October 15 - Snorkel Natewa Bay, Christmas Tree Worms, Arun's Taste Of Hidden Paradise Restaurant

October 15 (Day 4 – Snorkel Natewa Bay, Christmas Tree Worms, Arun's Taste Of Hidden Paradise Restaurant): Woke up about the same time today. Of course we were asleep by 9:00! Savusavu really shuts down about 8:00 and we were tired. Had tea and breakfast. At 7:15 Rod, Pam, and I left for our snorkel trip in Natewa Bay. The largest Bay in the South Pacific! We were with Dr Jays tours. Our leader was Seva and his wife. Jim didn't go as he was feeling poorly... we drove right there since we found it yesterday! Got there early, so we waited for another couple to join us. Rod was able to share some crayons with Seva’s nephew and niece. Had a beautiful boat ride out to the Homecoming Reef. Our travel companions were Reggie and Christina from Suva and Japan and their dog Amy. This snorkel was amazing! So colorful and vibrant that it looked unreal. We drifted around the reef following Seva. We were out about an hour... We all got chilly. Next, we moved a bit (not far) and got back in. About 45 minutes. Beautiful again. There has been quite a bit of coral planted successfully! All owned by the mataqali. Back for a rest and shower! To Arun’s (Arun's Taste Of Hidden Paradise Restaurant - directions) for Curry. We ate on the deck. Delicious!

I forgot to say that on the way back today (in the boat) we ran out of gas! No worries tho…Seva had more!

Rod’s Thoughts: Natewa Bay snorkeling might be in the top five snorkeling I have done to date. As Marg said above, the colors were unreal, they were so plentiful and vibrant. This was also the first time I had ever seen Christmas Tree worms. Really cool! We used Dr. Jay’s tours. There is another tour company called Ocean Ventures that does snorkeling and diving tours. I don’t know if they do Natewa Bay or not, but they are the #1 ranked tour company on Vanua Levu. Why didn’t we use them? The couple that owns and runs the place were off getting married. I guess we can forgive them for that 😊.

A mataqali in Fiji is a landowning clan or sub-clan, which is a collective group of families that share a common ancestry and own land communally. These groups have collective decision-making rights over their land and its resources, and the mataqali is a fundamental unit within Fiji's traditional kinship and village structure.