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Well we had our last morning at Barefoot today and oh my god it was the best! Originally we had arranged to go kayaking with Luke and Erin but then something more exciting came up. We were in the middle of packing when suddenly I could hear the drums at reception going off. Chris didn't believe me so I ignored them. Shortly after I met Luke on my way back from the toilet, he was coming to tell us there were Manta Rays in the channel! Thats why the drums were being banged! I quickly ran back to Chris and we stuffed what was left into our bags and checked out. Then without permission we stole two pairs of fins from the dive shop and got in the water. I had to force Chris to put sun cream on first, he was just like a kid and wanted to get straight in!
Once we got going we realised it was harder than we thought to swim across to them. The tide was low so we had to weave between the sharp corals while we were being pushed about by the strong waves. Finally we left the coral shelf but had to swim into the strong current which we had already been warned a number of times not to do. But we didn't want to miss the manta rays this time so we kept on pushing. It was well worth it in the end, we saw two huge manta rays, one was black and white with no tail and the other was pure black. They had to be at least three and a half meters wide! We caught up with the other guests that came out by boat, Luke and Erin were out too. After about ten minutes everyone climbed on board leaving us on our own, they offered us a lift back but we wanted to stay out and make the most of our last time swimming with them.
For an hour we watched while swimming constantly back and forward to keep up with the manta rays, it was another terrific workout. Chris kept diving down to get a perfect shot of the black and white one but it was too shy and kept swimming further away. Then I tried, I dived down slowly in front of the ray trying my best not to startle it. We were quite deep when I realised Chris was only just diving down! I held my breath for as long as I could while Chris amazingly positioned himself right above the manta without it knowing! Then at the perfect moment I quickly took the shot. Suddenly Chris reached down and touched the ray, scaring it almost into me! Seconds left of breath we both swam to the surface and took huge gasps of air! I was so excited, I was sure it was a good shot and couldn't wait to look at it on the ipad. After all that we were knackered! We took one last look down to see where the ray was but it was gone, probably fed up of us following it lol.
It would have been nice to jump into a boat but we were still out on our own so we had the hard swim back through the current and the corals. We were both really tired and thirsty, my lips and tongue were so dry from the salty sea water! All I could think of was a nice glass of fresh water.
The first thing we did when we got back on the beach was go for a glass of water and Chris of course had a cup of tea! I grabbed the iPad out of our bag and transferred the photos over. The one of Chris hovering over the manta ray looked awesome! We are so glad we went out this morning but we can't believe they have never called us to go out in the mornings before. We suddenly realised that it makes sense for them to be out in the morning because that's when most animals feed. We warmed up in the sun and filled out a complaint form about Brian. Maddie the resort manager had specifically asked Chris to fill one out to help her get rid of him! She said no one on the resort likes him but it wasn't easy to get rid of him. Chris wrote about his behaviour last night and from what we have seen of him around the resort, it didn't sound good. I hope they eventually do remove the b******.
After lunch we said good bye to Erin and Luke then our transfer boat finally came to pick us up and take us to our next island, Wayalailai Ecohaven Resort. The staff sang their fare well song to us on the beach which was really nice of them, they looked a bit embarrassed doing it though, which was funny. The best bit was the dog joining in, he was barking away at one of the staff members lol. We went across and boarded the Flyer. I wasn't feeling too well now, I still felt knackered and dehydrated from the swim earlier, plus the sea was very choppy going between the islands! Chris felt absolutely fine. Suddenly the captain stopped the boat and announced over the tanoy. Sharks were on the surface of the water! Chris saw them but I didn't, they shot off as soon as the boat got closer.
The weather was still sunny and hot and I had a head ache on the way over on the small transfer boat to our resort. We got chatting to another english couple, Jo and Jake on the way over, they had also come from Barefoot. They told us they were off to New Zealand next so we offered to share some of our experiences and tips with them.
Wayalailai looked like a very nice resort stretched out along a wide beach. Some of the staff were playing volley ball and guests were swinging in hammocks, it looked very chilled out. Other staff members sang us their welcome song as we walked up to reception and waited to be shown to our hut. The resort was owned and run by the local village which happened to be right next door! We were so pleased with our hut as we went inside, it was beautifully furnished with a wicker table and chairs and of course a thatched roof! The bed was so soft and we were lucky to have a sea view! I had a feeling we were going to like it there, Chris was especially pleased the resort had tea time at 4pm every day and it was coming up to 4pm so he grabbed his diary and we went to the restaurant.
We sat outside on the decking, the views out to sea were beautiful! Jo and Jake were already on the deck so we joined them and gave them a few details. The time flew by as we all chatted and before we knew it a few hours had passed. It started to get dark which meant the mosquitos came out, me and Jo complained about them so we all went back to our huts to get ready for dinner.
The theme was Fiji night so the staff performed songs and dances for us. We were still getting ready when we heard the drums sound, they were fifteen minutes early! Well I wasn't ready so we turned up late, everyone was already sitting on the floor listening to the chief when he started passing around free cava. We drank a bowl each, it was stronger than the cava we tried at Barefoot but it still didn't do anything for us and it still tasted like dirty potato water!
We sat and ate with Jo and Jake again, the food was really good! It was called Lovo, which is the traditional Fijian way of cooking the meat underground. We also had to eat the traditional way using just our hands. Chris and Jake weren't very good at eating with their hands, both of them dropped coleslaw down them selves!
Once we finished eating we went outside and watched the staff perform for us. The songs and dances went on for some time, it started to get a bit boring when they repeated the same song over but it was still entertaining to watch. Some of the dances were really good and they were all fantastic singers! They dressed in their traditional Fijian clothing, long grass skirts and the women wore silky blue t-shirts. What we also found impressive was the guitarist, he only had a few strings but was able to play like anyone else, the rest of them played with traditional Fijian drums, tambourines and wooden clanging things. It was really good until they asked us all to join in. The staff wouldn't take no for an answer and managed to get us all up and do a dance just like the ones we did at safe landing resort. This time we didn't have Alex and Mibs leading so it wasn't nearly as crazy lol. We watched them sing once more then they sang there fare well song to us, they were really amazing but I still think the version sang at Safe Landing Resort was the best.
Lastly we were asked to get into groups of where we were from and sing our national anthem! It was very embarrassing, the other groups knew their anthems but none of us English could remember ours! I thought it was the swing low sweet chariot song sung at rugby lol, how wrong was I. In the end one of the Fijian guys had to teach us and we sang awkwardly along with him.
It had been a really exciting day today, the highlight was seeing the manta rays one last time. We stayed up chatting for a while with Jo and jake and another English couple we met during the dance and eventually all went to bed at 21:30pm.
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