Cairns

Saturday 29 June

After finally arriving in Cairns after being delayed leaving Melbourne and then stressing that we couldn’t catch our connecting flight from Brisbane, we caught a taxi to our hotel and had a good sleep in before chowing down on a great buffet breakfast.

We decided to have a lazy day and try to ensure the boys were not too tired. Although after walking Cairns (including the market, the retail precinct and the harbour) by the time we got to dinner they were absolutely spent and slept very well.

Sunday 30 June

After waking reasonably early we again enjoyed another buffet breakfast – could get used to this – and headed down to the harbour to catch the Big Cat and enjoy a day of snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. After boarding the boat, grabbing our snorkelling gear and wetsuits we had a trip of just over an hour to get to Green Island. 

Linda and the Big Cat at Green Island

Once there, we donned our gear and spent an hour viewing the stunning coral and fish the reef has to offer. Before heading back on to the boat to enjoy a buffet lunch we took a walk around Green Island which would take about half an hour to walk around but has a 4 star hotel and shops on it.

Having finished lunch we took a cruise on a semi-submarine, which gave us a unique view of the reef and its inhabitants. We saw many different fish and some sharks as well which we could not see while snorkelling.

Back on the beach we again got into our snorkelling gear to see how many different species of fish we could find. Declan and I were very fortunate to swim with a turtle and we seemed to find many more fish on this foray into the water.

View from the Semi-sub

We headed back to Cairns very satisfied with our day’s adventure and after a quick meal at one of Cairns’ many restaurants headed back to our hotel exhausted.