Paddling In The Lagoon

Sunday 24 December

Today is Christmas Eve – how strange to be sitting at breakfast watching the waves foam over the reef, as the sun tries hard to break through the clouds, wearing shorts and Tshirts in December. Most mornings and evenings, we have stopped to look over the verandah by the restaurant into the shallow waters below, to see the hundreds of fish swimming there, waiting to be fed. They are fed special bread, everyday at 13.30, but most days a waitress will bring out bread to feed them after breakfast too. There are trevallies (?) silvery trout like fish, lots of bright pale blue flat fish about the size of a small plaice, white mullet with black fins and yellow tails, long thin almost transparent pipe fish with extended noses, stripy angel fish and a box fish – terracotta colour with blue hoops on his back, he is like a cube with a protruding snout and a long tail which doesn’t seem to move much. But he moves very fast through the water, flapping his little fins on either side. The fish all gather close to shore as people stand on the verandah, waiting to be fed and when food lands in the water, they fight each other to get a bite in the frenzy. It is like feeding the fish in Bangkok, but here the water is so clear it is easy to see the antics of the different fish – some turn and swim on their side, to get closer to the food, others wait on the sea bed just below to catch the crumbs. Feeding time never fails to attract an audience.

A kayaking tour of the lagoon is one of the activities this morning, so we decide to “have a go” – neither of us had canoed since our teenage years – eons ago – so it would be an adventure. We collected our paddles and made our way to the beach at the appointed hour. There were about a dozen other people taking part – including some with very small babies (?) – I don’t think I would take any very young progeny of mine on something so unstable as these kayaks, even if the water is not too deep. The kayaks were either single or double seaters, and we pulled two singles down to the water’s edge and flopped in. Unlike canoes, these are just hollowed out plastic shells, to sit in and paddle.

In no time we were all off, paddling in a group up the lagoon, towards where we had walked the other day – doing our best not to bump into each other. The lagoon is not very deep - only about waist high until you get near the reef – we weren’t going that far out as the huge rollers breaking over the reef make it dangerous. The sea is very clear, and we could watch the rocks and corals pass by underneath, covered with lots of sea anemones and other strange sea plants. We didn’t see many fish, just a few small black ones and a few angel fish. We continued almost to the end of the bay (about where I turned back on my walk the other day). There were some very dark clouds ominously hanging over the peaks, and coming our way. While we were all gathering together for the return journey, I waved at Colin, who was on the far side of the group – and promptly fell overboard – splash! One shoe came off and I let go of the paddle and the kayak was upside down – I remembered something about “Eskimo rolls”, but these craft weren’t big enough to get stuck under. The bottom here was rocky at this point, which made it difficult to stand up as I couldn’t get a foothold. But in the end I managed to catch both shoe and paddle, before trying to get back on board – easier said than done – the waves, now getting a little stronger as the wind gusted with the incoming weather – and kept tipping me back into the water. Eventually, Colin and another lady, wedged my kayak between their two, and I was able to scramble aboard (I don’t suppose it was a very elegant sight), and I began paddling once more. We made our way back to the hotel beach – sitting in the canoe had been uncomfortable for Colin, making his hips quite sore – and we clambered out as the kayak beached on the sand. I had had a great time, and will be sure to do some more paddling (of both kinds) before we leave – although I am quite pleased that the water was relatively shallow – I wouldn’t have wanted to fall out where I couldn’t stand. As I was already wet, I had a quick swim in the pool – which was still colder than the sea - before returning to the room for a cup of tea.

The inclement weather that had been threatening all morning, arrived soon after 14.00 as a steady downpour, so we sat under cover on the balcony, and I blogged (still trying to catch up) and Colin listened to music (he has finished his book on the MP4, and needs to download another, although he did treat himself to a proper book in Christchurch which he still has to start) accompanied by a few glasses of wine. The winds got stronger and the rain came even down more heavily - noisily splashing on the large banana leaves just outside our room - eventually driving us inside, to escape getting wet even at the back of the balcony. And it continued raining (a bit like Thailand’s hourly afternoon downpour) for the rest of the day. There are covered walkways to move around the hotel, but even those were under water in some places when we ventured out later.

Dinner was at Captain Andy’s for everyone in the hotel tonight, so it was a little crowded by the time we arrived. There were large puddles of water in a few places around some of the tables, where the rain had managed to get in (I think it was running in from the paths outside). The waitresses carrying trays of plates, glasses and bottles of wine had to try and hop over small lakes by the time we sat down. There was a stage set up to one side of the restaurant and a singer crooned his way through a repertoire of well-known melodies from the sixties, seventies and eighties while we ate. We had a reversal of menus tonight, in that I chose lamb and Colin chose rib eye steak, both of which were cooked to perfection and tasted good.

On today’s activity programme, there was supposed to be a Christmas film shown at the poolside tonight, but it was still raining madly at the appointed hour, so it was cancelled. We just went back to our room, and watched “Indiana Jones” in black and white and went to bed.

It’s very strange to think that Father Christmas has delivered his presents to most of the world by now, and all day, children have been frantically ripping off wrapping paper in the normal Christmas Day tradition – our own three grandchildren would have been opening their presents while we had dinner tonight - and it’s still not Christmas Day here yet. I don’t enjoy Christmas in the same way Colin does, but even he says he has not missed the commercialism that leads up to the celebrations. Bah humbug!