July 30-August 14, 2000
Our Honeymoon in Fiji

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First day there, just after sunrise--Robyn on the stairs leading down to the beach A butterfly hanging from a leaf Robyn watching the day begin from our beach The main sitting room of the house Having a glass of wine on the back porch with Max the wonder dog Looking back up at the house from the beach A big spider in the rainforest Deserted stretch of beach along the Lavena coastal walk--this is apparently where they filmed 'Return to the Blue Lagoon'. Interesting wave erosion along the shore Where's Robyn? Crab in a tidepool, he's under maybe an inch of water Some sort of flower that had fallen to the sand Wonderful Tina, the caretaker; she cooked, cleaned, and introduced us to everyone Our main method of transportation Exploring the outlying islets A little camouflaged crab Some of the little islets we explored via kayak The wife Robyn on the tip of the third [farthest] island Me on a little island near the edge of the reef Kayakkin' Luckily, we always had our snorkel gear on the kayaks with us so we could explore all the great reefs All alone on some islet off of Taveuni See its little eyes looking back at you? Flower More flowers Ummm, yup, another flower Morning Glory Flower Locals spending an afternoon at Coconut Grove (next door to our place) performing a vakamalolo (sitting dance); everyone participates, drinking kava, drumming, and dancing A stream bed meeting the road as we hiked up Des Veaux Peak, the highest mountain on Taveuni (over 4000 feet); we walked up a dirt road the whole way, which exists to serve the radio tower on the top of the peak Why do they call this the rain forest? Robyn & Roy in the rain at the top of Des Veaux Peak by the radio tower; Roy is Tina's boyfriend and was our guide on this and several other adventures It finally stopped raining on the way down the mountain These guys were everywhere along a certain stretch of the road up the mountain Another little lizard Hey Roy, wait up! Another big spider, maybe 6 inches across Strangler fig A flower with a deep cup in the center (that's a hole, not a dark spot) A spider in its web Morning glory Robyn & Roy heading down the mountain A flower along a stream bank Taking a break At one point the ground rose up along either side of the trail, forming walls that were entirely covered with thousands of these flowers The old Catholic mission Yum A tagimoucia (Ta-ghee-mow-THEE-a) flower, which only grows in the high peaks of Taveuni alnong the shores of Lake Tagimoucia. Roy found one and picked it for us. Ronna is the owner of Coconut Grove & our next-door-neighbor--this is her dog Gracie, playing fetch on our beach with a coconut--I have never seen a happier dog Robyn & Gracie Me with Talullah, Ronna's kitten--if we could have, we would have smuggled her home As we were the only tourists in town, we had the dive boats to ourselves too Talullah Talullah Our divemaster at Dive Taveuni--he knew everything, and is probably the best divemaster I've ever gone with I thought someone hit our screen with a baseball, but it was just this 4-inch moth--yikes Nice vesicular lava flows make up most of the outlying islets, they erode leaving all kinds of cavities for wildlife This is a closeup of the closest islet to our beach; as you can see, they're pretty rugged A banded sea krait (Laticauda colubrina), very venomous sea snakes that (apparently) come ashore in the evening to sleep; we discovered droves of them coming ashore before sunset onto the first island--notice how their tails have evolved a flattened paddle shape to propel them through the water Hermit crab Another banded sea krait--a good view of its swimming-adapted tail A small nest among the boulders on the second island 'Docking' so that we can explore the little island and have a picnic Just before sunset on the first island; we checked VERY carefully for snakes before settling on this spot! Sunset from the first island A visitor in one of our bathrooms... about six inches across and FAST Spendingthe afternoon on the second island--the solitude was great Some small blue fish swimming over old lava flows Robyn and Tina at the airport (that's the runway behind them) Crab Aerial shot of the second island & its little companion islet, you can just barely see the edge of the first island atthe top of the picture Aerial shot of the third island Aerial shot of Matei, our little town on Taveuni; the main visible feature is the runway--our house is hidden in a clump of forest on the beach in the center of the picture A corner of Vanua Levu, the second-largest island in Fiji Hermit crab A shot out of the plane window of some islands to the West of Viti Levu [main island] on our way to Mana Island Coming in for a landing on Mana Island; not the biggest plane I've ever been on; hey, shouldn't the pilot be wearing his seatbelt? Some flowers on the beach on Mana Island Our private stretch of beach on Mana, which just happened to be at the end of the runway Aerial view of a piece of Viti Levu Late afternoon sun breakingthrough the clouds over the western islands Burning the cane fields Smoke from the burning cane fields as we come into port Sunset over the western islands from the ferry Robyn & I aboard the ferry from Mana Island to Viti Levu The sleeping giant Burning cane fields Sunset from the ferry

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