Tuesday - Relaxing (sort of)

After a hot night trying to sleep in 25C temperature without putting the aircon or the ceiling fan on I woke not long after 6am. We had to fill the car with petrol and return it by around 8:30am so set off to do that after a quick breakfast of cereal, banana and pawpaw. On the way back we grabbed a couple of Almond Croissants from the Koru Café to have with our morning coffee while we did our puzzles.

We are now carless for few days but we may rent a scooter later on if we can get Miriam on the back.

For a bit exercise I took one of the single kayaks out for a spin and decided to head across this section of the lagoon to see if I could spot a turtle. It's about 1km across towards the main part of the island and I did see one here back in 2022. This time I had my GoPro camera with me just in case. Amazingly, I did find one. When it saw me (from about 30 m away) it looked a bit startled and dived immediately. After quietly floating around for a while I saw it again a couple of times and managed to get some footage of it as it nearly surfaced right in front of the kayak. Here's the best still from the video:

Once I got back we walked a 100m or so up the channel to try snorkelling where there are some coral heads. Unfortunately the water was a bit murky so nothing much to be seen underwater.

Back at the unit we had a sandwich for lunch washed down with a couple of Coronas and spent the rest of the afternoon, swimming in the pool and the lagoon in front of us and reading our books.

Later on in the afternoon I decided to go for a walk along the edge of the Ootu Peninsula (which is what the airport is built on) to see if I could complete the round trip. We have tried this on previous visits here but always gave up because it is a bit of a challenging walk. It was pretty hard walking on coral sand/rocks in 28-30C (mad dogs and Englishmen and all that!).

I eventually returned somewhat sweaty and thirsty after walking the 6km in 1 1/2 hours.


Miriam made her famous flatbread on the BBQ for a pre-dinner snack with hummus, salami and olives (with the mandatory gin & tonics) followed by fried chicken thighs and a salad with Chardonnay.


We're not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow but the weather may be a bit wet. Thursday is looking good so we may do a boat snorkelling trip with one of the local operators.

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