We woke up today hoping it would be a sunny day, as most of yesterday wasn't good weather. When we got up, it was grey, overcast and raining. It was a bit annoying as we'll be
spending the whole day on Beachcomber, then catching the ferry back to Nadi at 5pm. We have to check out of our room at 10, so we can't just chill out in the room. After breakfast, they were running a snorkelling session, so we went. Although the sea was choppy, and the sky was grey, we thought we'd do it to pass time while we're waiting to leave. When we got in the water, the visibility wasn't great, so we couldn't see much. It was to be our last snorkel session in Fiji. I saw a jellyfish in the water, so that was cool. On the way back from snorkelling, we saw a turtle in the water, they look a lot different to the ones in the Galápagos.

Crazy golf

As it's not good weather, we decided to make use of the crazy golf course. We hired the clubs and played some golf. It was an 8 hole crazy golf circuit. As John plays golf, he had an advantage over me, whereas, I don't play. We started putting, after John showed me how to hit the clubs. It took me a few more goes to get the ball in the hole, but I wasn't doing too bad. John was always a few shots ahead of me tho. At one point, I caught him up as he took longer to put a ball on a hard hole. I had the same problem and ended up loosing points. So of course John went and won it as usual. It's good they have a golf course on the island, and it was something to keep us busy when the weather wasn't so good.

Sinking ship

The weather took a turn for the worse before lunch, so we finished playing just in time. The sea was getting really choppy and the waves were crashing on the boats around the island. We had lunch and one of the boats was literally sinking. Water was coming in and toppling the boat over. A group of Fijian men started hauling a rope trying to rescue the boat. Then all of the other guys went in to try and give them a hand. It looked like they were doing tug-of-war. It's great to see everyone getting involved and helping them out. It wasn't enough however, the boat was submerged below water, and even the strength of everyone wasn't enough to save the boat. It was sad to see how the men were trying to save their beloved boat. It can even be bad weather in paradise. They said they'll have to wait until the tide is out to try and rescue it. I felt sorry for them.

Feeding baby turtles

After the commotion of the sinking boat, they called out that they would be doing a small cooking class. In the afternoon they will also be feeding some baby turtles, which is what i'm looking forward to. Meanwhile, we waited for turtle feeding, we learned how to cook a traditional Fijian dish. It consisted of fish, coconut milk, and some kind of leaves that were like spinach. We were all invited to take part and wear silly hats. Different people all prepared different sections of the dish. It was one that only took around 15 minutes to cook. Once all the ingredients were prepared everything was chucked into a pot to boil. When it was ready, the food was served up for everyone to try. It was kind of like a soup dish with spinach and fish in it. I thought it was ok, but probably would prefer it without the leaves. John really liked it. Everyone tasted the food and most people liked it, so all was good.

Then it was turtle feeding time. I stayed on the island for 2 nights before now, and didn't even know they had some turtles on the island. We walked around the back of the island to feed them. What they do here is catch the turtles when they are just hatchlings and keep them until they are about a year old, then release them back into the sea. It just gives them a better chance of survival in life. If the hatchlings went straight into the sea, their chances of survival sure slim as the fish would eat them. It's great to hear that they are trying to make a difference here. These are white backed turtles here on the island. The turtles are kept in a little pool of water and only eat raw fish, so our guide had some to give them. When we saw them in the pool they were so cute. There were 4 of them, some male and female. We got to see them swimming towards the food flapping their arms about. They knew it was feeding time, and it looked like they were getting excited. We stood and watched them for a few minutes before it hammered down, so we took refuge inside. We still had to wait a while for our boat transfer, so we just sat inside out of the rain. I really thought it would be better weather than this today, but never mind, we're saying goodbye to paradise later.

Our boat was delayed in picking us up because of the rough sea, so we spent longer waiting for the boat transfer. When we got that, the boat was rocking from side to side. Eventually the catamaran turned up to take us back to the mainland. We thanked the team and said our goodbyes. Perhaps we'll return to Fiji again one day, but for now it's back to the mainland for a few days, and then it's off to Australia.