Woke up today feeling a million times better, had breakfast, and went back to work. After a few more hours in Dylan’s office, we started creating a to-do list of what needs to be done before I leave to make sure Tavarua is ready to carry out these best practice initiatives on their own. I have a lot to do and I’m really excited to get this underway.
It was another beautiful day in paradise. Jess and I went for a surf in the afternoon at Swimming Pools, a soft, fun right-hander that breaks near the island of Namotu, which is just across the way from Tavarua.
The current was pretty strong so you had to paddle the entire time to stay in position so I struggled to get a few waves, but Jess caught a lot of fun ones. Hopefully a couple more days of paddling and I’ll be back up to speed (my body still hasn’t fully recovered from yesterday). I put on heaps of sunscreen on my nose (which always burns), but after a couple hours out there I still ended up looking like Rudolph by the time I got back from surfing.
One of the frequent guests here (basically a local), Jan (60 years old), was going for a paddle to Muskets, an island 5 or 6 miles from here, when Jess and I were eating a late lunch after our session at Swimming Pools. It’s the island you see straight back on the horizon. Super impressive.
Tonight is the full moon, and one of the surf guides said they saw a huge sea turtle come and lay some eggs this morning, which will hatch in exactly two months from now (1 in a 1,000 live to a mature enough age to reproduce). That would be an amazing experience to see a bunch of baby sea turtles hatch and race for the ocean.
A lot of interesting people come to stay here. I met a new guest today named Thomas, who is French, but was raised in Brazil and now owns a production company (film, tv, photography) in London. Everyone here is really friendly. Hard not to be when you’re surrounded by scenery like this:
Tomorrow night we’re having a huge bonfire on the beach right in front of the pool. Should be fun!