Sunset at Treasure

It took us 36 minutes to wander around the island.  The sun set just before 6 pm.

Shark, Seaweed, and Sushi

Quinn spends most of his waking time in the hammock at our end of the island.

Another wonderful breakfast of Pawpaw and poached eggs.  Reminds me of my first breakfast on Zanzibar.  The Jays tried to steal my pawpaw.  Tighe really enjoys the Danish pastries for breakfast, and Quinn has had an omelette every morning.

Took the glass bottom boat for Tighe to view the coral.  It was different seeing the coral from higher above instead of floating next to it, and closely over it.

Parrot fish next to boat

Tighe managed to scrape his foot last night, and it stings in the pool, but not in the sea, so we spent most of the day in, and around the water. 

Another sea star

Blue Damsel

 Swimming with sharks has been on my bucket list. Today while out on the reef I watched a huge tuna swim by.  My heart beat a lot faster when I noticed the shark following.  A white tip reef shark, fortunately it was more interested in the tuna, instead of me!  It took a while for my heart beat to return to normal.

White tip reef shark approx 2m long

 After 1ish, the sun burned, so we hid in the bure reading and doing schoolwork.Later, after our afternoon swim, we decided to walk around the Island.  We stopped often to pick up shells, rocks and other treasures. Another parrot joined us.

The Sand bar, nobody on it today

 The seaweed is purple and green.  Once on shore, the sun bleaches it creamy white.

 We found crabs and hermit crabs, and watched the Sun, sink into the sea.  It took about 36 minutes to wander around the Island. 

The ferry on the way to the mainland

 The boys and I tried Teppanyaki for dinner.  A Japanese meal cooked in front of us. 

Quinn and Tighe tried everything. Tighe really enjoyed watching the egg being sliced for the fried rice. The Miso soup tasted like vegemite and seaweed. The cucumber salad was refreshing.  The sushi and sashimi was all eaten up.  The prawns were approved by Quinn, but didn’t appeal to Tighe.  All the egg fried rice got eaten, and the seared chicken and Tuna was yummy too.  The boys took their time deliberating over dessert.  I had the coconut steamed pudding, Quinn had ice cream and Tighe had chocolate mousse.

Miso

Salad

Sushi and Sashimi

Cooking the prawns

Stir fry vegies

Rice and vegies

egg stir fried vegies and rice

More vegies

Chicken for the boys

Tuna for me

Coconut steamed pudding

Chocolate Mousse

Sand bar, birds, and blue boys

Sandbar from Treasure Island.

I organised a picnic lunch out on the sandbar.  A small boat took us over at about 10.30am.  The sand bar was tiny, about 30 metres long, and about 10 metres wide.

Just us and the crew for the BBQ

Looking back towards Treasure Island

The tide was going out, so it got larger during the day.  More people joined us with kayaks from Beachcomber and Treasure Islands.  A group of Japanese were diving nearby, and set up a BBQ lunch on the sandbar.

Shells, shells, and more shells.  Tighe and I gathered a collection.  Quinn built sand castles, and moats, and tunnels.   

At one stage, a huge wave suddenly crashed on shore, and stranded a thin blue fish.  We gathered the sand underneath it and popped it back in to the sea.  

Fijian Seagull

After the tide had gone out a little more, we went snorkelling.  The gentle current just played with us, and the fish.  Great variety, and we could hear them eating the coral.

 Lunch was salad and sandwiches, plus fresh pineapple.  I went snorkelling again, while the boys sunbathed.   

 

I saw some more blue sea stars.  The Japanese gave the boys some BBQ chicken wings, and sausages. That was neat.

Later in the afternoon, cruising back to Treasure Island, I asked Tito, the skipper, if we could go slow over the reef, as I wanted to take photos of the water and coral.   

The coral reef and Beachcomber Island

Tito asked if we had any snacks.  He crushed the biscuits, and sprinkled the crumbs into the water.  Immediately Humbug Damsel fish appeared from the coral, Parrot fish, Wrasse, and butterfly fish. 

All on top of the water for Quinn and Tighe to see.  There were also long thin fish, which I thought were baby barracuda. Tito identified them as baby Marlin.

Baby Marlin

Quinn and Tighe spent the rest of the afternoon near the pool.  I watched the wild life.  A very relaxing afternoon.

Tighe watching geckos

Gecko on fence

 The parrots joined us again, noisy beautiful birds.

 When it got too hot we wandered back to the bure.

Mana Island

 At the Eastern point of Treasure Island, a heron was waiting.

 These Jays are noisy cheeky birds.   They steal your food.

In the comfort of air conditioning, the boys did their schoolwork, until it cooled down outside to about 25 degrees.   The jays and banded rail visited us.

Tighe wanted to go swimming before dinner.   The pool is lit with blue lights, so when the boys are in the water, their skin is blue too.  It reminded me a little of the creature from Hell Boy.

After eating on the sand bar, Quinn and Tighe weren’t particularly fussed about a BBQ buffet dinner.  I had steak and sesame stir fried vegies,  They ordered a Fruit Plate off the Kids Menu, but asked for no Watermelon, and double pineapple.  The plate came out with 10 slices of pineapple, and nothing else. Perfect!

Tighe has made friends with a young Italian lad, Alexandro.  We invited him to come crab hunting.  With torches, we found 3 decent sized crabs.  We could hear the party music from Beachcomber island.