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Published: January 5th 2012
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Happy New Year 2012 and best wishes to all of you. This is the first entry of 2012...mainly about our last few days of 2011!
I really don't know where to start this entry. So much to say, and I have no idea in which order to put things.
Shall we start by the beginning of 2011....we started in Syria, Leslie, Mari and I. We had no idea that few days later, the Arab Spring would be on the verge, not many people have had the experience we had in Syria in 2011. Keep in mind, 7 days after Mubarak went down in Egypt, I was enjoying Cairo as never before!
But our wishes for 2011 came to us earlier than we expected...sometimes, you just have to trust time, or at least your patience and serious will....as you know, since June, Tiffany is living with us. We had no idea it would happen when 2011 rose in January 1st in Aleppo, but it did. Funny to say that since June, 7 months have been passing by so fast, maybe simply because we are enjoying everyday of it, knowing that for once, tomorrow
is not the end, tomorrow is just another day that we can fullfil with a lot fo fun!
So 2011 may have been tricky by many ways, specially the economic ones for many. For us, it will always be the year of Tiffany, or shall I say, the end of a chapter, and the beginning of a new book!
So without any logic, if it is the one of carpe diem, here we are in paradise for the last few days of 2011...and the firs few of 2012! I name paradise, the Doplhin Bay Resort, few minutes out from the Rainbow Reef, on Vanua Levu, next to Taveuni. You stay stop here, please translate!
Do you remember a great guy called Jean-Jacques Cousteau...he enlighted us, and sadly he is gone, but his memory and legacy is here. Jean-Jacques (or as they say John) Cousteau discovered the Rainbow Reef, and with it his Great White Wall of corals....no politics here, just pure diving...pure water...pure corals...
The Rainbow Reef claims to be in the top 10 diving places in the world...doesn't deserve top five, but I would believe 7th or
8th would be fair. The Rainbow Reef lay right in the middle of the SomoSomo Straight. Ok, here is the translation. Vanua Levu is the second island by size of Fiji, and Taveuni is number 3, and between these two, the straight is a serious provider of drift water that give birth to amazing corals...I name...the Rainbow Reef!
Most people diving the Rainbow Reef will be staying on Taveuni, also nickname the Garden Island. Taveuni has a worldwide claim, as it is one of the only mass land crossed by the date line. If you read this from Europe or the States, you are going to ask what Am I speaking of. Don't you know, this little place where 2000 started first...well, this is here, one of the only land, with Siberia and Antartica crossed by the dateline....on one foot you can have today, and next centimeter, it's still tomorrow, 24th hours later...trust me, this is better than crossing the Equator by land ( I name Uganda).
So on 31st December midnight, we can say that we have been in the first 15,000 people (on earth!) to party to the arrival of 2012!
We found our little paradise at the Dolphin Bay resort...officiallly run from Taveuni, but sitting in a bay on Vanua Levu....but if you want to come here...there is no road, no link to Vanua Levu, you arrive after a 20 minutes crossing from Taveuni.
Actually the Dolphin Bay resort is the eco-resort of today...no running water here, it's only recycled rain water...we had only twice two hours rain in eight days, this in the middle of the cyclone season...good for us, not for Fiji! We had to make sure our showers stay...short...
No power either. The place run on solar power for the lights in the bungalow, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We had the old classic oil lamp as back up. They also have a generator few hours per day...it's a dive place, they have to refill the tanks! Best of all, we even had wifi, proper speed...but only with the generator!
Dolphin Bay Resort are also running on there own hour, an hour ahead of Taveuni...so for once, we were the first humans to live the day! Reason is simple, not many divers around, but we
prefer to keep diving sites to ourselves.
The resort went from fully booked in 8 days, to only 7 guests per night...but than again, fully booked is only 14 guests maximum! Wow, that was nice!
For one, I will name the staff as they make the difference, I first name our dive team, Manassa, Wilson, Zoe and Captain Apex...a big Thanks!!! And also the remaining team of Dolhpin Bay, you made our stay wonderful, I name Katy, Roland and Viola and everybody else.
Why you should not come here....if you need air-con, if you don't like friendly crabs, frogs and spiders, even in you room, if you need a full menu...and if you don't smile, please don't come!
If you are on for great food, local, spicy, none spicy...and don't mind not having a swimming pool...that's ok, the beach was great, the cats and dogs too...we had a great time!
This place is cheap to sleep, reasonnable in price to eat, and a little more expensive to dive....but than again, what a place!
Tiffany did two dives with Zoe...yes, we are divers!
Leslie registered his 18th dive while Mari was doing her 150th...and me my 400th!
This place is not for novice divers....what make it fun, is the drift. Warning, we lost a diver on our first dive! Well, being an ok advanced OW padi divers here may not be enough. Drift is the game, and trust me, it's fun, strong and sport! We still made fun competitions with Mari...the one which could come back with the most bars after going down 34 meters, huge drift...50 minutes and over...and 70++ bars...fun!
Leslie went down with me two dives at the House Reef and three wild open water dives. He had to "ride the bottle" of the dive master, but he did learn a lot!
The Rainbow Reef is all about healthy corals...hard...soft...corals full galore! To top it up, we had the fishes, the nudibranches, sharks and turtles on nealry every dive, plus few rays. Wow, but the best is still the drift, not for everyone!
I'm writting this from Sydney, enjoying some nice lamb pie and Barossa Shiraz before heading north to the cold to Hong Kong, and later colder in Shanghai!
2012....well, should be fun the way we planned it...you will know more over the coming months, but now that we have Leslie and Tiffany living with us, it's all about planning the amazing, trying to match the budget.
All our best wishes for 2012!!!
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Donna and Neil
Donna and Neil
What a way to bring in 2012!
Happy New Year - you know how to see in the new year in style! Hope you have packed your woolies for Hong Kong and Shanghai...a bit of a change from Fiji and Australia temperatures. Best wishes for 2012, here's to lots of travelling!