These are photos from the first day of my 2013 trip to Australia and New Zealand with my parents. We met at Cairns airport, but I arrived very early in the morning and had time to explore the town and surrounding countryside. I began by hiking the Mount Whitfield jogging trails along with quite a lot of locals out getting their morning exercise.

Suburb roads north of Cairns. I arrive early, pick up the rental car and start...

I visit Cairns Botanic Gardens, complete with fuzzy green trees.

I (sorta) join some Aussies taking a morning jog through Mount Whitfield...

This could be a Japanese forest.

Looking north from Mount Whitfield, you can see the 4-lane Captain Cook Highway...

'Footpath' is Australian for 'rainforest'.

I spot an Australian brush turkey spotting me.

Enjoying some barefoot grass after a long hiatus of concrete and gravel.

Fern wallpaper

Friendly fronds

Horsefly lying in ambush

Colorful, papery bark

Like most things in the garden, I have no idea what this is, but it's pretty.

Popcorn plant... maybe.

Short one leaf

Nissan leaf (tm)

Nature's designer textiles

Add this to list of reasons to not go running through the woods.

Chiliflower plant... maybe.

Fake plants are looking REALLY realistic these days.

Brush-in highlights

Climbing vine AND climbable vine

Fan palm wallpaper

Massive 3-meter fans arching over the garden trail

Eat me! I'm not poisonous I promise!

Pink flower or pink leaf?

Purple flower... probably.

Some plant has been drinking the koolaid.

Blueberry and blackberry hybrid... maybe.

Creepy strangling vine hanging out of the trees

Closeup of the 'strangling' vine. This relationship is definitely NOT symbiotic.

Cute.