We've had a few wonderful days here in the Bay of Islands exploring the area and meeting new people. There are two other American boats here with us, one was a 62' Selene trawler with John and Kathy called Mystic Moon from San Francisco, and the other a 63' Deerfoot named Kailani with Harley, Jen and their 6 year old daughter Sophia, from San Diego. We had everyone on NEXUS for sundowners and had a great evening. John was the manufacturing VP for Edy's Ice Cream before Nestles bought them out...alas he said he didn't have any on board...not sure we believed him! Harley is an M&A advisor and Jen an Aerospace Engineer...imagine that...and their daughter Sophia was delightful! We spent a couple days exploring the islands with Kailani on our dingy, taking extended trips around the islands and poking between the limestone towers into little blue lagoons enjoying the coral, birds and scenery. We've decided this is Middle Earth, at least that's the best way to picture it in our minds! It is one of the top three cruising anchorages in Fiji, and we made a day trip around the island to Bavatu harbor, which was the second of the top three, a couple days ago and it was beautiful but not enough to move the boat there. It does have the Exploring Isles Yacht Squadran empty HQ building and pier there from which you can take short hikes up to scening vantage points, which is great. We're leaving this afternoon for an overnight sail down to Fulaga (pronounced Fulanga or Vulanga) which is one of the southernmost Atolls in the Lau group, and 120 miles further south out of our way, but we're told by the other cruisers that is is even more beautiful than this anchorage and the number one place to see, so we're up for it. We'll have to give up some of the more established harbors on the way back to the west, but we figure we can always visit them by "seatbelt" some day in the future if we want to. The Lau group has only been open to outsiders for two years, so we're making the most of it!