A Time For Relaxation Before Travelling On

Monday 1 January

New Year’s Day

Awaking to another sunny morning, we decided to spend the day round the pool, relaxing after our exertions of last night. There were no loungers left in the shade near the large pool area, so we wandered on along to the Lotus restaurant, beside which is a huge sandy bowl, filled with turquoise water and a small beach. The fine sandy bottom of the pool shelved slowly to become too deep for me to stand on the far side where a mosaic wall blocked the passage of the water back to the sea. To one side a small wooden bridge led out to an outcrop of rock with a couple of palms growing from it’s banks, while the water flowing under the bridge became more shallow, where the youngsters could play. On the other side the pool has a swim-up bar, but it was a little early for a cocktail yet. We settled our belongings on two free loungers under a large thatched umbrella, near the back of the beach and immediately splashed into the pool. It was cool and refreshing and we swam to the back wall and looked out to the lagoon and ocean, where the water appeared to be running fast in tiny wavelets.

We spent the rest of the morning reading as more and more people came and sat around us -Brighton beach syndrome - in the limited shade from the surrounding trees, as the temperature rose, almost by the minute. There is a jacuzzi which seemed to be “fizzing” from one of the nozzles, but we couldn’t find a button to make the rest work. The time passed quickly and soon it was time to find some lunch (breakfast too for Colin). From the extensive menu, I chose raw fish, ‘cooked’ in lime juice, and placed in a coconut sauce, with a green salad. Colin chose an open steak sandwich – a thick slab of rarely cooked beef on a baguette with salad and chips. Both dishes were filling and delicious. I am not sure what fish was in my bowl, other than Asian tuna. as it was cut into small cubes and mixed with small amounts of diced tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and onions. It reminded me of the carpaccio of prawns that Colin had at La Sirene on Koh Samui – same principle, but no garlic.

We returned to the room to blog on the balcony and yesterday’s entry being larger than most, it was almost dark by the time I had finished – I think Colin had been snoozing again, while pretending to watch a film. It gets dark here at more than an hour earlier than in the Cook Islands, although we are at almost the same latitude – not sure why that is. We showered and changed for dinner – deciding it was quite smart here and merited a frock, although when we arrived at the Tiki restaurant (where we ate lunch earlier – we had forgotten that the Lotus was closing after tonight for refurbishment or we may have revisited there - and the Hibiscus was closed) most people were not dressed up at all. Colin chose mahi-mahi fish with vanilla sauce on a base of mash with salad – which turned out to be similar to game fish in the Cook Islands- white, dense and meaty – with a very strong vanilla flavoured sauce around the plate. But he enjoyed it. I originally chose the pork dish, but that was “off tonight”! so I had shrimp curry and rice instead. The shrimps – large prawns to us – were nestling in a hollowed out pineapple shell, with a dome of plain rice at the side. Very prettily presented pand very yummy.

We went back to our room, composed a couple of blogs and tried to set up a page of recent piccys to send with the emails. Once we fathomed what to do, it was a time-consuming exercise which took us up to midnight again and bed time. The minimum internet connection here is for one hour and is quite expensive, so we decided to wait until Wednesday morning before connecting again, and post all the blogs and emails we have prepared.

This hotel here is beautiful and relaxing, just what we needed before our tours start again in earnest on Thursday – it’s just a shame it is so far from England. We are still not sure where all these French speaking people come from – France is as far away as England, and they don’t appear to be Canadians from Quebec, but we can’ think of too many other large French speaking areas from where they could have originated. There are also several Polynesian families here, supposedly from the surrounding islands, but it really is a puzzle, trying to decide where is home for all the guests.