Bula Vinaka, Family and Friends!
We (Joy & Kaleb) finally took off, and having a great start in Fiji. From long hours on the airplane, losing a day by travelling to the future, having to weigh ourselves with our carryon bags (literally holding our bags and personal items and then having to stand on the scale, putting a dent in our wallet paying for excess weights, hitchhiking and getting a ride from a kind stranger after walking to the store when a sudden downpour of rain came on, being stuffed in a car with all our belongings (the car was pretty small, and we had way too many bags, so we had to sit down and then loaded the bags onto our laps lol), almost got attacked by a Titan Triggerfish (we didn’t know any better, their teeth are like human canines), flying on a Twin Otter (the smallest commercial airplane ever!), and jumping on a small boat to an exclusive resort on an island with almost no roads…the list goes on.
But the greatest news of all, we are making a difference for the ocean at Paradise Taveuni Resort, on the “Garden Island” of Taveuni, Fiji. The restoration was established to help coral recover from cyclone “Winston”. There are two coral restoration platforms by the shore at this luxurious resort. The coral are very young but they are definitely growing! There is some life in these wonderful corals already, crabs the size of a dime, and fish of the same size. Bridgette, the resort’s Dive Instructor, started this project several months back and now they live on.
