A beautiful turboprop sea plane comes in to pick up passengers at Blue Lagoon Resort. It\u2019s on the beach for maybe ten minutes, loading passengers and gear, then is off to the mainland.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m in no hurry and prefer the giant yellow catamaran, a huge marine triple decker transit bus that makes the island circuit once a day and is the only other passage to these north islands.<\/p>\n
But none of the hotels where I want to stay have any rooms. I didn\u2019t think the \u201chigh season\u201d started for another month, but it\u2019s also Easter Break. Manta Ray Resort, just a long hop down the island chain, has one private room available when I call.<\/p>\n
I really don\u2019t want to stay in a dorm. I don\u2019t need posh, but there are some things a man my age shouldn\u2019t do. Manta Ray is also supposed to have tremendous snorkeling right off the beach.<\/p>\n
I pick a seat in the shade on the second deck. Zoe and Alice come sit down across from me after they bake long enough in the sun on the unshielded deck above. The two blond girls have freckles. Zoe, for about the tenth time since I met her, asks why I am traveling alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe emailed you from the next room?! She didn\u2019t want anyone to know you were together? She\u2019s just mental then,\u201d Zoe lays out in her thick Essex English accent. \u201cYou\u2019re a good guy!\u201d<\/p>\n
I start to defend you: \u201cTwo sides to every story\u2026 I\u2019m sure she had reasons\u2026 \u201d and then stop. It doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you. I think I\u2019m a good guy, too,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n
I go down at one point to find my snorkel bag. I\u2019d planned to carry it but the resort guys gathered it up with all the rest of the luggage and it wasn\u2019t tagged with a destination. A crew member helped me find it, we tagged and moved it to the pile going to Manta Ray Resort.<\/p>\n
We get to Manta Ray and I say goodbye to Zoe and Alice. There\u2019s just four of us getting off here, Claire from Switzerland and a young Japanese couple. The resort check-in person assumes Claire and I are a couple despite the age difference, and starts to check us into the same room.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would work for me, but I think Claire might have another idea,\u201d I say when I catch the error on the paperwork. We all laugh.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s nice not worrying how every word will be construed.<\/p>\n
Manta Ray is not as upscale as Blue Lagoon. My room on stilts is about 10 foot square, and the bearings in the fan may not last the another month. I unpack as much as I think is prudent, then decide to write for a while.<\/p>\n
That decision lasts less than 10 seconds. I did not come to Fiji to write when some of the best snorkeling in the world is 30 meters off the beach.<\/p>\n
I toss my glasses on the bed and pull my fins and mask out of the green mesh bag (so glad I didn\u2019t lose it on the ferry!) and head down to the beach. After everything is adjusted, I swim out, turn to my right against the current and do a crawl out to deeper water.<\/p>\n
There are a zillion fish, and the corals look like they were dipped in the finger paint from third grade.\u00a0 It\u2019s magical. Eventually, clouds roll in and I don\u2019t like snorkeling alone, so after I dive down to pick up a D cel battery lying on the ocean floor, I swim straight back to the beach while the current pushes me south and I end up right where I set off.<\/p>\n
I put my fins on the concrete shelf and am deciding if I should get something to drink when I\u2019m pulled into a game of volley ball by Christina, a six-foot tall German girl with a Teutonic-tinged English accent .<\/p>\n
On about the third serve, the other side puts a ball right in a dead spot near me. I do a full stretch body slam onto the sand but reach out with one fist and get the ball up and we make the point. There are oohs. Geezer guy plays!<\/p>\n
We play five sets, and finally I bail out.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m too old, you\u2019re too good!” I say as I head to the ocean to cool off with a swim.\u00a0They\u2019re polite about it.<\/p>\n
After dinner, three of the guys who\u2019d been in the game asked if I was going to play tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cDepends on two things: The snorkeling might be really good. If it is, I\u2019m going to be in the water. If the snorkeling isn\u2019t so good, then I\u2019ll play\u2026 if I\u2019m still able to move my right arm, that is. And if my right hamstring is okay. And my left elbow. My right hip, too. And if I still have a large bottle of ibuprofen left in my bag\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
They laugh. Eric, Gustov and Magnus are from Sweden. Eric says I look Swedish. I say that\u2019s where most of my blood comes from.<\/p>\n
The sun is bright the next day. I write, have lunch, grab my snorkel gear and wish I\u2019d loaded my Go-Pro to take photos underwater instead of a Sony that doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s bright all the way to the sand valleys that meander between the coral. Bright silver fish and dark blue fish and black and yellow striped fish browse the coral heads for lunch.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a couple not far away and I sort of stay in an area with them, so as not to be really snorkeling alone.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s so incredibly beautiful that I\u2019m not diving down to the bottom as I often do for a better look at details. I\u2019m just taking it all in when about fifteen feet away a five-foot shark swims through my field of vision.<\/p>\n
The animal is amazing, with movement not lazy, not by ocean fish on the reef standards, more like it\u2019s hyper efficient. It can\u2019t hide, nor waste a lot of energy on unsuccessful frenzy, so it moves with a rhythmic, strong but easy sweep of it\u2019s tail. Smooth is fast, right, Racer Boy? It seems nonchalant, but I imagine the fish around me are quite aware the predator isn\u2019t just out for a swim.<\/p>\n
I am.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you see that shark!\u201d says the man behind me. I point to where it disappeared into the green curtain of underwater distance, and nod.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know how I\u2019d respond if I saw a shark out here. I\u2019m thankful I\u2019m cool with it, also thankful that it was swimming away from me when I see it. But for the next half hour, I\u2019m looking backwards forwards and to each side with a little more intensity than I had been before the shark swam by.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A beautiful turboprop sea plane comes in to pick up passengers at Blue Lagoon Resort. It\u2019s on the beach for maybe ten minutes, loading passengers and gear, then is off to the mainland.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m in no hurry and prefer the giant yellow catamaran, a huge marine triple decker transit bus that makes the island circuit once a day and is the only other passage to these north islands.<\/p>\n
But none of the hotels where I want to stay have any rooms. I didn\u2019t think the \u201chigh season\u201d started for another month, but it\u2019s also Easter Break. Manta Ray Resort, just \u2026 Read more\u2026