Woohoo Family Visit!
Uncle Dan and Aunty Eliza made the trip down to Fiji from DC. Dan was finishing up with the summer of all summers which we will call the Summer of Dan. So with their girls Sonia and Evie back in DC, we decided to jam as many islands, beaches, flights, boat rides, white wine and table tennis matches as possible in 10 days.
Welcome to Leluevia….
Dan and Eliza brought with them possibly the windiest week we have every experienced in Fiji.
Eliza’s Happy Place.
We call this ‘reflective listening’…..
We call this a ‘family walk around the island’…
Leluevia is always magical….
Sunrise….
Moce Leluevia!
Next Stop: Kadavu
Kadavu (pronounced Kandavu) is an amazing island located about 60 miles south of our island of Viti Levu. It is secluded in the sense that it feels like you at the end of the world…..literally.
Here we go:
The smile before the storm…
And we are off…
The final approach….
Welcome to Kadavu!
Upon our arrival and after getting through heavy security, we headed off to the beach to our transport to Papageno’s.
Not many roads or people (10,000) on Kadavu so here is our ride…
Just a quick push (and photo op)…
…and we are off.
We often feel like we are a speck in the middle of the Pacific…but, this…this truly felt like the end of the world. As we pulled into our beach, eagle rays flew beneath the boat (sorry no pics).
Kadavu is surrounded by the Great Astrolabe Reef which is one of the worlds largest barrier reefs…..which we hear is amazing. 🙂
We decided we had had enough travel for the day so we took a 2 minute ride out to our reef with our escorts…
One moment, you are on a little skiff with the sun on your face enjoying the world above the water, the next minute you launch yourself overboard…….and then you open your eyes and you are transported into this colorful and vibrant new world…..and then the next minute you look over the edge of a big wall of coral to see Uncle Dan scuba’ing below…..
Summer of Dan: Kadavu Island
Day 2 consisted of lounging without kids, paddle boarding, kayaking, snorkeling, more scuba and looking at the clouds…..which by themselves were a bit mind blowing.
Dan and Eliza out to sea….
A few shots from the island we stopped at to snorkel…
…and dig our toes in the sand.
Sunset on Kadavu after a big day…..damn, that was awesome. Thank you Kadavu, Dan and Eliza!
And just like that, it was time to go….but, not before we received our gifts from the lovely staff at Papagenos…..and had (what felt like our senior) pics taken….
The happy couple…
The other happy couple..
Isa Lei…..Our farewell song from the staff…always beautiful.
….back to the ‘grind’…..
After an extremely full, but quick 2 days at Kadavu, we headed back to Viti Levu……before heading back to Suva, we stopped at Mantavinusi for a few more days of table tennis before having to say good bye to Dan and Eliza….:(
Moce Uncle Dan!
