Wellstead - 20. WSD Chapter 20

When they saw me approaching them rapidly, they were quick to reassure me that all is ok, that Lucas had to be transferred to intensive care as he had a nasty chest infection, that needed closer monitoring for the next few days.

When I returned to the room, I saw there was a different police officer seated at the door, and he nodded as I approached the room, allowing me to pass. When I walked in I saw Micah starting to wake up, and the first thing he saw was that his twin was not there, and there was a look of shock on his face,

I quickly made my way to his bedside and explained to him what had happened during the night, with Lucas getting a chest infection, and he calmed down a bit. We heard some groaning noises coming from the other bed, and Emm opened his eyes to see me standing by Micah’s bed and he smiled broadly, happy to see me again, and we didn’t chat much as Emm was still quite weak.

After watching them both eat breakfast, I told them I wanted to get back to the apartment to shower and change and eat, before coming back to see them, which allows the doctor time to seen them, to check on their healing progress. Lucas was out of Intensive Care after two days in there, and it was a day after they were together again in the same room, that Micah was released from hospital, with Emm and Lucas estimated to be released in about a week’s time.

Two weeks later after all of them were recovered enough to travel; we were finally on a plane bound for Australia. We were on our way home, and just thinking that was a wonderful relief after all that has happened to everyone in the past two months, when the plane arrived in Brisbane nearly two days later, after an overnight stop in Perth.

I had chartered a yacht to take us to the north east of Magnetic Island, this was so we would be able to get home to the resort, without been noticed at Townsville or on the island, especially with the way I had resigned from the position of Mayor so suddenly, and disappeared out of sight.

It was sunset the following day when the yacht silently berthed at the resorts private jetty, and we grabbed our luggage and thanked the skipper of the yacht for his hospitality. I had called Mrs Parkes when we had arrived in Brisbane to tell her that we would be returning to the island via yacht so as to avoid being recognised, especially from the media, and as we approached the end of the jetty, Mrs Parkes, Kyle, Quinn, Elspeth and Lloyd all appeared, and rushed towards us to greet us, with Emm avoiding being hugged because of his still tender ribs.

Mrs Parkes had a wonderful dinner prepared for us, and it was great to be together as a family again, and at my request everyone agreed to keep our return a secret, even from the Resort staff. For the next few weeks Emmanuel and I spent a lot of time together, getting to know each other a lot more, the twins were often with us when we made late afternoon walks along the beach, as we gave in to their constant hassles to be with us more often, as they grew stronger and healthier.

Each day soon after lunch time, Emm would spend a few hours having a rest, and during that time I would be online looking into an idea about taking the whole family on a pacific holiday, in Suva, Fiji.

Nearly three weeks after arriving back on Magnetic Island, with the resort staff still unaware that we had returned, I announced to the family at breakfast that Emm, the twins and I were going on a three-week yacht cruise to Fiji, and that we would be leaving at Sunset today.

Everyone was very surprised by this announcement, and I just said that I felt that it would be good to get away from the public eye for a short while, and after some discussions everyone agreed that it would be ideal for us to get away.

Emm remained speechless at the all the arrangements that I had made without consulting him, partly annoyed but also happy that he was doing this for him and the twins, as they continued to still recover from their ordeal.

For the rest of the day, Emm and I organised packing the twins and our luggage for the two -week journey, I encouraged for extra clothing to be packed in case we decided to stay a little longer, and just as the sun was setting we saw the charter yacht arrive and mooring at the jetty.

About half an hour later when it was nearly completely dark, we said goodbye to our family and friends before carrying our luggage along the jetty to the waiting yacht. We had eaten earlier so the charter crew didn’t have to feed us dinner, and once we were under sail, the twins went to explore the whole yacht, while Emm and I just relaxed in the saloon, drinking a tropical punch drink. The crew provided a small supper as the yacht was sailing out of Australian waters, and soon afterwards we tucked the twins to bed, and Emm and I went to bed together for the first time soon after that.

When we woke just after 8am in the morning, we had a beautiful full breakfast laid out ready for us, with fresh food, variety of juices, cereals and a cooked meal was also available. I had been told that we would arrive in Fiji in the late afternoon the following day, so we have just over 1 ½ days left before we arrived at our destination, with a short stop over at Noumea, New Caledonia in the early morning tomorrow.

