After packing up our hotel room last night in Sydney, we got up very early to catch our 8:30 am flight to Cairns, up on the coast in in far north Queensland. On our descent into Cairns, we could actually see bits of the reef in the ocean: smudges of turquoise in the dark blue water. From the airport, we caught a taxi to the ferry terminal where we boarded a boat to Green Island. We arrived about 2:00 in the afternoon. Let me set the scene:
The island itself is in the inner part of the Great Barrier Reef, about a 30 minute boat ride due east from Cairns.
When he landed there in 1770, Captain Cook named it after his shipboard astronomer, Charles Green. I was surprised to learn that, since I'd assumed that it was named for its flora --- there's a good bit of jungle on the interior, so it is indeed a green Green Island. Also, the resort and other facilities are very concerned with saving water and electricity and are generally very eco-friendly, so it is in fact a green green Green Island. (Waa waa...)
The island itself is basically teardrop-shaped, surrounded by beach and some rocky bits, with the jungle on the interior. The hotel and associated restaurant / pool / poolside bar / snorkel gear rental / cheesy shops selling overpriced flip-flops and underpriced sarongs are located on one side, near a long jetty where the boats pull up throughout the day. At the ocean end of the jetty is another shop and the entrance to a underwater observatory, which is open throughout the day. The main swimming beach is located on right side of the jetty from the point of view of island --- this is where there are actual lifeguards patrolling and beach chairs and umbrellas and suchlike. The other, somewhat smaller, beach is on the left side of the jetty, and was a good launching point for snorkeling and for seeing the fish that like to hang out in the shadows under the jetty itself. At the island end of the jetty is a big "Welcome to Green Island" sign, which put Michael in mind of the Dharma Initiative (namaste, man!), especially given the dark jungle just behind the hotel...is that a smoke monster I see? :)
The entire island is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and it's tiny --- only about 29 acres total, with room for about 100 or so guests. In addition to the resort, the island is a jumping-off point for day-trippers from Cairns, who come there to snorkel or do helicopter rides or parasailing, or to catch a bigger boat that goes further out into the Reef. So during the day it's a little bit crowded and touristy (mostly Japanese and Germans, a few Italians and a fair number of internal Aussie tourists), but they do a good job of keeping the "houseguests" taken care of and separate from the daytime tourists. Example: there's a general use pool out in the courtyard, but the hotel has a smaller pool just for use of guests so that we don't have to swim with the riff-raff. Not that anyone should be in the pool when there's the ocean right there, but that's a different matter. The last boat leaves the island in the evening about 4:00, and after that it gets very quiet and peaceful.
Our room was fantastic. The king bed was elevated on a few steps just to the left of the door, and to the right was a small seating area with comfy chairs and a table. Past that, there's the afore-mentioned porch, which looks out on a fringe of jungle separating us from the walkway that circles the island. The bathroom had both a whirlpool and a stall shower. Quite posh, even though the former was used exclusively for drying our bathing suits.
View of the room from the sitting area, towards the bed:
Reverse view from the bed, towards the sitting area and porch:
After we checked in, we took a walk around the island, partially on an interpretive boardwalk that gave info about the native plants and how the island was formed (the words "coral cay" came up a lot), and partially on the beach. It was so lovely to dip our toes in the water and rest a little on the lounges at the beach and just try to let the world go. As expected, the afternoon sun was quite hot, but don't worry Mom, we used lots of sunscreen. I mean, lots of sunscreen. So much that my skin was pasty white from it...oh wait, that's just my natural skin tone. Actually, I was so careful with the SPF 45 that I didn't get the least bit tan the whole time I was there, in fact, so without looking carefully for the two or three extra freckles on my nose it might be hard to believe I was on a beach at all. On the bright side, I didn't turn into an itchy red lobster. Ah, that Eastern European heritage!
After our walk, we had some lovely white wine on the patio and took in the view:
Around 5:45, we went down to the little picnic area by the beach for our evening cocktails, gratis: champagne and mango juice. I'm addicted. We watched the sun set over the beach as the tide came in and the black and white herons starting their evening hunting excursions. Toes in white sand, brilliant sunset over the water, peaceful lapping of the water on the sand, nice little buzz from the champagne...really, does it get better than that?
We were a little worried the the food options would be limited for vegetarians, since we are in a very meat-heavy culture and on a somewhat isolated island to boot, but there were actually two veggie main courses for offer on the menu: a pumpkin risotto (oh right, it's winter) and a tian (whatever that is) of roasted vegetables and figs with goat cheese blinis. Actually, on the menu it was spelled "blini's". Oy. I had the former and Michael had the latter, and we split a large green salad. The menu items were thoughtfully selected but the preparation left a little something to be desired. My risotto was a little mealy and not quite warm enough, and they left the "blini's" off of Michael's dish entirely. Oh well. I guess we can't have it all. Towards the end of the meal we were joined by a gigantic moth, about the size of my palm, that took a liking to the leftover tomato sauce on Michael's plate. Welcome to it.
At 9:00 every night, there is a nature walk, which alternates between going to the underwater observatory to look at the fish at night and along the beach to look for ghost crabs. Our first night, it was the observatory walk, so we joined Sid, the local nature guy, at the jetty. First we walked along the jetty, shining our flashlights at the water to see if we could spot any fish. There were a few green sea turtles surfacing, but the fish were elusive. It was also a little hard to see out of the underwater observatory at night, since you have to shine your light out at a sharp angle to avoid it just bouncing back at you off the glass. We did see a few brightly colored parrotfish (more accurately, bits of their tails) wedged into the rocks to sleep, but otherwise not much to report. Then, it was early to bed to prepare for a long day of snorkeling tomorrow.
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