Taro Islands - Water Fun Stacey Cardalines Reporting

March is probably a bit early for me to visit summery sims, but sometimes even an avatar needs to get away from winter. Spring is close, but not close enough. If you feel that way as well, I have a sim for you.

I feel bad writing about Taro Island's water sports. Taro is actually the name of the sim creator, who I haven't run into yet. "Taro" means "strength" in Japanese. Taro is either Japanese or into Japanese stuff, and the sim reflects it. There are beautiful and detailed pagodas, gardens, lighthouses, and artwork all over the island... and I walked right past it as I headed for the sailboats and the diving board. 

I showed up, as I try to do when practicing journalism, dressed conservatively- dress, hose, heels - but I was in a bathing suit 5 minutes after getting there. All the Japan stuff is cool - I saw much of it when I was taking a balloon ride tour of the premises- but I am the Sports And Leisure editor of the SL Enquirer, and I take the Sports part very seriously. That Japanese aspect of the island can get circled back to later, by our Into Asian Stuff writer. I'm there for Sports. I'm wearing a scuba suit as I type this, in case the reader doubts my hardcore sportswriting credentials.

Taro Island has some fun stuff to play with. I started off at the Diving Board, because if you might die doing journalism, you may as well get it out of the way quickly. I can get a paycheck out of a "Sportswriter Crippled In Diving Accident" article without describing the sim at all, and I can find my way back once my legs are working to pick up a second paycheck at the same sim for a future article. It all went well enough on the diving board, though. As you can see in one of the pictures, I nailed a Swan Dive right where I had my camera aimed. They have a plethora of dives that you can try out, and I'd have shown them to you if it were easier to photograph yourself in motion from a lower height camera angle. I got lucky with my pic of the swan dive.

Next stop? Water slide. The water slide at Taro Island is very much influenced by the corkscrew. I was unable to even get an adequate picture of me doing this, because as hard as it may be to get a picture of yourself in motion off a diving board, it's harder if you are circling down a water slide. Lanai is paying me more because I'm funny and I have a nose for fun sims. I'm a hack photographer. Any good photography I do is fortunate.

You can see the water slide in the background of my windsurfing shot. I got on the windsurfer, easily enough, which is more than I can do in real life. The sports where you go in the water are fun and easy to use. The only complaint I have is that you really can't go offshore too much. I aimed the windsurfer right for some heavy surf I saw on the horizon, but I stopped going forward and started going right 50 meters offshore. It was still a hoot, though... just could have been more of a hoot.

They also have a sailboat, but I didn't try that. The windsurfer did the same stuff, and I looked cooler piloting it around. This is an important consideration when the writer is also the model. I never skip Leg Day, and I like my readers to be aware of this.

I finished off with Scuba Diving, which was the best part. You get a whole scuba suit, you jump on a poseball and it takes you on an underwater tour. You can't control where you go, but based on how I handled the windsurfer, that's probably for the best. They have fish, flora, killer whales, a ruined city and whatever other things you might see underwater.

If that isn't enough for you, might I recommend walking the grounds. It's a good-sized sim, Taro put it together well, and it is very beautiful. It'd make for a lovely walk, and checking out all the little nooks and crannies would eat up a bit of time. I may slink back in a while and tour that part with the camera. I've already mentioned that I love doubling up on paychecks from a single sim. I could probably get another article out of Taro Island. I even have a Kimono.

Either way, I'd strongly recommend checking out Taro Island. I'm Stacey Cardalines, and I am wrapped head to toe in wet neoprene.

Taro Island Water Park Taxi
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/BELISSIMA/201/130/22