The Kuranda Scenic Railway climbs out of Cairns through the rainforest, over gorges and past the Barron Falls, to the village in the hills. And the Skyrail cableway floats you back over the canopy. It's the easy way to see the wet tropics. Kuranda itself is markets and a butterfly sanctuary; the journey is the thing.

The catamaran out to Moore Reef takes an hour and a half, and then you're on a pontoon over the Great Barrier Reef with a mask and fins. The coral and the parrotfish and the giant clams right there in the warm, clear water. The reef is bleaching in places and that's hard to unsee, but the live coral is still extraordinary. Go while it's there.

Down south, the full-day Great Ocean Road from Melbourne. The surf coast, the Otway rainforest, and the Twelve Apostles standing off the cliffs in the cold Southern Ocean. After the tropical warmth of Cairns the southern coast feels like a different country: grey-green, windswept, dramatic. Bring a jacket you didn't need up north.

The private city tour and the showboat dinner cruise close it out. Sydney harbour at night with the bridge lit and the Opera House glowing, after a trip that started on a coral reef two thousand kilometres north. The Blue Mountains the next day are the last cool air before the flight home. The country's range, end to end.