I had a lot more holiday than Scott and was feeling cold so decided to go on a trip by myself. I flew up to Cairns, rented a campervan, and spent a week traveling around Far North Queensland. It was great.

DAY 1:

Had to wake up at 4am to go to the airport. Scott drove me even though I insisted that I could just take an Uber. Why is he so nice.

Esplanade Pelicans.
The Prawn Star boats.

I spent the first day in Cairns. I picked up the van and then checked out the Brushturkeys and mosquitos in the Botanic Gardens. Then headed into town to eat some seafood and get supplies for the week ahead.

Then I drove up the hill into the Tablelands to spend the night at the Mareeba Drive-in. I had a vegan burger and watched Where The Crawdads Sing and then fell asleep 20 minutes into the second movie. A long day.

DAY 2:

Cattle egret.
Great Bowerbird and bower.
Chestnut-breasted Mannikin on sugarcane.

Woke up at 6AM to drive to Atherton to meet a bird nerd for a birding tour. There was another couple around my age from Sydney on the tour as well, which was cool. We drove all around the area and looked at tons and tons of birds. The guide, Patrick, knew every single bird and was very good at making sure that each of us got a good sighting of each bird. It was very cool, and very overwhelming. I really want to get a nice pair of binoculars now, it makes a huge difference.

I didn’t get many good pictures that day because a lot of the birds were teeny tiny or fast moving. But I saw heaps of cool birds like Pacific Baza, Blue-winged Kookaburra, Red-winged Parrot, Pale-headed Rosella, Scaly-breasted Lorikeet, Red-backed Fairywren and tons and tons more.

The Bowerbird was probably the easiest bird for Patrick to show us, but was still one of my favourites. They’re just so weird and unique! Great Bowerbirds like white shiny objects (and Satin Bowerbirds like blue things).

Bananas in bags.

After birding all morning I made a quick stop at Granite Gorge to see the tiny rock wallabies. Then drove down the twisty road towards the Daintree. I saw lots of banana, avocado, mango and sugarcane fields. Why do I love seeing different crops so much.

Big tree at the caravan park in Daintree.

DAY 3:

The Daintree River.
Rainbow Bee-eater.
Azure Kingfisher.

6:30AM wakeup! This time for a morning bird watching river cruise. Was cool to get a bit closer to the birds. I think that Rainbow Bee-eater pic is my favourite of the whole trip. We also saw a few snakes and crocs.

Tropical AF.

I continued driving towards Cape Tribulation, constantly on the lookout for cassowary. Jindalba Boardwalk is supposed to be a common place to see them but all I saw was a stupid dragon. Just kidding, the dragon was SUPER AWESOME. I went around the boardwalk two times.

I remember stopping at this ice cream place FOURTEEN YEARS ago. This time I was very happy that they had a dairy free version of their special tasting cups. This had coconut, mango, soursop, and something like razzleberry?? I couldn’t really understand what she said. They were yum.

Mangrove snorkels.

The boardwalks around Cape Tribulation are awesome. Madja Boardwalk was very mangrovey. I saw this crazy bug! How does this exist in real life?

That night I went out for dinner and had to eat on a couch because I didn’t make a reservation (Queensland tourism is booming yo). I felt like I was at home. Then I read my book and went to bed early. Delightful.

DAY 4:

7AM wakeup for snorkelling! The company kept telling us that it was going to be a really rough day. It definitely was a very moistly boat ride out to the reef. Thankfully it was only a 30 minute trip, which is very short for the Great Barrier Reef. And thankfully we had wetsuits and raincoats to help with the constant drenching splashes.

The weather was great out at the reef!!
Big ass clam.

The snorkelling was ok! I thought the reef would be in worse shape, tbh. I saw a turtle, some type of ray, a few clown fish, lots of other fish, and heaps of really really big giant clams… like as big as a car. They look like galaxies on the inside.

It was not the easiest snorkelling, a lot of waves and a bit cold. Visibility was great though. I was extremely greatful for a hot shower afterwards.

Lockdown cooking has been fun, to be honest. We have been eating well.

