Fafa Island
So one of the things we did yesterday was book ourselves onto a ferry to spend the day on Fafa. Which is gorgeous!! Absolutely the epitome of a tropical island complete with fend for yourself if you miss a meal. Kinda love that to be honest.
We got up to a cloudy and cool day, wasn’t looking good for our island adventure but it was still cool – didn’t really care if we ended up huddled in the library on Fafa till the boat came back to be honest, but had my fingers crossed for snorkeling weather anyway 😏
Yes. There’s a library on Fafa. No, I never found it. Sorry. Too busy snorkeling
There were quite a few people waiting and more kept coming. Was asked quite often what was the fare and where do you pay (TOP 92 per person (including lunch) and on the boat), and also what times and days. Not sure what made me look like a travel agent but had the info in my handbag so it was good 😁
In actual fact, for Fafa at least, you don’t pay till just before you get back over. And you can tick up whatever you want on the bar tab… it’s a good system, certainly wasn’t going to swim off to avoid the tab
I had The Hawaiian Sandwich (weirdly cold toasted bread with cheese, ham and pineapple put between them) and mum had a tuna dish that she enjoyed. Sorry, should’ve paid more attention. It was good – all of it.
We sat at the end of the main veranda and watched the pukeko and wekas wander about preening and hoping for food. They were gorgeous – very fine and slightly smaller compared to their NZ counterparts but the same. And friendly!
I thought I had photos, but I think I left them to Mum. Sorry.
While we were at lunch there was a cold breeze blowing, actually cold. I was starting to think we’d made a mistake – grey skies and cold winds. But then we walked back down to the beach and turned off the point
No wind! Blue skies! Actually insanely hot! Was a weird hallelujah moment.
We carried on round, I was looking for somewhere to park up and snorkel and Mum was trying to circumnavigate the island.
Found this gorgeous beach and got half way down when I decided that was pretty much perfect and I’ll park up here while Mum carried on. Unfortunately she couldn’t get far. The island has ‘bush walks’ as one of the ‘attractions’ but the first thing they said when we arrived is you can go anywhere except around the occupied cabins. And all the cabins were occupied…
So unless she was going to swim around the far side Mum was kind of stuck. By the time she came back I’d been in for my first scuba. There wasn’t much fish out there. Came back in to dry out and Mum joined me for a few minutes. Then she carried on back. The worst thing is that the app she uses to read wouldn’t load! Not sure what that was about, but bugger that.
So I dried out and went back in, went well into the dark spots this time – the fish were on the fringes where it was warm last time but I was good for the colder bits now 😃 Saw heaps. Followed a yellow and blue fish for ages. First saw it secreting sand (though at the time couldn’t figure out what) but watched it dive down and grab a mouthful of seabed then come up gushing sand out its side and then finally spit out gravel. So this is a fish with good filtration. Weirdly it was also a fish on its own. Went further over the coral and found colonies of fish – some like clown fish, some black and white triangular fish, some the large discus kind of fish… so gutted that I forgot to pack my underwater camera.
Got out and dried then followed Mum back to her spot – the loungers on the first beach.
And then decided it’s still my birthday somewhere
Gorgeous day. Really special and so glad we did it.
Both times on the boat I was inside so don’t have any photos, but I did make sure mum was on the back (outside) coming back. Apparently this wasn’t much better for photo opportunities 😂
Went back up to the bar, paid the tab then got back on the floating dock thing that pootled us out to the boat – genius!
BlueKahu 