Whoops, meant to update more regularly than this as we're moving around from island to island, but seems my memory is pretty good!
So I last left you on Tavewa in Coral View resort. Our second day was spent in the sun, and I was already getting restless, so after breakfast I climbed the hill up to the top of the island in just my sunnies and boardies. Since I took off my flip-flops at the marina in Denarau, I haven't worn them since! The climb was pretty steep, muddy and rocky, then really long grass closer to the top. At one point the trail went straight into a solid mass of bush, so guess it isn't climbed often! Got some great photos, then realised it was about 40 degrees, almost midday, and I had no water, so wandered back. Afternoon was spent dozing in a hammock, and swimming in the bath temperature sea.
Dinner was lovely again, and afterwards we played some games, had some drinks. Whilst chatting to Lauren and Mel from London, I discovered that the following day was Sat and not Fri as I thought, so they were actually feeding the sharks on a dive the next day. I was in two minds, but not often I'll see it, so I signed up. Next morning we kitted up and headed out to the dive site. We went down to 18m, swam between 2 reefs, and at the end was a line to hold. Between 1 and 5m in front of us was a plethora of fish (including a big old wrasse munching on a fish head), and a lemon shark, a 3.5m nurse shark, a few black and white tip reef sharks up to 3m long, and two bull sharks, one of which was 4m long and almost 2m in diameter. It was really good to see, and so different from the usual way of shark diving where they chum the waters so you can barely see anything. The sharks come to this spot twice a week out of habit as they know they'll be fed (shark knows what day of the week it is but I don't, how bad is that), and there's no teasing them to get them close, they're just fed and we sit at the sidelines quietly and watch.
Very different dive to what I've done before, and really glad I did it.
We got back to the resort in time for a bit of lunch before the boat picked us up to take us to our next destination: White Sandy Beach resort in Naviti. This was right next door to another resort where a few friends were staying, amongst them, Luzian, who Jo had fully converted to her version of gin rummy.
We had another bure to ourselves, and were greeted with coconuts. It was nice, if a little small and basic, but had reefs right off the beach. Not much of a drop-off, but still lots to see, and some patches of really cool coral of loads of different, vivid colours, so plenty for me the while away the hours burning my back to a crisp!
Anyway, nice place, and that night we wandered up the beach for a drink with Luzian and Lauren, then next morning after checkout and breakfast of pancakes, fruit and warm polenta-bread, we went back up and loitered by the pool and played some cards until the boat arrived to take us to our next stop!
En route to White Sandy, we met up with Becky again, and asked her to text us as she was off to Barefoot resort, and we wanted to know what it was like. Apparently lovely, so we booked ourselves in for a one night to check it out.
Barefoot is on the island Drawaqa, and has 3 beaches directly attached to the resort and another 3 or 4 around the island. It's near a posh resort called Mantaray, which sells itself on the fact that it's near a strait where mantarays go in season. Turns out that Barefoot is actually on this strait, and there's no boat ride required; just hire a snorkel and you're amongst the 4-5m rays in mins right off the beach! Unfortunately we were at least a month early, so we saw none (didn't stop me looking though).
Barefoot isn't a new resort, it's not actually open yet; it's still being refurbished and putting its new brochure together. We arrived and the only guest was Becky! There were 6 members of staff, and Alesia and Gareth, a South African couple with their 7 month old daughter Jade, who were there as Gareth was in charge of the refurb.
Despite not technically being open, they were still taking bookings and were operating as usual. We were shown around, and told to our amazement that they had wifi which was free, kayak and snorkel hire was free, and tea and coffee was available all the time for free. These are all common add-ons at these resorts, so we were very happy! That afternoon we were taken on a guided snorkel by Tuay along sunrise beach, which had some great drop-offs from the reef about 1m below to about 5m, although the sea-lice were a bit bite-y, so felt a bit stung.
