December 1, 2025
The port agent offered several trips to areas around Lautoka. We chose the trip to Serenity Island Resort which included van and boat transfers and lunch. It was a really nice day enjoying the sun, reef, pool, turtles and amenities!
These turtles are endangered so resort keeps them safe in their tanks. We watched guide scrub algae off them and got to touch and feel them. These large Turtles were 6 to 8 years old and their shells are still not completely hard - takes over 10 years.
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Saw a cool effect with the moon since we are below the equator. You see the top 1/2 of moon, in lieu of the bottom!
I had always heard the Blue Mountains of Australia are like the Grand Canyon , not to be missed. Well, not sure I agree, but they are pretty, especially when you can see through the fog. I did an early morning tour with Terri and Angela and we just burst out laughing at first scenic overlook, after almost 2 hours of driving. White fog is all we saw, our guide offered to show us a picture he had on his camera!
Once we had our dates secured for Sydney , a bunch of residents scanned the offering at the Opera House to find what might be available to us. We lucked out that they had brought back their sellout show from last year of the Gatsby at The Green Light . Kind of a Cirque du Soleil meets sexy nightclub with Gatsby characters. Over 80 of us bought tickets to Gatsy, with another 30 buying tickets to Hansel & Gretal. A big night out for us Ship Folks!
I love a good architectural tour and even though I did this one last time I was here, the story is so interesting, I decided to do again. Plus they are always updates and changes in operations at the Sydney Opera House . This tour didn't disappoint - I saw new theater spaces and gained new insights to the story of it's construction from concept in 1958, to it's opening in 1973. The drama that played out for Danish architect Jorn Utzon , who won the commission out of 300 submissions and never got to seen the final building.He was fired by local politician, in election year, when project was grossly over budget and schedule. The building is an engineering marvel and I love so many of the details!