Year Two
Date: 7/8/2009 16:30
Weather: Warm but with occasional showers
Location: Matangi Island (16 43.83' S, 179 44.64' W)
Author: Peter.

Almost three years ago to the day our sailing journey really started. Although we were building the boat at the time and I had some plans, I was not too sure how Kylie would be with them. 3 years ago at this same island on our honeymoon Kylie and I went for a walk to the lookout and saw a yacht anchored in the horseshoe shaped lagoon below us. A few days later we were having a private lunch in that bay and noticed that the yacht was Australian. Kylie commented "that will be us in a few years time". It was then that a knew we were going to travel a bit further then home waters and it was from this experience that I think Kylie started to make plans.

So here we are back at the beginning. Matangi, as I have said is a horse shoe shaped island, privately owned by a New Zealand couple who run the resort we honeymooned at. It is quite rugged and steep sided, covered in tropical rain forest and is just as perfect now as it was back then. We are out to the far northeast in relation to Fiji waters. It tends to be wet regularly which is why it is so green but it also has some of the best diving in Fiji. Although we don't have time (we will be picking up guests in just over a week back on the complete opposite end of Fiji) to do much diving this time, we have already made plans to come back in the future.

This morning we had eight small goats walking the beach while the local colony of bats were settling back into their roost high up on the top of the mountain. We snorkeled straight from the yacht, Kylie commenting how the coral we snorkeled over was the best she has seen this year.

Tomorrow or the day after we will start making our way back south west. Hopefully finding a good dive on the way. It was great to come back and see this island from a complete new perspective but it is shame we don't have longer to enjoy it.

On a different note our Raymarine C80 plotter, came up with a screen saying navigation malfunction and would not turn off or on. After some time checking it out along with the handbook, we decided to do a restart of the system. It is now working but we have lost all our past tracks and way points. This is a bit of a bummer.

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