Last Day! Jan 5

Today was our last day in Fiji. We started the morning with a relaxing facial (Linley), massage (Caelan and Alyssa), hair braiding (Katriel) and coffee (Peter). Wonderful start to the day! The facial was full of lotions and potions, as well as a time of having what could have been wet slices of cucumber lying all over my face. It was enormously pleasant in any case though I don't know if many years were taken off me! Caelan and Alyssa enjoyed their massages and wouldn't mind having one regularly, and Katriel has been prancing around flicking her beads unnecessarily most of the day.
The highlight of the day was the snorkeling trip. The boat could seat 8 passengers, plus our captain "Api". We (Thomas family + 2 extras) took off into what looked and felt like the middle of the ocean, suddenly stopping at a patch of lighter water. The full extent of the safety briefing and instructions was "OK", and we were off. At various points, Api would move the boat over to a different part of the reef, which was initially a little disconcerting - to look up and find the boat rather smaller in the distance, but he eventually moored up to a buoy and stayed put. The snorkeling was fantastic - the reef was about 2 m below the water and dropped off quite suddenly, and there were so many fish. One particular species, little black and white striped fish, were both numerous and curious and often surrounded us, and right up close - even having an occasional nip! They were really cute though, and it was pretty amazing to be surrounded by these little fish, and to feel like welcome guests in their ocean home. We were able to take the camera and pass it around a bit, so we got some nice videos and photos. Caelan was off on his own adventure at the other side of the reef (a couple of times we asked Api to check he could still see him), and he even saw a shark - no envy there! The other two snorkelers on the boat were not as enthusiastic as us and had to wait for us to make our way back to the boat at the end. Just by the boat there was another big group of our little zebra fish friends (not their actual name) so that was quite a cute way to finish the trip.
We had one last soak in our little deck pool before drying off for dinner. This time a week ago we were spending the night in Nadi and hoping for a boat to Musket Cove in the morning. This time tomorrow we will possibly be home to Ruakaka. It has been a wonderful week, full of adventurous experiences that we will always remember.