After breakfast, we watched the dolphins playing around the yacht as we were going at a good speed of 14 knots, and the weather was sunny and a good wind with a small swell, which was perfect for the south pacific crossing. Later in the morning the crew put out the drag net, so we could safely sit in the water, without leaving the yacht, and it was great to feel the sea water and to cool off as the sun continued to shine strongly.

Lunch was barbequed fresh fish and crayfish with a fresh tropical salad, with a tasty wine for the adults and apple cider for the twins. Afterwards, it was decided that a short siesta was in order having a fairly enjoyable morning with plenty of good fresh food, and it was after 2.30pm before everyone appeared again, and we all had a go at ocean fishing, with the equipment all supplied by the crew, and the twins did a lot better than us adults with catching good-sized fish for dinner.

The twins became very cheeky once it was realised that they had done lot better than Emmanuel and I with the fishing, and as we sat down to eat dinner, as the sun was setting, they continued to give us both a ribbing at how bad we are with open ocean fishing.

After dinner, we all sat down in the saloon to enjoy a movie on the big screen, and it was the Tom Hanks movie where he is a Fed Ex executive, named “Castaway” it was a very interesting story, and the twins were nearly falling asleep by the end of it, as Emm and I carried them to their cabin and put them to bed for the night. Emm and I stayed up sitting on the back deck talking, drinking wine as we watched the ocean pass us, and it was about 10pm by the time we went to bed.

While Emm was preparing for bed, I made an excuse that I wanted to speak to the captain for a moment, and I made my way to the bridge, where I asked to make a call to mainland Australia, and I made a telephone call to Frank Hills, the second time I had spoken to him in the last few days, to keep him briefed on my plans.

Once the call ended, I returned to our cabin to retire for the night with Emm at my side, which I was enjoying very much, as our relationship was developing very well, with the twins happily supportive of our relationship even at their young age.

I woke up just on dawn, when I felt the yacht slowing down, quietly I climbed out of bed, dressed and made my way up to the main deck, where I noticed that we had arrived in Noumea, and I had a light breakfast, before going ashore to be cleared by customs and quarantine before making my way into the middle of the city.

As I had requested, the captain had arranged for a taxi to collect me an hour after dawn, and I was driven to the morning markets to pick up a few souvenir t-shirts for Emm and the twins, before making my way back to the harbour and the yacht, where Emm was sitting on the back deck enjoying a morning cup of tea, waiting for my return.

I had asked the Captain to explain that I had to go ashore to make some business calls and that I would return before 8am, and as I stepped back onto the yacht I saw on the small wall clock in the saloon that I was 17 minutes early.

When I gave Emm his present, he gave me a kiss on the cheek and pulling off his shirt, he replaced it with the collared shirt with bright coloured hibiscus flowers on, grinning with pride at his new shirt, before giving me a full kiss on the lips.

I went down below and as I entered the twins cabin they were just beginning to wake up, so I placed the shopping bag of shirts on the floor just inside the door and left, returning upstairs to get some breakfast, and where Emm started to grill me about this business that I had to attend to in Noumea, and why I was being mysterious, but I just said it was only business and nothing important.

The boys soon appeared dressed in their new shirts, and Emm pointed to me too indicate that it was me that made the purchases, and I was swamped by the twins with a big hug from each at the same time, before they sat down to enjoy breakfast with us. As we were eating, I explained that we would have a longer visit on the way back from Fiji, but for now we would skirt through some of the islands of New Caledonia as we continue our journey east to Fiji, were we would be staying for approximately a week, visiting a number of the islands of the nation, before making our way back to New Caledonia for a short visit and heading back to Australia.

I was pleased to see that the boys were now close to being back to their usual weight, after eating plenty of healthy food since arriving at the hospital from their ordeal, and afterwards once being back home in Australia. With the yacht now on its way again, we just laid on the deck soaking up the sun or splashing around in the drag net, and enjoying the wonderful food provided by the terrific crew of the yacht, and in the late afternoon we arrived on the main island of Fiji, where we decided to drop anchor in the harbour about 200 metres from the main jetty.

