Now, I know most people spend their Christmas parties with an alcoholic beverage in hand at a hopefully-swanky restaurant or bar. But this year, my work decided to borrow the boss’ credit card and splurge on a day cruise to Moreton Island, off the Brisbane coast. Six of us had a blast aboard Dolphin Wild Cruises.

Spend a day on Moreton Island

The day began with us departing from Newport Marina in Scarborough, north of the city. From here the island is about one hour away, so you can sit back and relax for a while. Then it is time to hop into a sexy wetsuit and do some boom-netting. Word of warning — if you happened to have had a car accident a couple of months before and get stitches underneath your toe, boom-netting isn’t the best idea. Cue getting out of the water and finding yourself in a pool of blood. Luckily my scar healed back over and I didn’t need to get more stitches. Hooray!

Snorkelling

Okay, enough about me being unco. Next, we got to go snorkelling! It was an extra charge of $20 but worth it. There is a great array of fish calling the Tangalooma wrecks home. The wrecks themselves were amazing to swim above, around and through. The fifteen vessels that form the site were deliberately sunk to form a break wall for small boats, and a fantastic diving and snorkelling site. The best part of the snorkelling trip was when the instructor threw bread into the ocean for fish feeding. Tropical fish swimming centimetres in front of my face? Priceless.

After this adventure activity, it was lunchtime. The buffet that is included was sensational: cold ham, chicken and prawns together with a variety of salads. Once you have eaten yourself into a food coma you are taken over to the actual island for swimming, relaxing, sand-dune climbing, whatever tickles your fancy.

For more Queensland inspiration, check out this post

Eco tour

Once everyone is back on the boat it is time for some education – fun education though, trust me. The boat cruises along the Moreton Island foreshore, with one of the guides on a microphone telling us about the island’s history as a whaling station and the beautiful marine life we could see. I got a great seat at the front of the boat and got to see maybe a dugong (we weren’t sure) and three sea turtles. Then it was time for the cruise back to the mainland.

We got back into the marina at about 4 pm. It was such a great day and I would recommend a trip to Moreton Island to anyone visiting Brisbane.