We headed out to meet Scallywag at lunchtime at a snorkelling spot off one of the islands, but when we got there it was too rough to stay so we headed for a more sheltered anchorage by the coral gardens.
We went snorkeling with Paul and Gloria in the afternoon and then had a great curry aboard Scallywag. Next day was Gloria's birthday and so they were heading back into town to have a meal ashore. We went off to negotiate the passes through the reefs to reach one of the furtherest anchorages - a very sheltered one but with amazing views of the massive waves crashing against the islands and reefs in front of us. We had this anchorage to ourselves, plus 3 deserted tropical islands and lots of reefs and lagoons to explore. We went ashore to explore the island in front of us and found a sort of path through the dense vegetation which led up to high cliffs on the ocean side of the island. It was an amazing sight to watch the water crashing against the cliffs and caves and shooting up into the air like massive blowholes. The whole island is made of amazing volcanic rock which is very sharp and full of holes, with veins of different coloured minerals running through it. The island was rich in wildlife and there was an amazing variety of bird song - we saw herons, multicoloured birds that looked rather like parrots, swifts, waders and gulls. The shallow water around the shore was also seething with wildlife and we actually found a beautiful large cowrie shell - with a cowrie in it, moving around. There were turtles, many varieties of starfish, all sorts of crabs, shellfish etc. It was wonderful to walk along the shore with the only sound being birdsong and breakers crashing the other side of the island.

The following day we explored the lagoons in the kayaks and then went to another island further along past a linking reef. The trip across was quite a sight as the water was very shallow and you could see beautiful coral mounds, fish etc quite clearly in the aquamarine water. Scallywag had told us of an amazing large, deep hole in the island, with freshwater at the bottom and that further behind this there were amazing chasms in the cliffs where the air shot out when the waves came in. After walking around much of the lagoon side of the island, we eventually found the abandoned dugout canoe where we were told to plunge into the jungle to find these sights. We armed ourselves with stout sticks and pushed our way through the vegetation, climbed up sharp volcanic rock, explored in different directions but unfortunately were unable to find the deep hole nor to find a way through the vegetation to the cliffs on the other side. We vowed to try again the following day. As we walked the narrow strip of sand and reef back to the dingy we saw several sea snakes in the shallow water - they are supposed to be very poisonous, but luckily are also very shy and generally non-agressive.

The following day dawned grey and wet and after talking to Harmonie, we decided to leave our beautiful anchorage and head back into town to meet up with them and Storyteller and Harmonie to try to work out when to leave for Fiji. We hope to return in a day or two's time.