Apartment 1006, on the 10th floor, overlooking the bay, with the harbour in the background. The sun is out. What a fabulous start to Cairns!

We are on the Esplanade and just to add to the tropical feel, it’s 28 degree. It’s also very humid so we’re sweating just walking along the front.

The beach isn’t what we expected and, well, neither is Cairns, thou we didn’t quite know what to expect. Its got a very Spain/Greece holiday town feel to it. Lots of bars, pubs, restaurants and hotels on the front.

So they have built a big public swimming pool, the Esplanade Lagoon, complete with it’s own Baywatch (for those of an age that remember Baywatch) style lifeguard. He even has one of those floatation things they carry around with them – it’s only 4 ft deep! The Lagoon is a 4800sqm salt water pool, with water pumped in from the sea via a filtration system.

Having had an ice cream at our new favourite Ice cream parlour…

…We headed back to our apartment to test out the swimming pool. Not heated thank goodness.

After which, we hit the town for beer and food.