Great Adventures Review Green Island & Great Barrier Reef

Great Adventures Review Green Island & Great Barrier Reef

This full day tour is a fantastic experience, showcasing both Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef, and making them accessible to people of all ages. Lots of activities are included in the tour price, including snorkelling, with equipment provided at both Green Island and at the Outer Reef pontoon, semi-submersible tours and an underwater observatory. Optional extras include certified or introductory scuba diving, a guided snorkel tour, Scuba-Doo underwater scooter experience and scenic helicopter flights. The day begins with boarding the Great Adventures’ catamaran in Cairns from 8am, for an 8.30am departure; during the 45 minute transfer to Green Island, the crew help you plan your day and activities. They provided everyone with a schedule of times and a map of Green Island, pointing out key locations including the island’s Dive Centre, which is where you pick-up your snorkelling equipment, and noted the time to return to the boat, for the onwards trip to the Outer Reef.

“Everyone from Great Adventures was super helpful and very friendly. From the check-in staff to the crew on the boat, the Dive Centre team and our dive guide, they all went above and beyond to make sure we had a great day. The catamaran was stable and comfortable, and there was plenty of time to enjoy Green Island. From bird watching, to snorkelling off the beach, relaxing on the sand and tucking into an ice-cream by the pool, it was all time well spent. Continuing onwards to the Outer Reef, our dive guide provided a briefing on the equipment and our dive, which we did as soon as we got to the pontoon. Water entry was down a submerged staircase from the pontoon into the ocean, and our dive time was 45 minutes. Then we enjoyed lunch, did some snorkelling and did a semi-submersible tour. The day was well planned and paced, and we arrived back to Cairns right on schedule, at 5.30pm.” – Julie Johnston

Green Island & Outer Reef Snorkelling with Great Adventures

The Great Adventures catamaran arrived at Green Island at 9.15am, giving us 2 hours to explore and enjoy the beaches, fringing reef and island facilities. Snorkelling equipment was included in the tour price and was available for collection from the island’s Dive Centre. Once that was in hand, we made our way down to the beach, where we encountered several species of birds, including black noddy terns, sooty terns and seagulls. The clear water beside the jetty was teeming with small fish and we set out to explore the shallows. Highlights of the snorkelling was seeing a striking blue anemone, green sea turtle, 2 massive cowtail rays and starfish amongst the sea grass. Please note there are two places you can snorkel at Green Island, beside the jetty (which is where we snorkelled) and ‘just around the corner’ at another beach, which has life guards present. This second beach also has beach hire, including comfortable sunlounge recliners. As guests of Great Adventures, you’re also welcome to swim at the resort pool and grab an ice-cream or refreshment (additional cost) on the island. We were advised to be back on the jetty at 11.20am, to catch the 11.30am boat to the Outer Reef (and make sure you’ve kept your boarding pass, as you will need to present it), and looked forward to the next part of our day.

We visited the Great Adventures pontoon at Moore Reef. This split-level pontoon has a top level ‘sundeck’ for relaxing, a shaded middle level with table and chair seating, changing rooms and the dive deck, and a lower level which includes the submerged platform for scuba divers and underwater observatory. Water access for snorkellers is from a platform on the middle level, which is lowered into the sea with a seat to put on your mask and fins. It was low tide when we snorkelled and some parts of the reef were visible above the surface. Meanwhile, beneath the surface, the water was teeming with fish of all shapes and sizes. We saw large schools of colourful chromis, rabbitfish, parrotfish, butterfly fish, angel fish, coral trout, giant trevally and more.

Great Adventures Dive Review Great Barrier Reef Pontoon

Great Adventures provide certified scuba diving and introductory diving (no experience necessary) on their outer reef pontoon. All Great Adventures scuba diving is guided and dive time is generally 45-minutes, per dive. All equipment is included in the dive price, which is in addition to the tour price. The dive briefing is provided on the boat, as it makes its way to the Outer Reef from Green Island. Water access for scuba divers is on the dive deck, which is located on the middle level of the pontoon. Here you put your gear on and walk down some stairs into the water, to a platform around waist height. Once everyone is ready, the divers descend to commence their exploration of the reef. At the mooring blocks underneath the pontoon, our dive guide Maroos pointed out a Schultz pipefish, which was pretty cool as I haven’t seen one of those before. We explored the coral walls and bommies during the dive and saw several anemonefish, titan triggerfish, coral trout and humphead maori wrasse – we also spent some quality time with a hawksbill sea turtle. A highlight of the scuba dive for us, was visiting the underwater coral nursery where coral is being propagated in conjunction with the Coral Nurture program. This was a fantastic opportunity to see different species of coral being grown on platforms, providing habitat for tiny schools of fish.

After the dive, it was lunch time on the pontoon. There was a hot and cold buffet, which included bread rolls, deli meats, prawns and a selection of salads, potato gratin, Japanese curry and a vegetable stir fry. Cool water was provided and included, or you could purchase other beverages on the catamaran, which stayed moored to the pontoon for the duration of your reef time. Next on our list was a semi-submersible trip, which was accompanied with commentary explaining what we were seeing. The final activity of the day for us was the marine presentation, which was delivered on the snorkel platform and included feeding some giant trevally and a humphead maori wrasse. There were other optional extras we could do, including a guided snorkel tour, scenic helicopter rides and the Scuba Doo underwater scooter, but we did not participate in these on this visit. At 3.20pm it was time to board the boat and at 3.30pm we commenced the journey back to Cairns. During the return trip we grabbed some beverages from the bar, enjoyed the complimentary cake, cheese and crackers and filled out the dive log. Great Adventures got us back to Cairns right on time, at 5.30pm.