Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Friday 25/12/2009 - Christmas Day - Hideaway Island

Merry Christmas!

Hubby was feeling much better today, and his antibiotics course was now over.

As there was nothing planned for today we decided to do some snorkeling at Hideaway Island, it was absolutely beautiful.

We dove to the worlds only underwater post office, sounds more spectacular than it is, it's really just a booth and letterbox on the bottom of the reef, we didn't send any mail from there, but we did take a good look at some really pretty fish. We took a break for lunch and tasted the best fish burger EVER, well, the burger wasn't that much chop but the fish was excellent. No crumbed or battered fish for us from Hideaway, the burgers arrived just in time, we'd certainly worked up an appetite snorkeling around together, it's nice to be able to hold hands with your loved one whilst you silently explore a new aquatic location. The fish was freshly grilled, not over cooked and dry, but not gooey and raw either - delicious. I had a cocktail, I think it was mango, there's been a few cocktails between then and now, so it's a bit difficult to remember correctly. The burgers were served with potato chips, we couldn't eat them all, so we stuffed the remaining chips into the pockets of our swimming shorts.

After a short rest we returned to the water to feed the fish. There is a certain irony in feeding live fish potato chips, they loved them, so I'm guessing the irony was lost on them.

We took a few more photos with our underwater camera ...


These guys were so damn colourful and had a fascination with my newly acquired beads. I was diving down, looking about when I felt something tugging on my hair,

I turned abruptly to come face to face with a parrot fish that very well could have been this very one. I don't quite know who was more surprised, me or the fish.

There were also schools of these guys...


It's not only the brightly coloured fish that caught my eye, these guys hang out at the bottom of relatively shallow, crystal clear water. You only notice that they are there as your eye recognises movement.


I like the following two shots as they show a somewhat piranha-style view of these fish, they somehow look more menacing from a front-on view.


This next shot will give you SOME idea of just how many fish there were, especially once we took the chips out of our pockets to feed them.


Then, the camera started to fill, slowly with water - much to my disgust, I'd already prep'd it for our snorkeling, by following the manufacturers instructions to a T, greasing the rubber seal and all that. It leaked into the battery compartment, which almost instantly 'stuffed' the batteries - I was one unhappy camper, but I soon got over it - mostly. I mean you just don't expect an underwater camera supposedly good to 15 meters to die snorkeling when the maximum dive depth was only 2 meters. Anyhow, hopefully Ted's Cameras will do the right thing by me and replace or refund me (I'll keep you posted).

After making our way back to the resort, I removed about 2/3rds of my braids


they were starting to loosen and the little mammal hairs on the back of my neck were starting to get pulled, we showered and enjoyed dinner before inviting our new brother James, a Waiter from Coconut Palms, to spend some time with us. James has the most infectious smile of anyone I've ever met, always happy, always friendly, we asked him to have a snack with us after his shift finished. He later, met us at our room and joined us for Tequila, Saucisson (it's really cheap in Vanuatu, cheaper than in France, apparently because of the French influence and the French ex-pats they make it locally to Parisian recipes), Camembert and baguettes. After dinner James told us what his name stands for and it was quite fitting:
J - James
A - Always
M - Makes
E - Everyone
S - Smile
Never a truer statement was made.

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