FIJI Day 7

Thursday of week one was a quiet day, with a kayak session after breakfast followed by snorkel at low tide in front of the resort.

This time we took a single kayak each and paddled for about an hour in front of the resort. I felt we'd reached a bit of confidence with kayaking and the plan was to pick a nice calm day and paddle round to Picnic Beach soon. And to kayak around the island if weather permitted was also a goal berfore we left.

To snorkel at low tide we had to walk out to the little island at the front of the resort and then some more across rocks to reach water but it was worth it. I was by now also reaching a level of confidence with the snorkel and enjoying it far more than at the start, keeping up with Lib and sharing the maagnificent underwater scenery.



The small island in front of the resort. The other large island in the background is Ovalau island on which Levuka is situated.

After our picnic lunch in the bure we had a sleep in the afternoon. We'd selected vegetarian stir fry for dinner, after which we talked to Andrew and Gill Stringer from Sydney who had arrived on the island the previous day. Most of the arrivals and departures were on Saturdays apparently but there were a few during the week. Of the five couples that arrived on the previous Saturday including us three were staying a week and Tracey and Mark from Sydney were staying for two as Lib and I were.

Gill and Andrew were from Sth Africa originally. They went to Canada soon after marrying in 1979 with Andrew's work with an accounting firm and because of the political turmoil in Sth Africa were not in a hurry to return home and lived in Canada 8 years. With a young family they migrated to Australia after deciding they wanted to bring up their kids in a warm outdoor climate similar to what they grew up in with the traditional summer sports. Interestingly Gill's background was Spanish but she was raised in Sth Africa. Andrew's grandparents of one side had migrated to Sth Africa from Kyneton Victoria no less in the ealy 1900's. After the Boer war there was depression in Australia and a Kyneton resident returned from that war telling his grandfather he should try Sth Africa for work. It was a British colony. So grandfather and his brother hopped on a ship to Sth Africa and found work and liked it there so they brought out their fiances from Kyneton and married them straight away almost on leaving the ship.


A few of the boys putting a roof on