Monday 12 April 2010
Today is Goog’s birthday so there was a bit of a lie in - breakfast today was at 7.30am!
We hired a car and travelled to Pacific Harbour, about 50 kilometres to the west.
Here we were given instructions on the use of a jet ski (which Grumps listened to intently as he had never been on one before) and given life jackets and the snorkelling gear which was packed away in a water proof container on the ski.
Our guide Ben introduced himself and three craft took off, although the machine that Grumps was in charge of took quite some time to reach a reasonable speed – he was shaking too much.
We travelled to an island around 18 kilometres away across this huge lagoon. The trip took about 20 minutes and Grumps was as nervous as one could possibly imagine. He was very grateful for the life jacket which is compulsory whilst travelling on one of these machines.
The water was reasonably calm, but for a novice like Grumps, the waves were hitting the ski a little too often. At one stage, about half way to the island, Grumps lifted his hand to show Goog the deep imprints of the steering handle embedded in his palm. However, he stared to relax and enjoy the ride. Poor Goog said that she could feel all the tension because she had to hang onto Grumps as the ‘pillion passenger’, but she too felt the tension dissipate so she was also able to enjoy the trip.
We eventually arrived at a small coral island - it had two coconut trees and a very small amount of vegetation and was made mostly of dead coral with a little bit of sand. There were quite a few birds roosting here and I imagine that their droppings were sustain the vegetation.
Here we donned the snorkels and swum out for a look. The colour of the coral under the water had to be seen to be believed – it was amazing, as were the fish because they were larger and even more colourful than those at the resort.
After half an hour at this island, we travelled to another much larger island. This island had a small resort on one side and a village on the other. The colour of the water was the deepest blue that Grumps had seen and he wished that he had his camera with him, which he left behind because he did not to lose it in the water. However, Michelle had her underwater camera, so all was not lost.
We stopped at the small resort which comprised of 4 cabins for guests, a bar/kitchen/dining room and an ablutions block. It was situated in a sort of a recession in the side of the hill which had sheer rock faces. Despite this, trees and vegetation grew everywhere – when you stood in the middle of the clearing you had jungle on three sides and an amazingly blue sea on the remaining side. It was easily the most beautiful spot we had seen in Fiji and was entirely unforgettable.
But more was to come - this time it was not the coral that was so spectacular, but the fish. They were bigger, brighter and seemed quite tame. We couldn’t believe how easily we able to swim around with them – as Michelle put it; it was like swimming in a huge tropical fish tank.
Eventually we stopped for a sandwich lunch and watched the tropical thunderstorms build up. Ben decided it was time to return to base otherwise we would be caught in one and with one vastly inexperienced jet skier, which would not be very clever.
The trip back we enjoyed intensely – the nerves were gone and we able to give the machines full throttle on the way back. This was just as well, because some 5 minutes after we arrived, down came the rain.
After returning to the resort it was off to the usual place for the usual few before dinner. The after dinner entertainment was a kava ceremony and dirty dishwater is a few points ahead in the taste and consistency test.
Tomorrow is the waterfall walk which is reputed to be a good experience and one that Grumps is looking forward to.
