What time is it there?!

Quite a large part of Taveuni itself is designated as a national park, but there is also a small offshore area which has been set aside for snorkelling and no fishing is allowed. The reserve is right in front of a local village and it seems that it is the local people who ‘run’ the park. We were dropped off at the park and met by a lady (who turns out to be the snorkel guide) who gave us some snorkel gear (from the village storage shed) and took us through the village to the beach.

There is a small boat which could probably seat about a dozen people, but today it is just us, the guide, the guy in charge of the boat, and a small child who belongs to one of them! The snorkelling here is fantastic and quite possibly the best we have done anywhere (including the barrier reef).

We have seen more fish and bigger fish elsewhere, but the colours here are even more spectacular and the coral seems more untouched. There are large clams with bright green and purple colouring, large conch(?) shells on the seabed, and we even got to see a black and white striped sea snake. The visibility is also really good here so it’s a great shame that we don’t have a competent underwater camera. Maybe next time!

We got to experience some real Fiji village life on this day as we saw people washing in the streams and rivers and whilst we were waiting for our lift to pick us up, we sat in the boat owners house and chatted to him, his wife and the snorkel guide (only really the latter spoke English well), but we managed to have a good chat about how they make the grass ‘Fiji Mats’ as there were some leaves drying outside the house ready to be woven. I’m not sure you could meet a friendlier nation as every where we go people come and shake your hands and call out ‘Bula!’ (Hello) as they pass. It makes a refreshing change from avoiding eye contact on The Tube!