A little slice of Paradise...

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Since I last updated the blog, a lot has happened. After all our visitors left us (sniff sniff!) at the end of January, we started the job hunt to keep ourselves fed for the last stretch in Melbourne. But then, Claud got a phonecall to go home, as her dad had had a heartattack. She got to spend two days with him before he passed away on January 26th. Thankfully, Claud is back with us now, in fantastic spirits, despite the hard times she and all of her family have gone through. Our next, and final, three months of travelling are in honour of Jim.

So after the three gobshites were reunited, it was time to say goodbye to Melbourne - not an easy task! Myself and Sib went to Babka Bakery on Brunswick Street about 57 times for "just one more last final slice of pecan pie", and somehow still managed to find time to pack up our house (goodbye Canning Street!), visit a few more fav restaurants and bars and hit the minty highway. On our last afternoon in Melb we had a delumptious brunch with my bro, before flying to Sydney for just one night, and then on to FIJI!!!!

I had been well warned that Fiji is either high end or LOW end, and had finally decided upon the Funky Fish resort on Malolo island, which turned out to be a winner on all counts. We had an early morning flight from Sydney to Nadi on Monday morning, and arrived on Fiji's mainland at about 12 noon. The airport is this hilarious 1970s timewarp full of dodgy brown leather couches. Kept expecting a Pierce Brosnan type to walk in in a hawiian shirt and dodgy shades carrying a suspicious briefcase. We had booked another small flight with Pacific Sun airways to take us over to our island; we were a little early for check in, so the nice bloke behind the rather dodgy looking desk asked us to take a brown leather seat, and he would call us when he was ready. And so he did. We were called back over to the desk, he put through our bags (there was no conveyor belt, just some guy out the back waiting to carry our luggage to the plane), and then he asked us to each step on the scales with our hand luggage. Seriously! It was all about ensuring the plane was balanced apparently. After our weigh in (have we secretly been entered into the Biggest Loser Fiji??) we were taken our to the runway, where we discovered we had chartered our own private jet! One plane, one pilot, and us! Cue many shrieks of delight and cheesey photos. The flight over was fantastic (if a little nerve wracking) and it took less than ten minutes. We were actually flown to Malololailai, which is just next to Malolo, where we had to wait for a few minutes for a boatman from our resort to arrive. Our boatman. Love it.
When people talk about tropical paradise, they have obviously been talking about Fiji. I've heard mixed reports in the past, but it must have been from people who stayed in the wrong place. Our resort was perfect - there was a little pool and decking area overlooking the crystal blue perfect ocean, and the accomodation (we were staying in a private room in the dorm) was built slightly up on a hill, with the dining area built further up giving fantastic views across the ocean. Actually it reminded us all of Celebrity Love Island, although thankfully there was no sign of Sophie Anderton or that little weirdo from Hollyoaks. Funky fish is run by New Zealand couple Rosemary and Brad; Brad is former All Blacks player (steady on!), and he also coached Fiji, Italy and, oh some other European country over the past few years before deciding to pack it all in and move to Fiji. Nice plan!
ON our second day myself and Sib went scuba diving - I have been dying to go diving again, especially after our disappointing experience on the Barrier Reef, and we knew Fiji was the place to do it. WELL, we were not disappointed! We strolled down to the little beach at about 1.30pm, and right on cue two local dudes docked our own private little boat, told us to hop in and whisked us off to a spot in the middle of the (perfectly blue) ocean. On the Barrier Reef there was about 150 other people on our boat, so for it to be just the two of us and our instructor was absolutely fantastic. When they stopped the boat, we put on our gear and discovered we had to enter the water James Bond style backwards! It actually turned out a bit easier than the regular "giant leap" dealie. Each time we dive it just seems to get better and better, and both myself and Sib felt for the first time like we were in control of the dive ourselves, as our instructor just took the back seat and kinda let us get on with it. The water was so clear, and it was all so easy, it was amazing. And we saw a turtle and a little shark!!! The dive site was called Turtle Wall, and the coral was fantastic, you reallly got the feeling you were swimming around an underwater mountain. It also turned out to be the deepest dive we've ever done, although only cos we're little divils. There we were cruising along, not paying much attention to how deep we were going (with our Open Water certification you are only qualified to dive to 18 metres), when I glanced at my underwater computer thingy and realised we were at 27 metres. WHoopsies!!!! Didn't make a bit of a difference though, and after that experience I really hope we get a chance to go diving again before we get home.
They were all very fond of their "activities" in Funky Fish, most of which we dodged. There really is very little to do in Fiji bar sunbathe, because you are very much confined to your resort; unlike the Thai island where you are free to wander around and there are lots of restaurants and bars and what not. Our only complaint about Funky Fish was the confined meal times; there were set times for brekkie, lunch and dinner, and seeing as we missed breakfast every morning (it finished at 10am for frick sake!), we were first at the table at 12 for lunch, and then there was a seven hour stretch til dinner. Whatever happened to afternoon tea people?????? On our second last day we went to a Kava ceremony; Kava is the traditional local drink in Fiji, and Fijians believe your stay is not complete until you've tasted it. Well, we wouldn't want to be rude.....So we all sat down in a semi circle around a local guy who worked in our resort; he proceeeded to get a dirty brown bag of what looked like sand, and swish it around a wooden bowl full of clear liquid (I still don't know if it was water), wringing his hands in the cloth as he went. Lovely. We then all had to drink from smaller wooden bowls and pass it around the circle. Poor Claud was chosen as the "chief" purely because she was sitting directly in front of the Kava maker, which meant she had to drink more than anyone else! God, it tasted like filthy pond water, with grit at the bottom. I couldn't stomach more than a bowl and a half, but I think Claud had about five!
And that was about as much as we exerted ourselves during our stay...the resort was fairly quiet while we were there, although we did meet a lovely couple from the Isle of Whight; Jasmine and Aaron, who were coming to the end of a four and a half month honeymoon. Nice! We all had a bit of a knees up on our second night. On our last morning, myself Jasmine and Aaaron (shocking that the girls didn't join us I know) signed up to a 5.30am hike up to the highest point on the island. I hadn't slept a wink the night before (our dorm was SCORCHIO), so that made getting up at ridiculous o'clock a bit easier. We were guided by Joe, the barman/handyman, for whom it was no bother at all to leg it all the way to the top of the feckin mountain. Well, mountain may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it wasn't easy. Totally worth it though; we saw the sun rise as we were on the way up, and the views across the entire Mamanuca island group were stunning. I had just enough time when we got down to hop into the shower and devour some brekkie before we jumped on another little boat, then a big boat, then the plane. Goodbye Fiji, hello New Zealand!!!!!

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