A Resort

We were back to luxury. We had a strange message from the Outrigger Reef Resort. I had booked on the web at cheaphotels.com and received a confirmation number. Later, when I was in Lautoka I received a message suggesting that I stay in the Outrigger Resort in Honolulu - useless when I wanted to be in Fiji. So I took the printout with the confirmation number on it to the front desk who kindly gave us a room after a short wait. Unfortunately some people were bumped that night to another hotel. This is a fairly new resort and very well managed so it fills up.
Hot water was an amazing luxury for us after being on Vanua Balavu. The food here was excellent, as was the restaurant next door to the hotel.

I finally read the instruction manual for the camera and found that from Musket Cove until now the aperture had been open +2 stops. I did not realize that it did not reset when there was a new picture (unlike my Panasonic digital camera). So many of the trip pictures were over-exposed and where possible were corrected by Adobe Photoshop.

			The resort entrance was like a big Fijian meeting house (bure bose). We attended a Kava ceremony where we drank Kava (yaqona). First John was appointed the chief - so two cowry shells on a coconut fiber rope were pointed towards him. The powdered Kava was wrapped in a cloth and dipped in water in the bowl and then squeezed repeatedly to make the drink.

			The food at the restaurant next door to the hotel consisted of good fresh, local fish. We
			The dining rooms and bars were really beautiful - built to look as if they were large bures. The guitar is the most popular Fijian instrument and there were several guitar players around the resort.
			The beach was coral and one could lie under umbrellas on the beach - except it was a bit rainy. There were sea slugs. It took me three attempts at snorkeling to get used to them. After a while when I thought that they looked like Brian from the Magic Roundabout I felt a whole lot better. Snorkeling was not great there - but there were a few coral lumps with colorful reef fish if you went out far enough. We enjoyed the gardens immensely. There were twittering lorikeets and other birds.


			The hotel garden next to the beach was a romantic spot for a wedding.