We packed our beach bags and walked to the dock in Cairns to take a ferry to Green Island, which is 17 miles offshore and is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Green island is really pretty and pristine. It does have one resort on the island (very expensive – it even has a helipad) and wonderful snorkeling just off the beaches.

Here’s the dock area on Green Island

Shannon on the deck of the boat:

From the pier, we could see a school of fish being harassed by a barracuda.

We set up on the beach and caught some rays

The Aussie sun was strong and we were ready to get in the water for some snorkeling

Here’s a video of me swimming up to a green turtle

It was very pretty underwater with tons of sea life

We had a nice buffet lunch back on the boat before hanging out at another beach on the island.

On the ferry ride back to Cairns, we had some ice cream a couple ginger beers. Walking back through Cairns, we noticed a good deal of people fairly drunk in the afternoon for St. Patty’s Day.

Tropic Days Backpackers is a sister property of Travellers Oasis, and they host a barbeque once a week, which I highly recommend! The food was all kinds of local specialties (crocodile, kangaroo, emu and local fish) plus tons of sides (or salads as they call them).

We brought our own bottle of wine and ate a lot of good food. The place was full of backpackers and we met a couple new friends while hanging out. After the meal, the owner told us his story about starting a hostel in Cairns and even gave us a didgeridoo demonstration.

After dinner, a lot of us piled into the shuttle buses to check out the main drag for St. Patty’s day. After a couple pints of Guinness, we found ourselves in a packed bar singing out ‘Living on a Prayer’ by Bon Jovi with the other patrons.