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Published: January 20th 2006
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Hermit Crab
No crustaceans were harmed during this photo shoot. Day 1
Our Fiji trip began with a friend picking us up and dropping us off at Gosford train station. In just under an hour-and-a-half, we were at the international departures terminal at Sydney airport. After a four-hour flight and a one-hour time change, we arrived in Nadi on the main island of Viti Levu just in time to be transported to our overnight hotel - the Tanoa International - a beautiful hotel with very hungry mosquitoes that dined well on Sarah’s legs!
Day 2
Up early to be transported to the marina for our ferry to Malolo Island. When we arrived at the “marina” (an open-air ticket booth and two docks), we were told that the Tiger IV catamaran was in need of repair… and they began to load our luggage into a small red water taxi! We cruised the 15 or so kilometers in pretty big waves (1-2m swells) across the ocean at 450 horsepower! It sure was a fast trip - only about 30 minutes! Tom got soaked, and Sarah managed to keep her breakfast down just fine. Because of the fast transfer from marina to hotel, our rooms weren’t ready, so we checked out the beach
Just Relaxing
Tom's feet (Sarah's are much prettier) bar and walked around a bit. We eventually settled in and found a patch of shade for the remainder of the afternoon. A nice breeze kept the temperature manageable in the shade. Around the beach there was plenty of choice for shade or sun in both chairs and hammocks!
Day 3
Finally… a day to just sit and relax. No traveling, no planning, no driving. Great buffet breakfast followed by some relaxing on the beach. We dug out our fins, snorkels and masks and explored the reef right at our beach. What an incredible variety of fish! All sorts of bright colours and different sizes. Coral and anemones too! Had lunch at the beach bar, then settled into a hammock to read for the rest of the afternoon. Sarah got a little too much sun today… 10 minutes without sunscreen is 10 minutes too much here!
Day 4
No TV or Radio in our room means that we’re getting caught up on a lot of sleep! The wind picked up quite a bit today - white caps all over! We booked ourselves into the afternoon dive - a fairly shallow, easy dive for beginners. We were picked up
More Relaxing
Off to the left is Madigi Island (we think) - "Why book a room when you can have your own island?". A little beyond our price range. at 2:00 Fiji time (2:30) and headed out through all the waves to the dive site. It took a while to get suited up because Tom’s tank kept blowing it’s O-ring. We eventually changed the tank and the regulator just to be sure and rolled in. We both were a little concerned - Tom was getting a bit of a cold, and Sarah is always worried about her stomach. We both descended to 15m or so just fine, then waited a few minutes for the other three divers to join us. We took off to explore a wall of coral. Unfortunately, after only 15 minutes underwater, Sarah’s worst fears came true… there was no chance lunch was going to stay where it should. Our dive master showed us back to the rope and we ascended without incident… until we hit the surface. After that… it wasn’t pretty (and poor Tom was down-stream). Well - we tried. Tom will do it again, Sarah will not.
Day 5
Tom’s cold has really begun to set in. Unfortunately, that means no more scuba for him (and yes, Sarah feels very guilty about ruining his first and only chance.) A very windy day
The Hammocks were comfy!
A fancy drink, a good book and a gentle ocean breeze ... not enough hours in the day. today - even too windy to take out a small catamaran (we didn’t want to get stranded on the island used in the movie "Castaway" - just around the corner from our island!) We enjoyed a full day of reading on the beach. Tom thought he got sunburned… but was in the shade all day. It turned out to be wind burn - sand-blasting, anyone? The entertainment after dinner tonight was hermit crab racing… with real hermit crabs found on the beach!
Day 6
Meandered up the beach today until we were cut off by a mangrove swamp. Lots of little fiddler crabs with a single bright yellow cheliped. We also found these ugly, hairy-looking starfish-type things. They had 5 very skinny legs and were hiding the main part of their ‘body’ from the sun, but had their ‘legs’ out floating in the tide pools. Really creepy looking - kind of like big spiders - after looking them up, they’re called Spiny Brittle Starfish. Saw lots of washed-up purple/blue jellyfish on the beach - and we were snorkeling there? We are often entertained by schools of 7-10 cm long minnows jumping in schools - hundreds at a time will
jump out of the water several times in a row. You then see the water shimmering where the school is and you can follow it until it jumps again. So cool!
Day 7
Tom was up for some more snorkeling today, so we chased fish for about 40 minutes. Sarah was very lucky and never even had to clear her mask! Big ugly sea cucumbers, bright purple starfish, all sorts of colourful tropical fish - you feel like you’re swimming in a salt-water aquarium! After snorkeling, we counted 9 (yes 9) washed up jellyfish along our beach. I’m glad we didn’t see any while we were in the water - what would a scream sound like through a snorkel? We wanted to sail a bit today, but the weather changed dramatically - absolutely no breeze at all! Sailing would have only resulted in frustration. So… another afternoon lazing in the shade. We booked into the fancy Treetops restaurant for dinner tonight and it was a very nice meal. We had a great view of the nightly band (the Bellboys - who were moonlighting). The band played a great selection of all sorts of pop and traditional Fijian music. We
Spiny Starfish
Tom was excited to find this rare specimen ... until he found a few hundred more by the main beach. walked back to our room along the beach - and the crabs there are fun to watch. They are very skittish, but if you watch from a distance, you can see them digging their holes. We also found a big fat frog near our room.
Day 8
Another uncomfortable humid day with no breeze… so Tom headed back to bed after breakfast. We went exploring toward the other end of the resort in the afternoon. You have to climb over a huge collection of rocks to get around the other side and we had fun chasing huge red and green crabs. They are awfully skittish though, it’s hard to even see them before they run away from you. We checked out the area where the resort is building a second property - to open in November (but not a single building is completed yet?). It began to rain just as we got back to the resort, but once it slowed down a bit we decided to head out for a last snorkel. Today we found anemone fish going in and out of their anemones - Nemo! Sarah got surrounded by a whole school of translucent blue little fish -
The Bellboys (nightly band)
The guy in the middle made a wooden box and bottle of sand sound as good as any traditional drum kit. and they even let her swim with them for a while before taking off. We continued to marvel at the jumping schools of minnows. Today it was clear that they were being chased by very big fish - hundreds of little fish jumping followed by a few big fish. And - the birds (Turns) overhead following along and feasting on the school.
Day 9
Time to head out. Luckily, the Tiger IV catamaran has been fixed, so our transfer back to the mainland was much more comfortable. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the Tanoa hotel, we found out that they had overbooked and they needed to transfer us to a nearby hotel. Too bad - the Tanoa was a very nice place. The Macamba was fine, but the room was very dated and worn. Luckily, we got a free dinner and breakfast for our troubles.
Day 10
Made it home safely - hotel transfer to airport - 4 hour flight - 1.5 hour train ride - taxi. Glad to be at our new home. Now it’s time to settle down for a while!
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Great Photos
Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun on your vacation! Sarah, sorry scuba diving didn't agree with you! Keep sending pics (even though the bright colours and stories of the heat are making me vwery angry)!