Snorkelling at Green Island (Nicholas)

On Tuesday we went on a ferry to Green Island to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef. From Cairns it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there but even to begin with the day was looking great. The clouds that covered Cairns didn’t last the journey and we got to Green Island with only a few scattered clouds in the sky.

On the way to the island we saw the ocean change from one amazing colour to another as we went through various water depths and coral formations. And in the deepest part there were two humped back whales that swam under us. We carried our snorkelling gear on to the island, then set up on secluded beach and headed out to see if the Great Barrier Reef was as good as the pictures say it is.

Initially as I went out there was loads of sea grass and very few fish, but as I got to the coral fields I saw fish that were black, neon green and every other colour of the rainbow, star fish that were amazingly bright blue and hundreds of sea cucumbers. After the first period in the water we decided to move to a different spot in the water that was less choppy as Dad needed to teach Jackson how to use the snorkels and that is difficult when you have to deal with waves as well. The next place we snorkelled in was on the  side of the island that faced away from the wind so the sea was much calmer and there was a life guard and squares made of piping that you could hold onto and fix any minor problems with the snorkels. Here the sea was significantly deeper than what it was on the other side of the island so I got bored and took out my snorkel and dived under to swim with the fish. The rest of the day was spent snorkelling and relaxing on your own schedule as snorkelling is something that you generally do by yourself, and when I tried swimming with Ryan I quickly lost him when I went off chasing fish.

In the last bit of snorkelling I did I couldn’t find any areas with lots of coral and the fish that come with them but I did swim with a sea turtle for a while.

It was an absolutely stunning day and worth every cent to go and see the Great Barrier Reef up as close as we were.