7.1.13

Slow start, again. After breakfast we headed into Avarua to try to find some post cards and the kids seemed determined to go to a gift shop on the edge of town that we have passed a few times. Bought a book and wooden spoons, but no post cards to be found. Cruised to a Café called “the café” next to an art gallery for a look at some art and a cool  drink for the crew and a coffee for me. Rested from our busy time gift shopping we headed to Muri for a swim.

Sophie is still feeling sick and seems tired and exhausted. She was not keen on swimming and to be fair just really wanted to be at home sleeping, but we dragged her to the beach thinking the fresh air would do her good.

Once again there were a lot of dogs on Muri beach roaming up and down the beach looking a bit frisky. I think this should be renamed dog beach. We mozzied down the beach a few hundred metres to a point near the end Island to snorkel. Sophie settled under a tree (not a coconut one to avoid any unexpected missiles) and lay down on a towel to sleep. The rest of us wondered along another 100m or so to a good place to snorkel out to the island. We were getting the snorkel gear fitted to the kids. Ben was off without delay, with a rooster tail of sea foam off the exhaust of his flippers. Then Di said, with alarm in her voice “What is that dog doing to Sophie!” I looked back and Sophie was on her feet with a Dog jumping up at her and appearing to bite at her, as she fought it off. I was out of the water in a flash a sprinting up the beach (a soft sand paced sprint, frustratingly) The dog must have sensed that I was about to initiate the “Beach attack- rabid K9” combat sequence (the BARK sequence). Perhaps the intention of this protective father was given away by the blood curdling battle cry emmitted as I was about 2 metres away. No mongrel attacks my girl on the beach and gets away with it. BARK is a carefully worked out combat sequence first developed by the SAS, and laboriously practiced and trained (through visualization) just for this type of situation. It is a sequence of certain death for the dog. There is over 80% success for the human with this sequence, which is increased to 85% if there are coconut trees in the immediate vicinity. The thing about BARK is, once initiated there is no stopping until there is a mortally wounded tetrapod taking its last breath on the sand, covered with coconut shaped concavities, and a middle aged man (likely with several dripping flesh wounds) standing on the beach, one foot on the defeated animal, looking to the skies, beating his chest and crying at full volume, a Tarzan like “ARGH! ArrrUarrr! ARRrrgh!” The dog made a lucky escape by recognizing the pre-sequence maneuvers. He accelerated away with extra vigour and a yelp when my ballistic fins hit him in the hind quarters as I pursued the cowardly carnivore down the beach at an ever dwindling pace. Sophie was understandably upset by this attack, and the whole event has made this beach drop to our least favourite swimming beach in Raro. The snorkeling was mediocre, as the water was not so clear today, to add insult to injury. Sophie had a few scratch marks from fending the dog off but otherwise seems uninjured. Clearly she inherited her old mans quick hands for fending off unfriendlies, or perhaps her Mothers intuition and book throwing accuracy for attacking furry foe.

Had some late lunch at the Sails restaurant, Pacific fish Brucietta for me and a Prawn Waldorf salad for Di - delicious. Nuggets and chips for the kids, not that tropical. Sophie is still not eating.

Headed home via the supermarket for a stock up. We got home, then performed a full on search of the entire property including the bags, looking for the yeast. Finally found it hiding behind the whiskey. We baked some bread to have with dinner. Quiet night with tired kids and a cool bottle of chardonnay.