Thursday, November 20th, 2008
On the morning of the third day, we were awakened very early by a guy from the staff opening our bure door. The worker apologized profusely and promptly left, leaving our groggy and confused selves to immediately pass out again. We were too tired to think much of it. Later in the day, a stern looking fellow dropped by our bure as we were lounging about. Based on his expression, I thought we might have been in trouble for something. It turned out he’s the person in charge of refilling the minibars. One of our neighbors went fishing very early, and he was given the wrong bure number to service, hence the intrusion in the morning. He gave a very sincere apology, and while I probably would have forgotten about, it was professional of them to do so and certainly appreciated.
Like the day before, we headed straight to the dining area for breakfast once we woke up. Upon careful reading of the breakfast menu, I noticed that pancakes are available upon request and included as part of the continental breakfast. Kelvin tried those out (he was meh on them cuz they were a little sweet for him), while I stuck with the scrambled eggs, which they season lightly with basil and tomato… kinda like a scrambled eggs margherita :P The morning activity listed on the board was another snorkeling trip, which we were interested in. We lounged on the daybed of the bure until 10:30AM, and Mia and Tofu (another resort doggie) joined us for most of the morning.
Kelvin and his pancakes
Me on the daybed
Tofu makes himself comfortable. Kelvin didn’t want any of the dogs in the bure, and
he was able to shoo away Olivia and Mia no problem. Tofu is quite insistent tho; he
made it in on this day and the afternoon before.
Today’s snorkeling trip was to the “Blue Lagoon”, and I’m guessing that means the beach was where the movie “Blue Lagoon” was filmed. Our ride this time would be a motorized fishing boat, and we were joined by an English couple and the guy of one of the couples we met the day before. Before getting on the boat, we were given the same masks and flippers we used the day before, along with fresh towels.
Seruvi pushes the boat out to sea
This trip was more like what I expected the day before: you start off on a beach and swim out to your snorkeling destination. Seruvi took us to a narrow beach lined by trees. As soon as we got onto the beach, a LOUD roar boomed from behind the trees. It sounded like there was some sort of monster. Seruvi mentioned that a resort owns this area, and it was probably boars or something. And it certainly smelled like it, cuz there was a strong and nauseating smell of animal poo in the vicinity of the scary animal sounds. We stayed away from the smell, quickly put on our snorkel gear, and swam out into the ocean.
Putting on my gear
I had some initial trouble with my tube, as I kept breathing in saltwater and coughing it out. After Kelvin helped me adjust it, I was off swimming. After the day before, this snorkeling trip was a lot less intimidating, and I was completely at ease with the whole snorkeling concept. It probably helped that we stayed pretty close to the shore, so it was never that deep, but we did venture out a ways at times. I saw more fish this time, or maybe I just noticed more because I was more relaxed and observant. I was even able to take some pictures, though I didn’t notice I had accidentally zoomed in all the way, creating many terrible pictures.
An example of my skillful photography
Our bling underwater. I always made sure to take off
my engagement ring before going swimming.
Nice group of coral
Kelvin strikes a pose
Fiji isn’t hot and steamy, it’s just the camera lense
Kelvin sittin’ in a tree, giant monster boar lurking somewhere behind him
Nothing exceptional worth noting for this trip (another swimmer said he went to deeper waters and saw a ray), but it was fun to go snorkeling again. The water seemed cooler than the day before, but it was still comfortable. We swam around for a good hour before all the swimmers unanimously decided it was time to go.
Sean enjoys the trip back with us
Once we got back, it was time for lunch. We quickly changed into some dry clothes and went to the restaurant for food. I had a tasty club sandwich, while Kelvin had fish and chips.
Kelvin and his lunch
IIRC, the afternoon activity was hiking to scenic points on the island we’re staying on. Kelvin and I are not into hiking, so we passed on this activity. Instead, we scheduled time for the daily spa special, which was the Bobo massage. Kelvin originally didn’t want to do it; he didn’t want strangers touching him and greasing him up again. I convinced him last second to join me. We went to the spa bure at the scheduled time, but the spa lady’s assistant wasn’t readily available since they were only expecting one person, so Kelvin had to wait 10-15 min for her to get there and start his massage. I had the main spa lady again, and the massage was very relaxing, as expected. Kelvin still didn’t like it, and he didn’t even get a full hour of massage. After the massage, we showered to wash all the massage oils off and napped until dinnertime.
The restaurant wasn’t open yet when we got there, so we went to the bar where the Australian couple was hanging out. The English-moved-to-Australia couple joined us later on. We had some nice chit-chat, but I of course cannot remember any of their names. (I know the Australian guy works in the music industry… that’s about all I remember!) The bar provided nice snacks with our beverages, including chips, fresh coconut slices, and cooked coconut slices.
Bar snacks
For dinner, I opted for the seared tuna, which looked and tasted really good. Kelvin went for the fish ravioli. I don’t remember his opinion of it. The meals at Navutu Stars are very filling. I’m pretty sure I never finished any of my dinners there. They offer meal plans from 100FJD per person for lunch and dinner, but I remember reading Tripadvisor reviews that these meals were always overkill (as in way more than you need). The most we both ever spent on food in one day (not including beverages which aren’t in meal plans anyway, I think) for both lunch and dinner was 138FJD on our 4th day on honeymoon (the day after this one), which included one appetizer and one dessert.
My seared tuna was very delicious, but I couldn’t finish it!
Kelvin needs to take a digestive aid for is lactose issues whenever he eats anything
with dairy, which is pretty much whenever he eats anything
After dinner was more LOTR watching (I think we made it to Two Towers at this point) and then bedtime. Since evenings yield nothing interesting, I’ll share a quick note from Day 2 I forgot to talk about. Before we switched bures, Kelvin made an freaky discovery in our original bure, and he didn’t want to tell me about it cuz I’d freak out. Yet he still told me he knew something just so I could be annoyed with my own curiosity. Once he assured me it wasn’t spider related, I insisted he tell me, which he did. Apparently, on the wall where the patio doors are hinged, he found a squashed lizard close to the ceiling. There’s lizards running around the island all the time, and I guess this one was unfortunate to be on this spot on the wall as a previous guest opened the patio door and subsequently squashed him between the door and wall. And this happened a while ago, as the lizard was now this skeletal thing with some leftover dry skin and muscle attached, still in its death cling to the wall. Not horrific, but a little startling if you happen to look the wrong way by the minibar. Kelvin had a mini-dilemma about telling the cleaning lady, but he eventually did when we switched bures. I remember a combination gasp/shriek from her when she saw it, and I’m pretty sure she promptly told some cleaning dude to take care of it soon after. It was morbidly amusing. It kind of reminds me of the squirrel that died hanging by its teeth from a powerline next to my high school, shrinking into a dried up mass as the months passed but kept hanging on. ANYWAYS…
Note I’m sure nobody cares about: The thing that takes me the longest in making these posts is organizing the photos for the posts. I usually have to mess with timestamps to have my photos be chronologically in sync with Kelvin’s. For this day of the honeymoon, there’s an hour discrepancy somewhere I can’t figure out, so it’s possible some of the photos in the gallery may be off an hour.
Previously, Honeymoon Day 2 – My first time snorkeling… EVER
Next, Honeymoon Day 4 – Spear-fishing, cave-snorkeling, and kava-drinking
New thing I learned today: The Blue Lagoon is located on the west side of the island Nanuya LaiLai.
