Day 8: Tui Tai Day 4- Magnificient Corals

Pretty usual start to the day. Cold breakfast which is a coffee for Amy, an 8am dive, followed by a delicious egg and veggie scramble and french toast. We dove at three sisters (three pinnacles) off of Taveuni. The dive began on the boring side, we were at but 15 meters, but not much to see. We spotted a few white tip reef sharks and then circled up to the shallows. This is where the dive got good. The colors of the soft and hard corals and the abundant of varied and colorful fish was magnificent, especially as the sun finally came out for a moment and lit up the underground oasis. Our return was cold, but we got a spectacular rainbow stemming from the ocean waters and extending into the field of palm trees and rainforest lining the hills of Tavauni island. The group, the masses, the heard of 9 unruly and not polite children were headed to trek a waterfall in the rainforest, as it was pouring. The weather has still been wretched, no more than one hour of sun in four days! :( So, we decided to go against the grain again as yesterdays manta dive sure paid off. We had an hour of kid free paradise, we actually got to see what the lounge was like since our first day safety briefing. We then suited up with Kylee from Australia and headed on a 45 minute, bumpy, boat commute, trusting Owen to find us some good diving. After all, he found us the golden mantas yesterday. We ended up all the way back at rainbow reef as a site called rainbows end. We saw a bunch of flying fish on the way out there. One even flew into our boat. It was super cool, Owen picked it up and got some of what looked like blue paint on him. We took a short video and set the little guy free to roam the seas with his family and friends. The dive was wonderful! Especially pulling in, we got another 3 minutes of sun where we were reminded about what Fiji is supposed to look like. We were hanging off the side off the boat just trying to take in the glimpse of perfectly green and coral filled waters. Amy can't decide if the purple, purple and white, or magenta corals are her favorite-or perhaps the 7-8 reef sharks we we saw. We could look at the coral for hours not to mention the myriad of species of fish surrounding us at every moment of our drift dive. It was awesome! The 45 minute, bumpy ride back, however, not so much. We returned to the boat and took advantage of the free time by jumping off the side of the boat. We then had some mouth watering mackerel with a wasabi mayo. After the quietest 45 minutes on the boat, and a peaceful meal, we were barraged again. We retreated to our room as it was raining and all the spots to sit outside we're wet and the inside lounge had become a daycare center for the kiddos. After looking through our manta footage from last night we relaxed until our night dive at 6pm. The dive was good, lots to see, and mellow- which is a must when it's super dark and you are not even on land. I spotted a white tip shark, Georgeann found lots of shrimp, and Owen spotted an octopus. We saw a moray eel and a bunch of parrot fish in their little fishy hotels. They glowed brilliantly in the light of our torches-can you tell it's mostly Aussies on the trip?!?! The boat ride back of course was cold, but worth it. We showered, got warm, and had dinner in the lounge. Who knew that room was even on the boat?!? We had a relaxing meal, just adults and spoke about our day. We had an incredible chicken and pico with basmati rice. We got briefed on tomorrow and decided to hit the hay as the day sounds long, but spectacular. Rumor has it that the winds are starting to die down, which is Good for us! Vinaka, Vaka levu...