A short ferry ride from Cairns in Farm North Queensland, we arrived at Green Island. Set on the Great Barrier Reef, this stunning eco tourism island acts mostly as a ferry ride stop for day trips to the outer reef with a few charter companies, there is also an eco resort hidden in world heritage rainforest the on the island and we checked in for 3 nights so we could take our time exploring this stunning part of the world.

Green Island is quite small, it would take approx 40 minutes to walk the entire island, but what makes it so special is that Green Island is an ancient coral cay, and the only one on the Great Barrier Reef that is also home to a rainforest! Formed around 6,000 years ago, this Great Barrier Reef island is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna.

When you book your stay on the island you have free use of snorkelling equipment and sun lounges on the beach, as well as daily fish feeding at the jetty, 30-minute glass-bottom boat tour and self-guided rainforest walk, this means you are not limited to set snorkelling times and were free to completely disconnect and take your time to explore parts of the island. As our kids were 7 and 10 at the time of our holiday, we tended to snorkel 2-3 times a day and either read books or take a walk through the rainforest at other times.

When the day visitors have all left the island for the day, we are welcomed to the jetty for complimentary drinks to watch the sunset each night. As night falls the island is home to many birds that come from the mainland, we were also able to watch some lemon sharks hunting around the jetty at night.

You really feel part of nature here, on sunrise walks on the beach we had multiple sightings of shark hunts on the reef, one chasing a school of fish right into the shoreline.

While snorkelling we didn’t manage a sighting of the Dugong, but there are some nearby, but we did see loads of sea turtles, abundance of fish and sea creatures, sting ray and reef sharks.

Internet is 3G at best and generally from one spot on the island, so it was actually quite nice to actually disconnect for a few days and appreciate such a special place.

There is also a crocodile/nature park on the island, though we opted not to visit as we had planned to see some crocs in the wild later on our trip with Solar Whisper.