole family (given everybody’s current state of minds = tired and grumpy) so I was looking forward to a successful morning out and that is exactly what we got!

We arrived right on tour bus time which nearly had Matt running back to the car, but after a very cheerful and lovely greeting from the lady at the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary who also kindly told us about the 20% discount on admission for locals upon showing proof of your address (driver’s licence) we headed inside.

Mum and Fealy kids ready for a day out!

Kipp and Jack reading about the Sanctuary outside while we waited for Dad to finish his coffee

Kids loved the little cave doorway at the entrance to the butterfly sanctuary.

Lexi wore her butterfly dress especially for the occasion!

Off down the path to find some butterflies!

There was a guided tour starting as we entered but after only a few minutes our kiddos quickly lost interest and it was a little hard to hear the guide who had an accent, so we headed off to explore the Butterfly Sanctuary on our own.  It was smaller than I was expecting, but there was still plenty to look at and keep the kids interested and definitely an affordable activity for a family (it cost us $46 for all of us) and we spent about 1.5hours looking around the sanctuary.  It was a hot day, so we were still pretty hot inside the sanctuary, but it was a peaceful place with all the gardens, trees and water ways about and despite the many tourists visiting at the same time we were there – it didn’t feel too crowded.  It is good to note also – that the Butterfly Sanctuary is fully enclosed so you can still visit even if it is raining – a good option for up here in the wet season!  The kids loved the butterflies – Lexi in particular, but they were a little disappointed not to have many come and land on them.  I think we would have better wearing white clothes perhaps as the butterflies seemed most attracted to white.

Here’s some pic’s for you – all taken on our iPhones I’m afraid as wouldn’t you know it – we pulled the big camera out to start taking some photos and of course the batteries were flat, grrrrrrr!

There were lots of neat little ‘quiz signs’ about the Sanctuary which the kids really liked and they even learnt a few different things which is always a bonus to slip a bit of ‘educating’ in on an outing!  I loved the laboratory where you could see some of the caterpillars and pupa and eggs, as well as watch the Sanctuary employees hard at work in the lab preparing food for the caterpillars.  There was even a fun little booth that you could go into and see what a butterfly sees of the world – kids loved that!

The little quiz signs were great for kids!

Cairns Birdwing Butterflies mating!

The Butterfly Sanctuary was an easy way to spend a few hours together and pretty neat to have the largest butterfly flight aviary and sanctuary in the southern hemisphere, right here on our doorstep!  This is a great little video which gives you lots of information about the Sanctuary, oh and there is a a little butterfly museum to check out just as you are leaving the sanctuary – sooooooo many different types of butterflies to read about in there – very interesting!

We’d recommend a trip to the Butterfly Sanctuary definitely – awesome for kids and an easy and affordable outing for a family!

Butterflies!

The museum is only small, but lots to look at!

After our visit to the Butterfly Sanctuary we had lunch at the Kuranda Rainforest View Restaurant which we picked as it was quiet with a lovely big open dining area overlooking the rainforest.  The kids loved their milkshakes, but we were a little disappointed with our meals.  We then had a wander around Kuranda and it was so pretty!  We had never really had a walk through the village before, there are heaps of cute shops with beautiful clothes and jewellery, as well as the market stalls and heaps of different things for the kids to look at!

We came across a little dinosaur museum with a ‘donation’ entry – ‘cool’ said the kids!

There was a great shady playground in the middle of town.

The markets set in the rainforest are awesome! A lovely cool and shady place to spend some time wandering!

hehehehehe!

Markets

There is an awesome little mini golf course right in the middle of the rainforest markets – $5 each to play – we will definitely go back with the kids for a game and an icecream one day soon!

Jack banging out a tune on the ‘community’ piano at the markets – very cool!

Kids loved this fake plane crash – so much for the kids to check out around town!

We had a really fun day out!  It didn’t cost a fortune, it was only half an hour from home and we honestly felt like we had a little mini holiday at the end of the day.  It was nice to spend a bit of quality time together as a family before the kids go back to school next week and even Mr Blue Sky Produce had to admit he enjoyed himself and felt better off for having a day away from the farm and the stress of mango season.

TICK!  One off the list of our ‘Tropical North Queensland Must Do’s for 2016 – yay!  Time to start planning the next little adventure!

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Love the Fealy Family xoxoxox

PS. Here’s a little ‘Butterfly Sanctuary’ inspiration for the week 🙂