Today we had arranged to go on a day cruise to Treasure Island resort. We woke up bright and early to catch the charter to Denaurau port. We boarded the ship at the port and took off toward open sea. After cruising for about an hour and making a couple of stops at other islands, we finally came upon Treasure Island. Only 15 passengers were allowed ashore, so there was one couple tagging along with us. There is an overnight resort on the island, a pool, restaurant, mini golf course and a turtle pond. As we made our way onto the island, we were greeted by a song from the employees of the resort.
We grabbed spots near the beautiful infinity pool and took off to explore the island. We found that the resorts were made of around 60 little individual bungalows (Fijian bures) scattered throughout the island. Each bure had a hammock hung outside. Dad immediately was excited about the idea. We made our way around to the turtle pond and watched the 10 or 15 sea turtles who live in the enclosure. As we made our way back to the pool, Dad took off to see if he could swing a deal with the resort to stay for a night. When he returned we found out that they had room for us, so everyone set about deciding if they would stay or not. The main problem was that everyone had only brought enough stuff for the day trip, not overnight! All we had were the clothes on our backs. We floated in the infinity pool for a while, thinking it over and then it was time for lunch. We had a delicious BBQ buffet. It was some of the best food we've had here! After pigging out, it was time to decide if we wanted to stay or not. Lindsay, Mom and I first checked out the rooms and found them surprisingly luxurious. They had two beds, a private bathroom, sliding glass doors that overlooked the beach and even an air conditioner. Mom, Dad, Katlyn, Robb and I decided we were staying and everyone else was headed back to the mainland.
Before everyone left, Mom, Katlyn, Robb and I decided to play in the mini golf tournament with Alyssa. We met at hole 1 and were off. We squeezed in the last hole right before she had to leave with the gang. Yes…Katlyn beat all of us but at least I beat Robb :)
We sat on the rock wall on the beach and watched everyone else off. After their boat took off we headed back to the room to get changed. There was a group going over to Bounty Island for a church service and Dad had asked if it would be okay if we tagged along just to check out the island. Having no clothes other than the ones on our backs, we dropped our bags off in the room and headed out to the tender boat. From the tender boat we transferred to a faster speedboat which brought people from the other island close to us, Beachcomber. We sped through the water and about 15 minutes later made it to Bounty Island.
We began our exploration of Bounty Island. It seemed to be about the same size as our island. Apparently there was a British reality show filmed there called “Celebrity Love Island”. Yea…sounds like a winner. So I guess that’s a big draw for people to come visit here. There was a small path that took us through the jungle part of the island and there were fruit bats everywhere. Thankfully, we saw the bures on this island and they were ghetto compared to ours! HOLLA!!! After reaching the dead end on the each we decided to head back and grab a drink before we had to leave. We headed to the bar and grab drinks and sat out by the pool. It was much darker out here but you can see the mainland off in the distance. It seems like you are so far out here when you are on these islands; like you are in a whole different country, but when you look, the main island seems very close. We walked along the beach and found an abandoned boat so of course we had to take a couple of shots. Then we headed back to wait for the service to end. And we waited… and waited…
When the church service ended we all made our way out to the boats and headed off to our island. We were all starving since we had expected to be back at Treasure Island for dinner at 7. At 8, we pulled up to the island and headed off to the restaurant. We had a wonderful dinner and were entertained by the employees who sing in the church choir. They were all of the people who had tendered over with us! Their singing was beautiful and seemed effortless. They had beautiful harmonies and though I couldn’t understand words, the emotions were beautiful. The music here in Fiji has been amazing. You can tell that it is something that they treasure; a real part of their culture. I imagine that there is singing at every major event and have yet to come across someone here who doesn’t have a beautiful voice or who cant harmonize on the spot. It is truly amazing.
After our dinner, we made our way back to our bures. It was very quiet and you could hear the waves as we walked along. We made it back, showered and passed out in our beds. It was a long and adventurous day but definitely one of our most memorable in Fiji
