This post may contain affiliate links, for which we earn a small commission at no additional expense to you. Click here to read our Disclosure.
Written by a 9 year old.
Today we visited Rainforestation on one of our day trips from Cairns. Rainforestation is located in the rainforest at Kuranda. It is a really fun place and they have lots of interactive things for families to do. In this review I am going to talk about the three main things you can do at Rainforestation: Army Duck Tours, Aboriginal Cultural Activities and Australian animals.
Contents
Army Duck Rainforest Tours
Loved the Army Duck tour!
In this activity you don’t go and spot ducks by the way. It is a 45 minute guided tour in a vehicle that can go in water and on land. My mom calls this amphibious, whatever that means. These vehicles were originally made in Detroit in the ’40s and still have their original engines. It was so cool how the vehicle could drive on land and go in the water.
Dave, our tour guide told us lots of interesting facts about the rainforest and the plant life in it. One of the things I found most interesting was when the British came, they introduced a plant used in pots in their gardens in England. But when its seeds spread out through Australia, it grew like a weed. That is why we can’t bring fruits, vegetables and seeds into Australia.
They take a photo when you are entering the water and you can buy it for $14 at the end. Our photo looked really good and so I made my parents buy it.
Great guide, Dave well informative.
Aboriginal Cultural Activities
aboriginal guides using spear thrower.
The Aboriginal guides were dressed in traditional clothes and white body paint.
We first did the Aboriginal Dream Walk where they showed us how they throw spears. It was impressive because they showed us how much further and more accurate you can throw when using the spear launcher (woomera).
Our guide also taught us how to play the digeriadoo. You have to vibrate your lips and move your tongue around in your mouth to make different noises. He made animal noises such as the dingo and said words like didgeridoo into the instrument.
He also taught us how to throw a boomerang, which was really interesting. I didn’t know they used it to catch birds, I thought it was just a toy for kids. Dad’s throw was really good, but mine was not so good.
I think I look pretty silly.
After that we went to the Aboriginal Dance Show where they did lots of dances and played the digeriadoo and clapping instrument. At the end we had a chance to go up and try the dance too. It was really fun, but I think I looked pretty silly.
It was really interesting to learn about Aboriginal culture. I wish there had been time to ask some more questions, such as how do they make the boomerangs.
my bad boomerang skills.
Australian Animals
The beautiful but ferocious Cassowary.
They had lots of Australian animals including a cassowary, koalas, snakes, lizards, a Tasmanian devil, crocodiles, wallabies and kangaroos. My brothers loved the two dingoes. I think the dingoes loved them too.
The kangaroos and wallabies were in an open area so you could buy food and pet them. There were guided tours through the wildlife area, but we just walked through on our own.
There was this cool lizard and he really blended in and I couldn’t see him at first. When you looked closer you could see him. This is called camouflage but I don’t remember the name of the lizard.
my brothers loved the dingoes.
what a cute joey!
amazing camouflage
Some extra things you can do are taste tropical fruits liked rambutans and mangosteens. You can also walk through the orchard and see these fruits growing. There is a bush tucker walk you can also participate in. The café has a big BBQ lunch and there is a gift shop at the end.
Overall I would recommend this for anyone who is looking for a fun activity that lasts about 3 hours. If you are looking for what to do in Cairns, Rainforestation is a fun day trip.
Click here to buy discounted tickets to Rainforestation.
Did you enjoy this post? PIN it to Pinterest.
Mom Disclaimer: Rainforestation Nature Park hosted our visit. As always all opinions (even the 9 year old’s) are our own. There are affiliate links in this post, which means that if you book through one of our links, we made a very small commission. Thank you for helping us create great content.