Farewell to Fiji

We spent our last day in Fiji laying on the beach, relaxing, and snorkeling.  We ventured over to Musket Cove for lunch before retiring to our beach loungers once again.  We had a great dinner at Ananda's and once again enjoyed watching the bats followed by the sunset.  

A man and his binoculars

From the resort

My chair for the day

Bat signal

Hard to capture a photo but you get the idea

Farewell dinner

The next morning we arose early to check out by 7:30.  We had a farewell breakfast at Black Coral of banana pancakes before catching the ferry back to Port Denarau followed by a taxi to the airport.  The taxi driver spent the entire ride explaining to us why his taxi was better than the yellow taxi's in an attempt, we can only assume, to get us to pay more.  And in fact, we did pay $10 FJD more than our taxi to the resort but I guess it was worth it for the insurance (or so the driver informed us).  We had an uneventful flight and arrived back in Auckland around 4 pm to prepare for work the next day.  

The one photo Justin allowed of the two of us and he closed his eyes...

A trip to Fiji was a lovely way to ring in 2013!

Sailing Fiji

We had a leisurely morning enjoying banana pancakes at Black Coral followed by walking around the resort snapping some photos.  The banana pancakes were awesome and Justin and I enjoyed them on multiple mornings.  Basically, they were two large pancakes rolled up with cooked bananas inside and served with maple syrup.  Next we headed to our favorite spot on the beach and relaxed and read for the rest of the morning.  

In the afternoon, we chartered a small yacht with a skipper for 4 hours.  The yacht was 6 meters long  and the skipper did most of the sailing.  Justin steered the boat most of the time and I mostly sat and enjoyed.  A storm swept through while we were sailing and I got very nervous!  We had to put the sails down and wait it out.  After the storm, we got some nice sun with the occasional shower.  We were not to fond of the skipper who didn't follow the sailing rules Penny taught us!  Justin really learned alot though and we feel more comfortable on a sail boat.

We went to dinner at Lomani's, the adults only resort next door to ours.  Unfortunately it was raining so we had to sit inside but the dinner was really good.  Justin had surf and turf and I had a coconut prawn dish.  

After dinner, we enjoyed watching hermit crab races at our resort before heading to bed.

Favorite spot on the beach

Posing on the beach in my stupid floppy hat

Steering and very happy

From our yacht

Our yacht

View from dinner...normally, the patio is full of seating

Lomani's beach

View of Lomani's restaurant

Celebrating Fiji Style

On Justin's birthday, we started the day with a snorkeling trip to Sunflower reef.  It was just us and another family with three small kids on the trip along with the captain and an assistant.  It took about 15 minutes to get to the reef from our resort and then we got to snorkel for about an hour and half.  It was rather rough water but once you are snorkeling, you barely notice!  The reef was really cool and we also saw tons of colorful fish.  We spent the cloudy afternoon after our trip lounging on the beach.  

We went to Anada's for dinner and had a great time celebrating Justin's 31st birthday.  At dinner we discovered the Fijian monkey faced bat.  Normally, I would not be a fan of bats but these were really cool.  They looked more like monkey's than mice and were fairly large.  They come out around 6 or 7 in the evening and make a really cool bat signal silhouette when they fly.  We watched the bats fight over the best spot in the trees while enjoying dinner.  

I didn't take our good camera on the snorkel excursion so those photos are from my iphone.

Ready to snorkel

View from the snorkel boat

Meanwhile back at the resort

View from Justin's birthday dinner

Perfect!

Sunset with Anada's in the background

Anada's and sunset panorama

Relaxing and Fishing in Fiji

We spent the first day of 2013 lounging on a perfectly sunny beach on Malolo Island.   It was a beautiful, still day, hot in the sun but perfect in the shade of a palm tree.  The snorkeling off the beach at the resort was really great with clear water, tons of fish, and some coral.  The beach was pure sand with no rocks or coral to cut your feet and you just had to swim out less than 100 yards to reach the reef.  The resort beach was dotted with lounge chairs and was never crowded.  We enjoyed relaxing, reading, and exploring the resort.  We had lunch at the snack bar and dinner at the a la carte restaurant at the resort, Black Coral.

View of the main restaurant at the resort at night

Musical entertainment at Black Coral

The next day we headed out early for a 4 hour game fishing trip with 4 other people.  I didn't take my camera but the views of the ocean and other islands were beautiful and we enjoyed another perfectly sunny day.  We each took 30 minute rotations in 1 of the 2 fishing chairs on the boat.  If any of the lines on your side of the boat hooked a fish while you were in the chair, it was your fish and you got to reel it in.  Unfortunately, we only hooked 2 fish and it was not when either Justin or I were in the chairs.  We did catch a mahi-mahi and it was really cool to watch the fish struggle and ultimately be reeled in, whacked on the head, and stuffed in the cooler (or chilly bin for you kiwis).  It was a beautiful, colorful fish!  I got rather sea sick once we headed out to the open ocean but found some solace up top with the captain where I could see the horizon and stay in the shade.  He taught me how to look for a swarm of birds over the water which means the fish will be nearby.  Sure enough, we spotted a swarm of birds and circled around the area for about one minute before snagging the mahi-mahi.  He also pointed out the filming spots for the movie Castaway and Survivor Fiji.  

We spent the afternoon on the beach and then enjoyed another dinner at Black Coral. 

Justin chillaxin on the beach in a hammock

Beautiful view a steps from our bure

New Year's Eve in Fiji

Flights to Fiji over the holidays are quite expensive and in an attempt to minimize cost, I booked the 6:30 am flight to Nadi, Fiji on New Year's Eve.  Following our 3:45 wake up call, Justin and I traveled to the airport and boarded our 3 hour flight from Auckland to Nadi, Fiji.  Upon arrival, we took a taxi from the airport to Port Denarau where we waited for our ferry in the air conditioned Hard Rock Cafe.  

We arrived at Plantation Island Resort on Malolo Island around 3 pm after an hour long ferry ride from the mainland.  We arrived right as a storm rolled in and as a result our check in was rather chaotic.  We finally got settled in our bure and made plans to attend the New Year's Eve dinner celebration at the resort.  

The celebration was quite the let down.  It started out with us waiting about 45 minutes past our reservation time and finally having to get angry to be seated at our own table (instead of sharing with another family of 4).  The buffet was okay but it was the first and last time we dined there on our trip.  Plus it seems like the resort imported children just for the occasion.  Seriously, we did not see even half the amount of kids that were at the dinner for the next 6 days combined!  Not to mention, the resort gave out kazoos to each child so our dinner was set to the background music of loud, continuous honking.  We counted our losses and called it an early night. 

Port Denarau, Fiji

Our bure at Plantation Island Resort

View from New Year's Eve dinner (other direction....mass chaos)