Wednesday, February 5, 2002

Sea Plane to Green Island

At 7:15 an Aquaflight van picked us up and took us over to the pier where we were given a safety briefing and boarded a 10 passenger sea plane for the 13 minute flight to Green Island. We arrived there well before anyone else, since most people take a boat which takes much longer. We staked out a couple of lounge chairs and an umbrella under a tree, then headed in to the water for some snorkeling. The reef was just offshore, with an amazing variety of marine life.

Afterwards we walked around the island (it was pretty small, it only took 15 minutes to walk from one end to the other).

After looking around the far end of the island, we went back to the beach for some more snorkeling.

Once again we saw an amazing variety of creatures swimming around the coral.

The island has a hotel and restaurant on it, so we had some lunch then sat on the beach to wait for our return flight. It was fun to watch our plane fly over and land in front of the beach. The pilot came ashore in a small boat which was moored out in the water, then took us out to the plane. Another 15 minutes and we were back in Cairns.

We had read that there was an aquarium at "The Pier" shopping center where you could dive with sharks. We stopped in and they had a slot open at 5pm, so we headed back to the hotel for a dip in the pool and then went back at 4:30. After a quick briefing on the scuba gear, we were in a 30 foot by 40 foot tank which was about 15 feet deep. It had a number of sharks, skates and other fish in it. We got to watch them go right by us, which was a bit unnerving, but became normal after a few minutes. We took the underwater camera with us so that we could get some pictures.

Afterwards we walked around Cairns for a bit and found a nice quiet restaurant to have dinner at. Once again, it had been a very full day!