Nanuya Lailai Things to Do

After lunch we wandered over to the point for fish feeding. Alan said to be there at 14.00. Several of us were, but no Alan. It was Fijian time of course! He turned up eventually, with a large plastic bag full of bread. We could all do our own feeding, and he had encouraged us to bring the snorkelling gear, which I was really pleased about, as it was absolutely amazing under water. I used a whole roll of film just on the fish feeding, and by the time I surfaced again, everybody else had gone, there was just me, my mum and Alan. It really was unbeliveable from below the surface - definitely one of the highlights of the cruise.

The ship has a windsurfing board which they brought asore to this island. When I mentioned to Alan that I would love to have a go, but didn't know how, he offered to teach me.

I didn't get on too well initially, but once Alan gave me a few basic tips, I managed to get it moving, at least in one direction. Turning round was more difficult. I did evenutally manage to move to the other side of the board before I fell off. Every time I fell off, I somehow managed to end up under the sail. I couple of times I was hit by the mast too. Eventually I gave up, despite calls of encouragement from fellow passengers.

Unfortunately, nobody thought of taking a photograph of me whilest I was actually upright on the board, so you'll ahve to make do with a picture of the beach. Sorry.

Back on the island after our snorkelling excursion, we played about on the paddle board for a bit. Very similar to a say akayak, the paddle board is a fairly flat piece of polystyrene which you sit astride with your legs dangling either side for balance.

I am incredibly bouyant, which causes all sorts of problems when I try to dive down and take photos of the fish or corals. I probably managed to dive down about three metres, but by the time I had pointed the camera at my subject and the finger had found the right button, I had floated half way up again. I kept trying, which was wearing me out, as I had to kick hard with my legs, and use my arms (which I don't normally when I snorkel). I did mention this to Alan, and he suggested using the chain from the boat's anchor.

Soon after we arrived at the island, Alan took us off snorkelling out to the reef. I was a bit disappointed initially, but that soon changed as I moved along further out to sea. It really was marvellous!