Snorkeling

We were up early to go snorkeling on the coral reef. This entailed an early breakfast, and we and another couple assembled at 8:00am to get on the boat.

The trip is sold as being “swimming with manta rays” but, as with all wild animal excursions, there’s no guarantee that they’ll turn up. The guide and captain were optimistic, however, and gave us a briefing about what to do if we encountered a manta – don’t make a splash or you’ll frighten them away, don’t try to chase them (you’ll never keep up), and don’t panic…they’re gentle giants and won’t eat you! Some of the rays are regular visitors and have names – we were able to see them pictured on the wall of the activities hut.

It was about half an hour’s cruise to the reef. On arrival we donned fins and masks and slipped into the water. There were several boats from other resorts as well, so we were enjoined to stick close to our guide and not get mixed up with other groups. There were only four of us so this wasn’t difficult. The reef is as good as any, and there were vast numbers of fish of all the usual reef varieties that you see swimming in aquaria, just all going about their fishy business, and not being at all bothered by us. The coral was pretty spectacular as well.

We swam for about half an hour before heading back to the boat and going a little further, to the channel where the manta rays usually feed. This is again a coral reef, and the direction of the tide pulls you along so you barely need to swim at all – the moon and ocean do the heavy lifting. There were no rays to be seen on our first pass, so we went back to the beginning and did it again. This time there were…still no rays to be seen. It was a busted flush. Ah well, you can’t win ‘em all. We’d seen many spectacular fish and corals so it was a good morning out. We arrived back at around 11:30, and sat around idling before having our lunch. No pics as we don’t have underwater photo technology.

 

Fiji

Yay! We’re off to Fiji!

We’d booked through an agent who advised us that flying Fiji Airways would be best, as they fly direct from Wellington. Fiji is one of the few destinations outside Australia that can be reached directly from here. The flight was uneventful, and we were met at the other end by representatives from Rosie’s Travel. It took four of them to pass us along to find our driver, but were soon ensconced in a transport to our hotel for the first night, the Sheraton Denarau Villas. It’s on the Denarau Island area which is basically all given over to hotels, a golf course, and not much else. This is a top-end hotel, and it appears that for many people this is their destination in Fiji, but we were only staying one night.

Views!

Sunsets!

Cocktails!

We were up at sparrow fart for breakfast in order to catch the bus to the port in the morning. We’d been advised that we needed to be in reception at 7:45am to get the bus, which duly turned up…at 8:15. It’s only a short ride to the port, where we checked in then boarded the boat to Waya Island Resort, our final destination. On reading the fine print of the ticket, however, we discovered that we could have been far more leisurely and taken the afternoon sailing instead. Ah well. 

The boat trip takes two hours, sailing out along the island chain and dropping people off at various resorts. We arrived after a few stops and two hours – the water was very smooth, which was a blessing. We were the only people disembarking at Waya, which is done by boat transfer as there isn’t a jetty and the ferry can’t come in to the shore. We were serenaded as we arrived and then escorted to the resort, which only consists of a few villas and bure (huts) at the water’s edge. There’s a restaurant and bar, pool, and activities hut, and that’s about it.

We had a drink whilst our room was readied, then checked in and explored the area. In the afternoon, we watched a demonstration of how to extract coconut water and flesh from a coconut – something we’ve seen on our travels many times before, but this time we were invited to have a go ourselves! The coconut flesh is soaked in the water and then squeezed to make coconut milk, then strained through the husk of the coconut. This was a prelude to the chef giving us a demo of how to make kokoda – the Fijian version of the universal fish dish of the South Pacific. The tuna had been marinated in lemon juice, then salted, strained and coconut milk added. Salt, pepper, chilli, garlic, red pepper, coriander, and onions are then added and after a few minutes it’s ready to eat. And very delicious it was, as we helped ourselves to seconds, and then thirds.

Extracting the coconut...

preparing the dish...

Final result!

In the evening we assembled in the bar at sunset, drinking cocktails and watching the sun go down, before a dinner of fish, followed by fish, followed by carrot cake.

Thus ended day one on Waya Island. There’s no telly so early to bed, early to rise is the rhythm of the days here, as some of the activities are tide-dependent so can start very early in the morning.