January 14
Today was a quiet day. I slept in, had breakfast and then worked on email and writing my journal on the front porch with the breeze blowing through the palm trees. At 12:30 I had another Indian Head Massage – nice but not nearly as good as the one at Octopus. Lunch was a special wood-fired pizza which we all enjoyed—we even saved the leftovers for a cocktail party that evening.
We found out that this resort is only 6 months old, so everything is new, and we heard that the prices will be going way up at the end of the year, so book your reservations NOW! 😉 Later in the afternoon we took a kayak snorkeling trip across the water to a new resort they are currently building. The most exciting thing I was were several very large bright purple starfish and a whole school of squid.
That night there was a kava ceremony and native music. Even though the young people continued partying, Nancy and I came back and read in our air-conditioned room!
January 15
Today we packed up to leave for the last segment of our trip. You put all your bags (we had 8 between us!) out on the porch and the poor staff guys have to carry them down to the shore where they go in a separate boat to load on the big boat, Ocean Dreams. Then we all boarded about 11:00 am and rode for 4 hours to Blue Lagoon, which is the furthest resort in the islands.
At this resort Nancy and I are slowly getting back to reality – although we have two bedrooms (they upgraded us), we have NO AC!!!! So, we did not sleep nearly as well here as at the other resorts. It is VERY hot and humid and not always breezes, especially at night, so we realized how spoiled we had been at the earlier resorts!
After lunch we snorkeled and swam, then read a bit and joined the group for cocktails at 6:30. It was quite interesting snorkeling here as the schools of fish, especially the little turquoise neon ones, just surrounded us and made us feel as if we were part of them. Many swam right in front of our masks and even bumped us occasionally. We saw some much larger fish here and some that we had not seen before. My favorites are the yellow and black angel fish. We have six marine biologists with us on this trip, so it is really fun learning from them all about the various species of coral and fish.
After dinner, they did a “Survivor” contest with some fun events – questions about Fiji, a puzzle, a throwing contest, and finally one super last question about all the resort stops on the boat. Our team, the “Monkey Fish,” won first place, a champagne breakfast on the beach!
January 16
We got up early today for a cave snorkeling adventure at 8:00 am. About 12 of us went in a small boat to a large series of caves about 30 minutes away. On the way, we passed three different native villages much like the one we saw at Octopus. We arrived and had to climb several fights of stairs to the main cave. It had huge high ceilings, was about 20 meters deep, and the water was very cold.
At the end of the stairs, you simply had to jump in. The guide told us to take our snorkel tubes off and just wear our fins and masks since our snorkels could get caught as we went into the next cave. This famous cave was the site for the filming of the movie, “Blue Lagoon,” and he showed us the rock that Brooke Shields sat on in the movie. We can’t wait to rent the movie and watch it again!
It was very dark, but the guide had a flashlight so we could see into the next cave. To get there, you had to dive through a tunnel underwater for about 10 feet. We were a bit hesitant at first, but I finally decided to take the risk, Nancy followed, and we were both glad we did. The second cave was completely dark, small, and about 60 meters deep. The walls were high and very impressive. However, you had to go back through the underwater tunnel to get out again, so the young people were impressed that Nancy and I did it! 😉
When we got back to the beach again, there was a small market of native goods. We took the boat home, snorkeled there again, swam and read until dinner. The rest of the group went on a shark dive which is one of the special offerings of this resort. They saw many bull sharks which came right near them – an awesome (and sometimes scary) experience!
After dinner, there was a crab racing contest – really fun. They dumped a bucket of small crabs, and you could pick as many as you wanted for $3 each. All the money went to support the primary schools in the area. They wrote a number on the back of each crab, put them all back into the bucket again, and then drew two large circles in the sand around the bucket. The race began when they dumped the bucket in the middle and whichever crabs ran to the outside of the circle first, won. We all wildly cheered our crab(s) on! Prizes were bar credits, so everyone had fun, and a good deal of money was raised for the children.
That night it rained VERY hard for most of the night, so it was extremely humid, and so with no AC, I got the worst night’s sleep of the whole trip!
January 17
Time to leave for home! We did get a little later checkout so Nancy and I could go snorkeling one last time. Then we showered, packed up, and got ready to get the boat for Nadi. I had to borrow twine from Katie to tie up my gigantic plaid bag with all my purchased souvenirs – I will feel like a “bag lady” for sure when I arrive in LA and Sarasota!
Everyone met at Katie and Ashley’s bure for a final glass of champagne, and we all said our goodbyes. Then we boarded the Ocean Dreams ship for our 4 – 5 hour ride to the airport. On the way to the ship, we saw the most beautiful double rainbow we had ever seen – the arch went all the way from one side of the land to the other. 
Bruce is on the same flight as Nancy and me, so we grabbed some quick dinner and changed when we got to the airport It is an 11 hour flight to LA and then I am going to stay overnight there and fly to Sarasota on the 18th. (I had my days al mixed up since we left on the 17th and also arrived on the 17th since you gain a day coming back.)
It will really be hard to get back to reality again after such a wonderful vacation. I am grateful to Katie and Ashley for planning such a spectacular wedding trip and also for the blessing of being able to make the trip, both financially and physically. What a beautiful world we live in, and I feel so very blessed to have experienced so much of it in the last few years!
To learn more about Barbara’s professional work, go to www.barbaraglanz.com.