We had a lovely little bure with a huge bed right on sunrise beach. The food was amazing, with 3 course meals every evening, and huge buffet breakfasts.
Our first night after dinner we had some stories from one of the older guys from the village; Bucks, who told us all about the rules on families (you can't speak to any children of your small father, who are any cousins from an uncle younger than your dad), and how men "fix" women (little whispers and quite a bit of close-quarters stalking as it turns out! They're all scared of being beaten up by the girls dad and brothers).
Our second day at barefoot we did very little. Spent most of our time on the beach, I went snorkelling a couple of times, went walking around the rock, then that evening, we found a sea snake in some rocks, and Becky, Tuay and I went up the hill to look at the sunset.
Third day was our second day with pancakes as Jo fluttered her eyelashes at the chef and beat him senseless with flattery, then we made coconut bracelets, I went snorkelling again with Jo (Becky prophetically said "see you in a minute Jo, see you in an hour David"), then after lunch we took the kayaks out for a spin round the island with Tuay. The trip was a couple of hours including stopping for a snorkel a couple of times, and the second time we stopped, I got chased across the beach by a "dead" crab (or I thought it was til it jumped up and legged it after me!).
That night was our last night, and after dinner we had a fire show put on for us, then we sat around drinking kava. This wasn't the touristy kava ceremony they put on, but just the guys who work there sitting around having a few bowls after work, so was pretty strong, and after a dozen I felt pretty dopey too. I can see why they like it so much! Plus there's no hangover as no alcohol!
Our last day Jo and I got up early for sunrise only to see some clouds on the horizon blocking it, so we went back to bed. Was another perfect day though when we got up, and I went for a few paddles and snorkels for one last look in case there were any mantas about, but we were just a little too early in the season, so sadly didn't see any.
We got waved off from the beach by all the staff, Alecia, Gareth and Jade, and made our way to the boat to move onto our next stop; Octopus on the island of Waya.
Octopus was an island not included in our Bula pass, and cost us an extra 70fjd, but you could see where it went. It is a really plush resort, with swimming pool, and our own little bungalow with veranda that you could honeymoon in. As it's a bigger resort it also has a bit of choice for meals, and great food (pancakes weren't up to the scratch of Barefoot though).
We sat with Lara, Emma and Paige at dinner (along with Becky, Jo and I), and afterwards there were some games to win prizes. First up was limbo (little unfair on us tall people), Becky did really well and got to the last round, and we were all happy to see a stuck up American girl who loudly said it wouldn't be fair for her to compete as she'd beat us all as she is a gymnast, go out.
Second game was a balloon thing which Jo and I were terrible at, but Becky and Lara won, winning a free massage each!
We had a couple of drinks, then off to our luxurious room!
Next morning we made the most of the buffet breakfast, then hit the beach, and I tried out the snorkelling. Was good, very shallow close to the beach, so not possible unless high tide, but the drop-off of the reefs were about 6m, so plenty to see even at low tide. Not much else to report other than we were like pendulums between the beach and bar area for the whole day!
Next morning we took the walk to the village on the other side of the island, and went to the kindergarten where some kids "sang" to us (though it was a bit like the haka by the looks on their faces!), and we looked through some stalls the ladies of the village laid out. I don't know how they sat there in the sun though, apparently it was 44 degrees that day!
We got back to the resort and recommenced our perpetual movements between beach and bar.
The night was spent eating and drinking (surprise surprise), and then doing the quiz, which we were winning (despite losing a dance-off I had to do as a tie-break), then the final round was a talent contest, which no-one was feeling, so we lost out, but still stuck around to watch the American girl piss around showing off again, but they still lost to the loony Chinese man with a snorkel mask on and bedsheet behind him doing a Chinese dragon.
Following day both Jo and Becky were a bit poorly, and I tried to hunt down reef sharks with my snorkel and went bloody miles, but still didn't find one.
We topped up the tan til the last minute in the afternoon when we got on the boat to our next island!
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