Fiji (Part 2)

So here we are on day three of our Fiji trip.

The view from the buffet breakfast.

On Wednesday morning we got to go out on a snorkel tour.  Here we are leaving the Bay heading towards the sandbar.  There is a huge sandbar surrounding Fiji so there are hardly any waves close to shore, only calm water.  

There is a spot close to the sandbar that a pod of dolphins likes to play in.  We were lucky to be able to spend fifteen or so minutes watching the dolphins swim around.  They came right up and under our boat even.  They are spinner dolphins but they did not jump out of the water for us.  We had a lot of fun taking video of them swimming around us and playing.

There are a lot of islands that make up Fiji.  Three hundred and thirty three from what I've read.  We got to pass a few of them on our boat ride out to the reef.  Our guide pointed out the island where the movie Castaway was filmed:)  This is not it......

We anchored off close to this island and did our snorkeling.

We were supposed to have two stops along the way but the water close to the sandbar was murky because of the recent rain so our guide took us closer to the outer reef.  The water was clearer there and we got some good snorkeling in.  There were a lot of tropical fish and some gorgeous colorful coral.  My favorite was a big purple broccoli shaped one!  I had never seen one of those before.   I love the blue and purple corals.  A little different than the corals in the carribean.  

At one point I spotted a green moray eel out in the open.  It caught me by surprise and I screamed.  I think I scared him too because he quickly got back into its hiding place poking his head out to check me out.  I hollered to Rick who was a little ways away, and he was able to see its head and a little of its body as well:)

My guy,  he LOVES the water!

This paddle board was on our small boat to help us get back into the boat after snorkeling.  Rick thought he would take advantage of it while we were hanging out.  He tried to stand but wasn't too successful:)

After snorkeling, our guide took us out to the sandbar to get some pictures and to play in the water for a few minutes.  This section of the sandbar is mostly covered during high tide.  It was low tide at this point so we were able to stop.  I wish we had had more time here.  It was just a small sandbar but the water was so warm and wonderful!  This log is not generally there but had washed up in the high tide.

This snorkel trip was a highlight of our Fiji stop.  We love to see the ocean wildlife!

That night we got gussied up for a night at Robinson Crusoe Island.

We drove thirty minutes to get to the boat landing (in the middle of nowhere it felt like).  It was pouring rain and I was wondering if the tour was even going to happen.  The rain died off, and as the time got close for us to board the boat three busses drove up full of people.  We all crammed onto the small boat and headed off for the half hour ride to Robinson Crusoe Island.

I wanted to experience a little of Fijian culture before we had to leave the island.

Here we are being greeted as we come off of the boat.

Another Sevu Sevu ceremony.  This was less weird because we were instructed on what would take place.  Many people joined in to drink the specially made drink.

Here is our food being made in a pit cooker.

After the food was taken out of the pit to be set out. the boys gave us a "walking on hot coals" demonstration.  They were really hot rocks and they really walked across them.

A picture of our traditional dinner.  Here was chicken, beef, rice, gravy, sweet and regular potatoes and vegetables.  While the food was not much to write home about.....

....the entertainment was quite fun.  We had a good hour and a half of Polynesian dancing.  The music was VERY loud and was more modern than I thought it would be but the dancing was really fun with both the men and the women.

Lastly, was the fire dancing and that was pretty spectacular.

Before we left the fire dancers put on quite a show down on the beach.

It was a late night and we were both happy to get back and into our nice comfy bed!

The next day was our traveling day but our plane was not leaving until 9:30 that night.  We asked for a late checkout and the Marriott staff let us stay until five o'clock.  That was so nice of them.  We were able to enjoy The. Whole. Day. there at the resort.  After our last wonderful breakfast we spent time swimming in the ocean and at the pool.  We ordered nachos and two drinks (a pina colada for him and a strawberry daiquiri for me)  Just the snack to get us into the evening:)

After our fun day hanging out at the wonderful Marriott Resort we packed up our bags and off to the airport we went.  We had a ten hour red eye to LA and then a two hour flight home.  It's funny how the international dateline works.  When we arrived home it was two hours earlier of the same day that we left:)

Fun times!  What a wonderful vacation we had this year to New Zealand and Fiji!

Lots of memories made!