Strategies: Update on 01-26-2017. As of now I decided that it might be a great idea to rent a car for one day and go to the Rain Forest. Explore the Kuranda Rainforest and the Daintree – the oldest tropical rainforest on earth and the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest on the Australian continent. Go see the Barron Gorge National Park and the falls.

Weather: Average high for Cairns is 87 and low is 74. A little warm.

Flights: It looks like flights from Melbourne to Cairns will cost somewhere between $115 (Tiger Airways on Tuesdays or Wednesdays) to $150 if book at present. Jetstar has the most bookings. The flight time is about 3.5 hours. The earliest flight is at 6:10 AM. The latest flight is at 10:00 PM and gets into Cairns at 1:30 AM. Note that the Cairns airport is closed (technically) at that time of day. It supposedly opens at 3:00 AM.

Transfers: There is a bus service called Airport Connect that costs $4 one-way / $6 return. It takes you about half-way to the end of where I might want to go. There is also something called a cairnsbackpackershuttle.com.au/ - $6 one-way and $10 return.

Hostels: The hostels for Cairns are located at HostelWorld and HostelBookers. The rates seemed to go from $9 U.S. to $22 U.S. Most of them seemed to be reasonably close to the Esplanade, a walkway along the ocean. Most of the two dozens backpacker hostels seem to be in a 2 mile X 1 mile area that looks to be the downtown. A good map of the hostels is here. Cairns is small. It might be a good place to do a Couchsurf.

Attractions: Things to Do in Cairns – TripAdvisor. Google’s attractions search is here. How to do the Great Barrier Reef on a budget – Lonely Planet. The Great Barrier Reef…on a Budget – hostelbookers. Cairns budget reef tours on Compass Cruises. Viator. Think Oldest Rairnforest on Earth.