After clearing customs and quarantine, we settled in for another beautiful tropical evening, this time without the motions of the yacht sailing through the open ocean, which was not too bad, as we were very lucky to get a reasonable calm ocean with enough wind to give it a problem free cruise through the South Pacific Islands.

Once again, we had a magnificent dinner, and we sat down to watch another movie, this one a bit of a classic that being “Blue Lagoon”, once the movie was over, we all headed to bed so we could start our real holiday of exploring Fiji. Over the next four days we had a wonderful time exploring some of the main islands, and soaking in a lot of the Pacific Islander culture.

On that third evening in Fiji, I announced that we were going to be sailing again overnight, heading further east by about 200 kilometres, too near the edge of the Fiji Islands, to a private holiday resort, where we arebooked in too stay for 8 days.

I mentioned that because there is four of us as one family, we are booked to stay in the original homestead, which is usually used only by the owners and VIP guests, but they made an exception for us. I explained that the island is only 22 acres in area, that it has a small golf course, airfield, and 20 guest villas, so it is very remote and very private, and that I have been told that currently there is only three other couples that will be on the island at the same time as us, as well as the 14-full time and 7-part time staff that run the resort.

Emm commented that it sounds heavenly, and that he can’t wait to just relax and spend more time with me, which made the twins giggle. Soon after dinner was over, the crew set sail for our new destination, with only me knowing the real reason that we were going to this Island, and the twins decided to play board games in the saloon, while Emm and I sat on the back deck watching them and chatting about everything and anything in general.

We all headed to bed shortly after 9pm as the weather started to worsen, so we managed to get the boys settled in their bunks for the night, before Emm and I made our way to our cabin, to try and get some sleep, but it ended up being a very interrupted sleep with the sounds of heavy waves crashing against the side of the yacht.

We fell asleep when the weather finally started to easy off, and when I woke up, the sun was well and truly up and shining brightly, and the yacht was barely moving, which made me realise we must have arrived at Katafanga Island.

Quickly I woke up Emm before I dressed and dashed up onto the main deck, where I could see the island for the first time, and I was very impressed. There are trees everywhere, plenty of white beaches, a beautiful protected reef lagoon, and in the distance, I could see the main house near the top of the hill, partly hidden by the trees.

When Emm stepped out the first words he said were “Wow, are we in paradise?”, and I gave a short chuckle at his comment, and we sat down at the table to enjoy some breakfast, which has just been laid out for us by the crew. The twins soon appeared and joined us at the table for breakfast, and once we had finished we all made our ways back down below to pack up our suitcases for a holiday in paradise, returning to the main deck after getting the twins luggage sorted also, to find the island staff waiting with big smiles to welcome us and help transport us and our luggage up to the main house on the hill in two golf buggies, which was quite an adventure on its own.

Before leaving the jetty, I thanked the yacht’s crew for the wonderful journey and service during the charter, and wished them a safe journey back home to Australia or where ever they were going for their next charter. Our two island staff drivers gave us a run-down of the facilities on the island, including activities and the best beaches for fishing, swimming and snorkelling, and they assisted us to get the luggage into the main house when we arrived there.

Once we were on our own again, we all explored the house which was quite big and roomy. The twins decided that they wanted to share a bedroom, and chose the second largest guest bedroom, with has its own bathroom, which backs onto the master bedroom ensuite, and as they settled into their room, Emm and I also began unpacking our clothes, as each of us had a full-size suitcase and a carry bag each, with mostly summer clothing and sandals / thongs to suit the climate that we are in.

After unpacking I went into the kitchen and found the pantry cupboard, fridge and freezer all fully stocked with food supplies, including a variety of good quality Australian and New Zealand red and white wines, which is not what I was expecting, as I thought we would be mostly eating down in the restaurant.

Once we had explored the entire house, I suggested that we go explore more of the island, and I was pleasantly surprised to see one of the golf buggies still parked at the front of the house with the keys in the ignition, and an envelope located on the driver seat, inside was a short note, “With compliments from the Island Management, feel free to use the buggy for your enjoyment during your visit”.