Hiking, Snorkeling, and Resort crashing

A great, restful night’s sleep felt so good, sunrising at 6:30am felt strange however since it was 4:15am in Alaska the past three weeks. No complaints, the scenery and temperatures are perfect. Carl put me to grinding the coffee beans and soon enough it was a “To the day!” cheer. After some breakfast, Roxy and I piled into the dinghy for a hike leaving Carl to paddleboard in for a run.

Last year the locals had burned a massive area of the island, this year it is all green again with lots of large plots of new papaya trees. I was completely shocked by how fast the island restored itself. We went out to Lo’s tea house, skipping the tea but enjoying the view of the ocean from this side of the island. Hiking back, Carl passed us in the opposite direction just before the trail splits to the “cruise ship beach.”

Regrouping on the boat we waited for our fresh fruit and vegetables delivery from Farm Boy (via the ferry I took yesterday) and then straight away upped anchor and moved to the Blue Lagoon resort a few miles north and the next island up the chain. Other than dodging numerous reefs it was a simple trip with our anchor set in 20 feet of water over deep sand.

Tori called us up for a snorkel, Roxy skipped the excursion but Carl and I suited up and paddle boarded to the reef. There was a group with a guide from the resort, we befriended the guide Moses, who pointed us to the best places. The first third of the snorkel was the best, colorful coral, numerous Snappers (which I had not seen in Fiji before), and a really cool Yellow rimmed fish with black and white pattern inside. As swam further out the quality declined but all in all a really fun time.

Dinner was at the resort, reservation at 7:30pm we headed to shore at 6:00 with SV Cape Maria for cocktails. Note to future guests, do not order a martini. Horrible. It was a good thing we were having some great conversations because it wasn’t until 8:15pm that our table was finally ready. Thankfully the first few dishes came out quickly (it is a four+ course meal). A hiccup at the end with dessert, I was the only one to order the panna cotta with everyone else ordering lemon cake. 10 minutes turned into 15, turned into 20 before we asked if we had been forgotten. Seems they have no lemon cake and maybe they hoped we would leave??? Adjustments were made to chocolate mousse and soon we had our final course. Way past our bed time it was right to sleep for me, as I was still recovering from my travels.

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