Homemade sushi with salmon, steamed yam, cucumber, avocado, cream cheese.

Rice paper rolls with shrimp, rice vermicelli, tons of vegetables, cilantro and mint. Dipped in the most tasty peanut sauce.

Scott made this for me after seeing it on Facebook… a KFC popcorn chicken pizza with corn and gravy. LOL.

Scotch eggs and salad. These were a bit hard to make, but sooo delicious! If I made them again I would try to get smaller eggs so it doesn’t use as much sausage per egg. The sausage stuck to my hands so much and was so hard to get to seal around the egg and do the breading, but somehow they held up well during deep frying and in the end came out great!

Arancini and umm… charred broccolini. The deep frying adventures continue. Scott made the arancini. It took a long time but they were delicious!!

Montreal style bagels. Not linking the recipe because I don’t recommend that particular one. I don’t like the bagels in this country much so I have to make my own. Still needs some work.

A quarantine classic, although not sourdough, just regular no-knead bread.

Kouign-Amann. This took me EIGHT HOURS. It wasn’t actually that hard, but the whole process was like “do one fold, roll, then chill for 30 minutes”. It was the one day I was happy that our house is never hotter than 15 degrees…. perfect for laminating pastry.

Scott made Arnott’s Monte Carlos. Yum. Did they ever release the Kingston recipe?

Raspberry cheesecake muffins. They don’t look that hot in the picture but these were SOOOOOO GOOD. I’m coming around on cooked fruit. These muffins have a cream cheese filling and a super delicious crumble topping. I think I’ll make more of these v soon.

Almond Brittle and Salted Chocolate Ganache ice cream. I’ve written a lot about Salt & Straw ice cream. We once drove all the way from Vancouver to Seattle for ice cream. Then a couple months ago I realized that Salt & Straw might have a recipe book. I looked it up and yes they did, and wow it was available at the shopping centre right around the corner from us here in Melbourne. Shortly after I’m making batches of brittle and ganache and making my all-time favourite ice cream at home. And it’s perfect and delicious and I am so happy.

Scott made Boston Cream doughnuts. Don’t they look awesome!?!

Scott made more doughnuts for the one time we were allowed to have a family gathering. White chocolate glazed, and filled with passionfruit curd.

Myles approved.

May #SMAJ was a gelato appreciation class at Gelato Messina in Fitzroy. We got to learn a bit about Gelato Messina and how to make gelato, eat a three course gelato degustation menu, scoop some ice cream, decorate and eat an ice cream cake, and taste as many of the gelatos as we wanted.

It’s expensive, as everything from them is, but it was a pretty cool treat activity. Plus we got two cookbooks, cooler bags, and a tub of ice cream each to take home.

God Save The Quince: speculaas, toasted milk skin, quince puree, cultured yoghurt gelato

First time seeing milk skin in real life. It was crunchy! I really liked the tanginess of the gelato.

The Italian Rhapsody: crispy eggplant, mascarpone cream, Amaretto Disaronno jelly, espresso gelato, chocolate crumble

Served in a flower pot. The crispy eggplant was actually really yum. Like chips!

Magma Mia “Here I Flow Again”: salted passionfruit and white chocolate curd, black sesame seeds gelato, dark chocolate sauce, green tea moss, crystalised sesame seeds, yuzu pudding

This one was crazy. The rocks were made of chocolate and each filled with something different. I loooved the salty passionfruit curd.

Scott scraping some strawberry gelato into a bowl.

(A slice of) Dr Evil’s Magic Mushroom Cake: dark chocolate gelato, peanut cookies, dulce de leche, flourless chocolate sponge, popping candy feuilletine grass base, red chocolate glaze, white chocolate dots

This cake was good. We learned how to assemble the different inner bits and do the glaze and attach the dots on the outside. Looked fun. I suppose now I need to step up my ice cream cake game!

We chose pear and rhubarb, blood orange, pistachio praline and Giant’s Milk (milk gelato with milk crumb and milk jam) to take home. That last one sounds really plain but was actually really tasty. Pistachio praline is definitely my favourite regular flavour from them.

Gelato Messina Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato