Fiji

I was soooooooo looking forward to Fiji and some sunshine. After 9 weeks in NZ experiencing their coldest winter for the last 20 years I was keen to get a good dose of sun and lie on a beach for bit, or a lot.

As this is 2 weeks worth of blog I'll try my best to summarise!

We arrived in around 5pm and it was a warm balmy evening so the jackets and the boots and the socks came straight off. We'd booked all our accommodation so we were greeted at the airport and taken to our hotel in Nadi. We sorted all our stuff out so that we just took one bag with our bikinis in and things and left all our warm stuff in storage - this would prove to be a mistake!

Early next morning we were picked up and taken to the boat so that we could start our 10 day tour of the Yasawa Islands. There's a boat that make the trip around the islands every day called the Yasawa Flyer so you can hop on and off and visit different islands when you want.

Our first stop was the Wanataki cruise ship. Now, don't get ideas that this is some luxury liner that cruises around the islands - this is used by back packers so it's a little more basic than that! The upstairs is where the bar, kitchen and sunbathing/dining area is and downstairs is the 24 bed dorm! We grabbed a bed and headed out into the sunshine.

The day was spent sunbathing and getting to know the others. Laura went off snorkelling to see the mantarays so she can tell you about that:

(Lauras note) They're really really big (I'm summarising too!)

The evening we spent playing a strange Fijian game where you had to flick chess like pieces around a big wooden board and playing drinking games with a nice bunch of Israelies (If you look on Greg's site, there is a picture of the same game).

Whilst we waited for the Yasawa Flyer to pick us up and take us to our next island, we took it in turns to jump off the top deck of the boat. It's only about a 15 foot jump but when you're stood up there is feels like a 100 foot drop! All the guys did it no problem but it took the girls a little longer. Once I'd jumped and assured everyone it was fine all the girls had a try (obviously after standing at the top deliberating for a good 25mins before they took the plunge!)

The only one not to jump was Laura. After throwing herself out of a plane at 12,000 feet she thought a 15 feet jump in the sea was a little too much!!!! After much goading from me and fellow passengers (how she was the biggest chicken that we had ever known, she would always be remembered as the girl who didn't jump etc etc.) she quietly walked up to the top when no one was watching and did it, hooray!! Obviously some people didn't see it and she will no doubt remain in their minds a disgraced non-jumper, but I saw it so will vouch for her!

(Lauras note) For the record I was in the water the whole time the other jumpers were throwing themselves in the sea.... I didn't see anyone else volunteering for 'shark look out'!

Coral View, Tavewa Island
This was a first island stop and proved to be a nice one. We spent 3 days here and met some really nice people. The dorm was fine but the bathroom facilities were not really what we expected. The showers were of the slow drip variety and it was sea water so you never really felt clean, we just felt constantly sticky! And there was no light so it was all guess work how clean you were.

The first few days we spent on the beach around the other side of the island, snorkeling and sunbathing and coming back at the alloted times to be fed. Food on the island wasn't bad but it wasn't really what we expected. Apart from breakfast, all the food was plated up and served so there wasn't much options and not much chance of seconds either which for some of the guys we met was a bit of a problem!

The morning of our departure was a bit wet and windy to say the least. I got a little wet in the night as the window by my bed didn't have any glass in it so all the rain blew in and soaked my pillow and my head!

All of us that were moving islands sat around in the dining area watching the rain. At this point no one voiced any concerns about the roughness of the sea and our passage to the Yasawa Flyer. To explain - when you go on the Flyer to a new island, the ferry stops between a couple of resorts and all these little wooden boats come out and drop pasengers off and collect new passengers. You point your luggage out and it gets thrown into the appropriate boat and off you go.

When it finally came to getting into our little boat the wind was howling and the sea was raging. Seriously, it was!! We all climbed in and and set off. I was cunning enough to pack my Mac in a Sac(!) so I almost stayed dry. Everyone else was instantly soaked.

It was a little rough to say the least and you couldn't really see because you had to keep your eyes closed against the rain and the sea water which was really salty and stung. We'd got around to the other side of the island and could see the Flyer in the distance when the guys at the back pointed out the the boat was quickly filling with water. Panic took over some of the guests and they demanded to be taken to the beach for fear of the boat sinking. The guys sailing the boat didn't seem too worried (no one ever worries in Fiji it seems) but they eventually did as we asked and we all got out onto the beach.

Luckily, from out of nowhere, another boat came over to help out and offered to take us to the Flyer in a non sink boat. Most of us jumped in as we needed to get to the Flyer where our luggage was and get to another island. However, a few of them were too traumatised (one lady had lost her glasses, they'd been blown off by the wind and rain) to get back in the boat and said they would walk back around to Coral View and stay there again, despite having no luggage. Not sure what happened to them...

We managed to get on the Flyer, grab our luggage and then get straight back into another boat to go to another resort. All in all it wasn't our best sailing experience!

(Lauras note) On the up side of this story, apart from the fact we survived, we became pretty famous throughout the islands, everyone had heard about 'The boat that sank on storm day' & were in awe to actually meet two people who were on it. Obviously the story had become somewhat exaggerated so we were able to put people straight & tell them how we had single handedly overthrown the crew, sailed the passengers to safety & only wresttled 4 sharks not 5 in the process - tsk, see how these things are so easily blown out of proportion.

Sunshine Resort, Nanuya Laylai
It was awful here, we only stayed one night. The dorm was awful and felt damp, the food was really bad and always cold and the showers were non existant.

We did meet 2 nice girls from Louisiana who told us to head down their way when we got to the States and watch the famous Prison Rodeo which sounds awesome!

Coconut Bay, Naviti
We had heard good things about Coconut Bay and it was OK. The weather was still a bit rubbish so most of the time was spent reading or playing cards.

Each evening, the guys at the resort would put on a little show of Fijian dance which was nice to watch, mainly because all the guys were well ripped!!!!

One evening we went to have Kava with them all. This is the local Fijian drink which is made out of some sort of tree root which is ground up and added to water and results in a drink which looks and tastes a lot like muddy water. It is a non alcoholic drink but has a slight numbing affect on the mouth and if you drink enough of it can have some slight hallucinatory affect on the brain, apparently!

(Lauras note) To have a slightly numbing effect on J9s mouth is reward enough for drinking this stuff.

After 3 nights here, the sun came out and so we decided to upgrade for our last 2 nights and went to Bounty Island.

Bounty Island
They had hot showers here that weren't sea water and each meal was an all you can eat buffet so we packed in as much as we could. I think we both gained half a stone!! We also met up with a nice scottish couple we had met at Coral View and spent the evenings beating them at pool.

We also took a walk around the island (which took 20mins) to see what is left of the Celebrity Love Island lodgings. Not a lot apart from the Love Shack and the jetty where they did all their commentary from so we took the obligatory pictures and then laid on the beach some more.

And we had a go at rafting which I thought was a bit dull to be honest!

(Lauras note) It was Kayaking actually & considering I was the only one doing any rowing I can't see what her problem is?

After 2 days of eating as much as we could, our time on the islands came to an end and it was back to the mainland.

Sorry, it's getting a bit long, I'll really try and summarise the next bit!

Fiji Experience

Awesome trip! We had a really good group of people and the guide was excellent. We spent 4 days travelling around the main island doing different activities and seeing different towns. Highlights include sandboarding, visiting villages in the different territories, having a kava ceremony with the chief and then hanging out with him and his people, tubing down a dirty river in the pissing down rain and cold and generally having a great time.

This was the best bit of our stay in Fiji and I wished we could have spent a bit longer in some of the places that we passed through. I would totally recommend this trip.

(Lauras note) ditto on this, the village tour was one of the best moments, all the children wanted to hold our hands & show us around their village - it was like Angelina Jollie on a Hello shoot but clearly we're prettier.

We learnt loads about the ways & traditions of the Fijian people. Amazingly the chiefs of the 14 provences are still a major influence over their tribes & it's people & highly repected figures, so it was a real honour to spend some time with one of them..... & drink his Kava... errrrgh that stuff really is awful!

We found out later we could've stayed over at the chiefs hut & helped at the local schools but we had run out of time - maybe I'll have another opportunity to leave J9 in some remote village somewhere?

And then it was all over.

Next stop hawaii