Day 5 – Australia/New Zealand Adventure – Great Barrier Reef

(Tuesday, March 11, 2025) by Ann Silverthorn with Jim DeDad

We enjoyed another delicious breakfast buffet at CC’s next to the hotel. (All breakfasts were were included on  this trip.) I was delighted to find salt and pepper on the table. And English muffins!

We met the group at 10:00 a.m. and took the Great Adventures Green Island Ferry, a high-speed catamaran, to the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea. The 45-minute ride was a bit choppy, but I had taken my anti-nausea medicine, so I was okay, and the trip offered stunning views as we zipped along. 

Of course, we only experienced a small part of the Great Barrier Reef, because it is 2,300 km (1,429 miles) long. It’s actually a network of nearly 3,000 individual reefs that are home to more than 1,500 different species of fish. The coral is alive, and the animals are in the same family as jellyfish, but they have a solid skeletons that look like rock. The reef is fragile and is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA).

Green Island was our destination on the Great Barrier Reef. The island is only 29 acres in size and is the only coral cay on the reef that has a rainforest. Attractions offered include a glass-bottom boat excursion, snorkeling, a self-guided rainforest tour, a swimming pool with a bar, shops, restaurants, and a resort.

Green Island has been a national park since 1937 and part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area since 1981. The Aboriginal tribe, Gungandi, call the island Wunyami and once used the island and reef as an initiation ground for young men.

Upon docking at Green Island, we split into two groups and boarded glass-bottom boats, which were about the size of a school bus. When I saw two long benches facing each other with the glass-bottom in the middle, I understood why we had been informed that there would be no bathroom aboard.

Attached to the glass at the bottom of the boat was a sucker fish like “Hoss” who once lived in the aquarium we used to have, but this one was about two feet long. 

Some people in our group were going snorkeling, but we weren’t really interested in that, because of the stingers (jelly fish) and crocodiles, so we came back on the 2:30 p.m. ferry rather than the 4:30 p.m. Crocodiles are a big issue on the beaches in Australia, so not as many people swim at beaches as you would expect. 

If you came back on the 4:30 ferry, you’d have a ride back to the hotel, but arriving on the 2:30 meant we had to walk. It was only about a 20-minute stroll, and we got to see more of Cairns. Very pleasant.

Back at the hotel, we went to the pool and enjoyed a drink. Jim had a Hemingway’s Canecutter lager and I had a margarita. I took a dip and we enjoyed the relaxation for a little while before returning to our room for showers. We were on our own for dinner, so we took a longish walk to Hemingway’s Brewery where we enjoyed craft beer and a delicious dinner.

It rained like cats and dogs while we were in the restaurant, so we relaxed and by the time we left, the rain had stopped. Thank goodness because neither of us brought an umbrella!

We didn’t feel like doing laundry, so we resolved to do it the following morning, because we were free until a quarter past noon, when the group would head to a wildlife park.

11,063 steps today.