Eric and Christi took a taxi over to the hotel where we were meeting Christi’s dad, John. The hotel is at the other end of Denaru, so we got to see more of the island. From what we understand, part of Denaru is natural island, part of it is reclaimed swampland, and part of it is man made land from the swamp dredging. There are several gated communities filled with fancy custom homes on finger cays that all have private docks in their back yard. The taxi driver said the homes range from $750,000 to $3 million Fijian dollars. There is a golf course and a large number of exclusive resorts.

Much to our surprise, when we pulled up at the hotel, John was waiting for us out front. He had made great time getting through customs and baggage.

We headed back to Kosmos, where we were surprised again to see that Adrienne had cleaned the whole interior for us. Wow. John said he wasn’t tired, despite the fact that he had just flown all night, so we decided to do a tour to Bounty Island to hang out at the private resort. The price included the ferry ride, lunch, and use of all the non-mechanical amenities the resort offered.

We loaded onto the ferry. It was a catamaran that did 40 mph, and the ride was surprisingly smooth for the speed. In about 20 minutes we had arrived at our destination. The cat stopped near the island, and a small glass bottom boat pulled up alongside it. We loaded into the small boat, which delivered us to a small dock in front of the marina.

Lunch was served right away. It was a buffet with fish, French fries, bok choy, salad and a pasta salad. Except for the fish, it wasn’t very good. The beach was nice. You can tell it gets littered with coral and shell and that the resort regularly drags the beach to keep it sandy.

We tried kayaking, but it was too windy so we quickly came in. We tried snorkeling. The water clarity was not good in the snorkeling area near shore. So bad, in fact, that Christi didn’t see a huge coral head until she collided with it. Also, the equipment was low quality and we couldn’t breathe properly with the snorkels. Snorkeling lasted about 10 minutes. We went in the pool. The water was cold, so we didn’t stay in long. On a hot day the cold pool would be refreshing, but today was gloomy, windy and cool.Christi and Adrienne entertained themselves by taking silly pictures around the resort, then took a walk around the island while the guys relaxed in lounge chairs.

The island is small, so the walk didn’t take long. Outside the resort, there is a trail cut through scenic forest, with peeks of the ocean offering pretty views of Viti Levu and several other small islands. They happened upon a couple destroyed buildings that look like they were once expensive hotel bungalows.

It had just started to rain when it was time to leave. Unfortunately, the ferry was way behind schedule, so we sat and waited for quite a while before we actually were loaded into the small boat that took us to the ferry.

Back at Kosmos, John crashed. Christi, Adrienne and Eric all went to dinner at an Indian restaurant called Saffron that was highly recommended. The three of us never ate much Indian food at home, so most of the dishes on the menu were foreign to us. We were adventurous and tried things we had never heard of: Tandoori Khazaha, which was a sampler of chicken, fish, shrimp, & veggies in a mint sauce called tikka; Lamb Chettinad, which was almost like a shredded consistency mixed with a coconut, curry & spice sauce; and Kofta Lababdar, which are almost a pureed veggies and apricot in a curry sauce. We all got roti bread to accompany our food, which turned out to be flour tortillas. The food was excellent some of the best Indian food any of us have ever had.