Quigley Down Under: Southsea Island cruise

During an adventure to Nadi town, we were flagged down on the street by what looked like an information tent and the woman asked us what we were doing the next day and when we said we didn’t know she offered a day cruise to one of the islands. Fiji has hundreds of islands and the classic way to see Fiji is to arrive in Nadi and take a boat that goes up the Yasawa and Mamanuca island chains that run north directly to the west of Nadi. The cruise sounded good and all we had to do was attend a presentation put on by wyndam, a hotel in the upscale resort port of denaru, near Nadi. It took about three hours and we watched a corny movie that I’ve seen before and declined their offers of buying a timeshare, but we were rewarded and the next day we booked our cruise to south sea island through south sea cruise. Picking us up from smugglers at 7:15 I realized why there is a commotion and everyone seems to disappear from the hotel at 7; waiting outside is the cruise bus picking up half of the hotel. We jockey in and go to the marina and confirm our cruise which is the first stop among the 60 island stops running up the islands and we are at our destination south sea island within half an hour. We get a loud Bula!!, the customary hello which by now I use all the time, and a short rundown of the island which we can walk around in five minutes and take a look at the schedule; which has snorkeling at the beach, lunch, snorkeling in the outer reef, followed by a submarine trip, then volleyball, kayaking, tea time, and more swimming before being picked up by the ship again at five thirty.