Best Day Ever

Best Day Ever

A few people commented on the morose tone of my last entry, so I’m following it up with a cheery blog.

Just to add another twist to the story, I got the call a week ago saying my assignment was given the all-clear to return, so I’ve decided to spend another three months in Fiji to finish it off. But more on that later - first, a rundown on one of the most amazing days I’ve ever had. Ed and I hopped on an aeroplane down to Kadavu, an island half an hour’s flight to the south of Suva, to join Kellie, Cassie and Simo who were visiting from Australia for a few days relaxing Fiji-style. We reached Kadavu and after some miscommunication we found ourselves in the wrong boat heading the wrong way around the island, so a 40 minute trip became two and a half hours in a tinny. Instead of appreciating the gorgeous coastline we spent the whole trip kicking ourselves for the mix-up, and arrived slightly grumpy and crumpled.

With the sight of our friends though and the beautiful place we were in, we shook off the frustration, settled down to a cup of tea and began to soak up the surroundings. Matava is a small collection of bures nestled on the side of a hill, squeezed between coconut palms and looking out over turquoise waters. There’s no electricity so at dusk everyone is handed a kerosene lamp to carry around, and the food is some of the best I’ve had in Fiji.

Now to the amazing day. Kadavu is known for its diving, particularly the Astrolabe reef near Matava. We had plans of doing some diving while there, but woke up on our third day a bit tired and decided against it. Then at breakfast we discovered the site for the day was the Manta Reef, and immediately changed our minds. This is the spot where manta rays are often seen, and we tried desperately not to get our hopes up on the 45 min boat ride to the site - Joe, our dive master, said they see mantas on about 70% of dives there. We kitted up and splashed into the water, and less than five minutes in, what looked like a UFO glided past. We all watched in awe, the ray was about 3 m across and circled back a fewtimes inquisitively to

By jayscoh
February 16th 2007

Read the ful blog here... Best Day Ever