Outrigger on the Lagoon

So finally, finally this morning I’m going snorkeling.

I've already been in Fiji for five days and haven’t yet seen any reef fish. I had it all worked out, a resort-sponsored kayak snorkel trip at 8:30 am, (preceded by another fabulous buffet and I wasn’t even too embarrassed to be all American and enjoy the custom-made waffles.)

So while Barbara went off to luxuriate with a facial, I packed gear, swimsuit and went off for my marine adventure. Too bad the weather was a tad too rainy and windy to comply with my needs, and the trip didn’t happen.

It was all right though, I hadn’t even checked emails in four days, so I spent the morning in my room, gazing at the ocean and getting caught up on work. Had a nice ice mocha (because it was just a little too early to enjoy the lovely bottle of Shiraz the hotel left for me.)

Kula Eco Park

Barbara and I met up around 11 am and after enjoying a few minutes (or so) of more jewelry shopping, we headed across the road to the Kula Eco Park. Fijians, apparently aren’t so big yet on animal preservation habitats, so this is kind of a one-of-a-kind attraction in Fiji.

With an unofficial partnership with the San Diego Zoo, this place was pretty impressive. Everyone told us we'd need about 45 minutes, but we stayed there nearly three hours.

After we fed the sea turtles (so adorable, and they made me think of Raoul and El Mariachi, my red eared sliders back at home), we wandered around chatting with the birds and playing with the lizards.

Here you see me playing with my new friends. Later I even served as a snake charmer with a baby boa constrictor, but since snakes basically freak me out AND since I could feel that sucker squeezing my fingers, I didn’t hold onto him that long.

Back at the hotel, and by the way, since the eco park is a good 30 minute walk across the road, the resort will drive you over there with their golf cart service, we felt the need to nourish ourselves. It wasn’t really hunger so much, since we’ve been eating a ton of food since we arrived, but we’d been hearing RAVE reviews about the pizza, so we had to sample it.

I’m not sure I can actually think of anything better than actual wood fired pizza in a little restaurant overlooking the sea. I mean really, the pizza was so heavenly (mine was Ribeye with Asparagus Spears and Barb’s was Smoked Salmon with pickles and crème fraiche). I'm running out of superlatives to mention just how great the food was. Every meal we think we've had the best, and it just keeps getting better.

Fiji Time

Wed been planning to take the hotel’s tye dye course at 2:30, but since we were still eating at 3:15, we pretty much had given up that idea by the end of lunch.

However God bless Fiji time, as they call it. I found this island mindset totally endearing once I got over my anal everything must be as it was planned feeling.

At any rate the activities staff had known we were planning to do the tye dye, so they actually waited for us to show up. Nearly an hour late and they still had all the paints out on the grass waiting for us.

Here you see a photo of William (the son of two of the hotel's sales, marketing and management staff) who was enjoying a leisurely Sunday off from school and generally helping make our stay so fabulous all day long. He's got a big smile because earlier that day he won the chocolate ice cream eating contest.

After tye dye, I just had barely enough time to get up to the spa to enjoy my own massage, which was probably perfect. I zenned out (even snored) for most of it, just enjoying the lovely, relaxing long strokes. And since we were so high above it all, this was probably a smidge closer to heaven than anything else I could have been doing.

Valet Service Followed By Dinner

Now I had to race back to the hotel, so I didn't miss today's butler service and again Barb and I enjoyed sipping champagne while overlooking the ocean and watching the sunset. By the way, all that racing to the hotel was just me being anal. If guests missed the Talei service, in true Fiji fashion, you could later and say I missed my service can you bring me my champagne now?

Dinner tonight was at the hotels IVI Restaurant, their fine dining establishment. In a place with food that is already a cut above, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And may I add, if the alarming quantities of food we'd already been consuming were making your eyebrows raise, tonight we outdid ourselves.

For starters I had the traditional Fijian dish Kokoda (the coconut milk ceviche which has quickly become one of my favorite dishes here) and Barb enjoyed a potato leek soup. We shared the seafood lovers dish (for two) in our near-romantic little night. Lobster fried rice, tempura oysters and course sizzling prawns in black bean sauce. For dessert we enjoyed a chocolate fondue (also for two) and may be the only people on the planet who didn’t finish the fabulous banana bread dipper. The fresh cut fruit was too good, so we focused on that.

Flaming coffee drinks capped the evening, and we were barely able to stagger back to bed before passing out in a food coma. Here, the handsome and single (check the flower in the left ear) Apisai blazes up some fabulous post dinner coffee.