Fiji - Pearl Hotel at Pacific Harbour

It had been a few weekends out of the water so we thought we should head down the coast, a 45 minute drive South from Suva, to do a dive at what is acclaimed as one of the top 10 dive sights in the world. While we were there we figured we might as well take advantage of a great 'local rates' deal at the hotel and stay somewhere flash. The hotel was really lovely, beautiful grounds and really lovely rooms. We got lucky and scored a sea view room (although only paying for the garden view) which was so lovely waking up to in the morning. There's not a great deal to say about this weekend, it was just so relaxing because we didn't do much. We'd had drinks the night before so weren't up too early start on Saturday morning. When we got to the hotel we lazed around by the pool and had a few cocktails. Dinner that night was up on the terrace overlooking the grounds with all the lanterns and candles lit. It would have been fabulously romantic, if it wasn't my friend Beth and I with my manager and her husband. Literally the only other two couples in the restaurant looked like honeymooners....aahhhh, all very gushy.

On Sunday we got up and boarded the boat to head out for a couple of dives. Andrew and I had a great time, poor Beth had to console herself with snorkelling, guess who left their dive license at home. It was a fantastic day, clear blue skies and great visibility under water. The first dive (dive sight called Pearl Rock) caused a few issues for me because I hadn't fixed my weights properly and when I got under water I kept floating up (and away!) so our dive master had to give me one his weights. My dive buddy had to hang onto my leg to kept me down while the dive master fixed another weight on me. I later saw our dive master swimming along with a big rock in his hands; I thought he must have taken a liking to it and wanted to bring it up with him. The penny finally dropped (later that afternoon when Andrew explained it to me) that he needed to hold the rock as weight because I'd stolen one of his weights and thrown out his buoyancy. Opps!

After an hour laying on the boat catching some sun we went down for the next dive (dive sight Engagement) which went much smoother, I really really enjoyed it. That afternoon we went back to the hotel for lunch, another cocktail, and an afternoon of listening to jazz and laying back. It’s a tough a life…but somebodies gotta do it 

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