I was excited about our first visit of the day to Pe'ape'a Cave to see the white rumped Polynesian swiftlets, quite specific, no? We do love our wildlife spotting and this did seem suitable random. At the family's garden we followed the guy down some steps and straight into a cave, that passed under the road.
Tiny swiftlets were nesting in the crevices of the cave roof. Some were flying around in the dark recesses making high frequency sounds (like bats) to negotiate their flight.
A fluffy booom on a tiny nest...
An empty tiny nest...
Oh no! Who should be sitting on this egg?
We were pleased to establish that unlike the fruit bats, no one was actually eating the swiftlets...a bit too small, and safer for it, hopefully.
Looking across the jungle straight to the sea. To the left of this pic was what was fast becoming a a familiar sight, a family were living in an open sided fale on the lava rocks, taro poking out all around. It looked so incredibly hot and hostile in comparison to the rest of the landscape!
A communal fale on the lava rocks.
More beautifully scented frangipani.
And here we were at the Vaisala Hotel, our destination of the day. We were really impressed with the beach...but looked at several odd rooms before selecting the least odd of the bunch. A funny, but familiar process where the person on reception only ever brings one key at a time...we chose the fourth room that we looked at, after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, lol.
'Lets get in the sea!!!'
Ok, after some lunch then.
Great views of the private beach from the restaurant.
Another furry friend, this one quite elderly and looking quite hopeful at Wiji with his fish and chips!
After our hilarious snorkelling wildlife spot at Vacations, where Wiji tried to drown me by making me laugh so much, I decided to test his powers of observation before we got too far out in the ocean. Previously he had spotted a new creature and needed my help to work out what it was...oooh exciting, no? No. Actually totally priceless! It was turquoise thong from a broken a flip-flop, but he was convinced it was something else...LMAO...'What is this sea creature, love?' Lol.
'God, why does she keep picking them up?' Wiji and the hotel in the distance.
Amazing!
The snorkelling at Vaisala beach revealed the most enormous sea cucumbers that we had ever seen! What can I compare it to...errr, a double yule log?
Did Ben grow any romanesco?
Finally a clam! The hotel, like many other places was full of decorative clam shells lining the pathways. Shame that they are all actually dead. A bit of a Damien Hurst 'forms Without life' scenario.
This beauty had a great spot and beautifully coloured lips that it sucked back in the moment Wiji approached...
Out a little bit more...'Say prunes, please'.
There were some larger upright coral formations that were interesting to explore...
Swim Wiji, swim!
The action was quite a way off from the beach...We even did some proper swimming as well as mucking about!
Finally, after all our snorkelling antics, I was sooo pleased to spot these red and white shrimps in the hole in the rock. I had previously seen them in salt water tanks...they are gorgeous creatures. In the hole below them is a large fish trying to hide.
This coral seemed to glow green underwater...but not in this pic.
Pic of the day for hilarity was won by Wiji, who spotted this eel poking its head out of the hard coral.
Its difficult to see in this pic, but there was a dense shoal's of tiny khaki fish hiding in the coral.
Enormous and wierd too!
Wiji demonstrates how big they were.
Fish friends...the one with the black spots hoofs up the sand and the other one waits to sift through it.
A beautiful, but tiny fish with a spanish dancer style set of flowing fins.
A very tiny fish, a bit like a catfish, that we enjoyed watching. It came out to stand guard over its hole and watched us.
Christmas tree anemones!
Lots and lots of Picasso fish!
Just odd.
More christmas tree anemones and eel holes in the hard coral.
Looking back at the hotel as the thunderstorm rumbled over the landscape...The hotel looked great in the distance, and had survived several cyclones, only to be rebuilt several times.
Our final choice of room had a great balcony view over the ocean, perfect for chilling out after the snorkel and seeing the sunset.
Back again and waiting for dinner. The very camp chef quizzed us about our meal requirements, then when they emerged he had made his own choices, funny hey?...It was still delish though.
At dinner a few more guests emerged from somewhere and so did a string band who were great! Check out the string base (stick, string and helmans mayo bucket).
Here's a little vid of one of their songs I really liked...
Wiji really liked the cat. It did have a lovely singing voice.
We had a great sleep, on an actual bed too! But horror of Horror's, cheesy paw paw was the main star of the comp brekky...Aaarggh! Wiji had decided that he actually liked it with a squeeze of lime! O-K cheese freak!
It was here that the teenage waitress (Sarah) got a chance to question us...'Where are your children?' Lol. And before Wiji arrived 'where is your husband'. A very irritating question, especially when asked by men. Naturally a mistake to say 'I'm not married'...unless they are REALLY fit! Aaah, I am really amusing myself with this one. Whatever.
The sun really came out and made the beach view from the restaurant very tempting...A good place to put the guests at the start of the day.
But we had to go and continue our journey around the island...In the words of one great philosopher... 'Maybe tomorrow I'll wanna settle down, till tomorrow, I'll just keep movin on'. Lol.
The restaurant circa 1950. It had some great pics of before and after various cyclones. DIY pictures that are actually justified, rather than just plane boring.
I like this one best, the first effort. Less concrete, less sprawl and all the original trees standing upright. Looks a bit bond-baddie secret lair.
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