Feb. 6th 2011 South Sea Island Day

Today my roommate, Monique, and I woke up early to watch the sunrise which was tranquil and probably the nicest coolest weather of the day. After breakfast we headed into the resort part of Fiji to take a boat out to a tiny island that you could walk all the way around. As we reached the island we were greeted with singing and some great humor by the Fijian staff. After snorkeling close to the shore I decided to spend some extra money to go scuba diving. Me and two other people in my group were scuba certified so we received a debriefing and set out on a boat further off the coast. Our destination was a place 70 feet under where a shipwreck was. We all jumped in James bond style ( rolling out backwards) and headed down to the bottom where there was a giant sail boat covered in barnacles and home to hundreds of fish. I even got up the nerve to follow my instructor into the boat which was full of tiny schools of fish. Big grouper fish came up to us in curiosity as well. Along with the shipwreck we saw and head Sea Cucumbers which are really slimy, small reef sharks, and giant blue star fish. We also came across orange coral that when touched they turned white. My instructor told me they call it ghost coral. Once back on land I found out that one of my friends stepped on a sea urchin and had tons of tiny barbs in her foot. One of the staff had to put a hot pack on her foot and pull out the barbs one by one. We ended the night at the Hard Rock Cafe where we were greeted warmly by the Fijians and were entertained by one of the worker's Michael Jackson impressions.

Since it is hurricane season there was no time for beach volleyball and so they sang us our farewell song and we took a boat back to the main island.