Karl's Adventures in Fiji - Part 3: Leleuvia Island

Really I came to Fiji to get pampered in a swanky resort*. The Lowrys came through by taking me to a sweet spot: Leleuvia Island.

* Ha.

The resort on Leleuvia is the only piece of infrastructure on that island, because the island is too small for anything else. You can stroll around the whole island in 20 min. We got picked up by a boat to bring us to our island.

Once we got closer to Leleuvia, the water turned a beautiful turquoise color.

Leleuvia itself was great both above the water,

and below.

As we arrived and before we even settled in, they chopped open a green coconut for us so we can take a drink of coconut water, nature's gatorade and laxative in one.  Be careful with that stuff.

The cabins were simple but worked well for us.

Hermit crabs were all over the beach. Fun little guys.

Ghost crabs were pretty common, too. You might have to do a little searching to find it here... 

The real treasures for me were underwater, though. We had lots of fun snorkeling.

These cool purple starfish were all over.

We saw one of these crown of thorns starfish. I hear they pack a poisonous sting.

Sea cucumbers are super common. They get collected by the local kids and sent to Asia, where folks eat them.  The kids seemed disgusted by the thought of eating them.

These corals made cool little plateaus with other corals on top.

Love the colors of everything.

I'm counting 6 kinds of coral all attached to each other here.

I thought this little sea slug dude looked pretty cool.

It was my first time seeing a sea snake. Way cool creature.  Its head is under the coral, working on getting some lunch.  After I took this shot, it backed out and zipped up to the surface for air.  That was when I activated my whoa!-quick-reverse reflex. 

Here's a panorama and a half of the awesome beach there.

After a very nice couple of days of chilling* on the beach, we headed back. 

* Uh, not literally.

Good times. Thanks again, Lowrys! It was great!