South Sea Island

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Thursday 29th June:
I was up at 6.30am, trying not to wake the other eight people in my dorm. I went and showered I realised I was about to embark on the most remote part of my trip so far and had just run out of shower gel and deodorant! Arse! So, no internet access for three weeks - means no contact with distant friends and no shower gel or deodorant - means no making of 'close' friends either!! LOL To top it all of, it is raining heavily. Not having a good start to Fiji...

I went down for breakfast, I saw on the menu 'Full Fijian Breakfast', which was like a Full English. "Mmmmmm, yes please" I thought. I went to reception to get my breakfast ticket (you get a free 'Awesome breakfast' with the Awesome Adventures' welcome pack). Unfortunately you aren't allowed a Full Fijian - an 'Awesome Breakfast' consists of half a papaya, a quarter of orange, two slices of pineapple, a banana, some coconut shavings and a quarter of lime... Plus tea or coffee or orange juice... Awesome...

I sat on my own, wondering what friends, family and Skye were doing back in England. Got a surprise of two slices of toast brought over, to make my breakfast even more 'Awesome'... Didn't really cheer me up...

I got the bus to the port at Denarau Marina and took my snowboard to the Awesome Adventures desk (as instructed in the email from them about where to store my snowboard bag), to be told there was no secure storage place for my snowboard bag... Great... So I had to leave it on the port behind the help desk. I boarded the Yasawa Flyer (big yellow catamaran that services the islands) and sat looking at my snowboard bag, thinking it would be the last time I would see it again, although there is a distinct lack of snow in Fiji, so not sure why anyone would want it...

I met two retired Kiwi ladies who had just got to Fiji and said that there had been some of the deepest snow at Mt.Hutt (where I am going) for years. Also that when I get there I will just miss the two week school holidays - timing!

It was only fifteen minutes on 'the Flyer' before we arrived at the tiny South Sea Island, no bigger than two or three football pitches. A small transfer boat pulled up to the Flyer to transfer us, my big bag was chucked on top of the tarpaulin covering the top of the boat. As we approached the island, the waves got bigger and I watched anxiously, as I could see my bag rocking left to right, closer and closer to the edge of the roof. I went through it's contents in my head, thinking of what things would be ruined if it did go in the water. Decided it wasn't worth worrying about...

One of the first things I did when I got settled on the island was to go on a (free) glass-bottomed boat trip to see the fish and coral. It was really good, but unfortunately we bottomed-out on some coral at one point... Wonder how many tens of years of coral growth was wiped out in seconds.

I soon realised that in Fiji there is a unique timing system - 'Fiji Time'... Almost everything happens 'around' the time advertised... Thinking back, the bus driver's clock was fifteen minutes fast - probably to try and compensate for Fiji time...

I tried the local beer - Fiji Gold - "full flavour, full strength, less calories, less filling". No going to be able to live of that for the next few weeks, but that is fine as all meals are included in the Awesome Adventures package I booked.

It started to rain heavily and it felt like a VERY small island with nothing to do when the weather is bad... I met a nice couple from London (Ian and Lee) who were doing much of the same itinerary as me and grumbled about the weather with them.

The rain stopped and I laid under a sun shade, just falling off to sleep, when I was awoken by someone hacking-up and spitting. Turned round to see a Korean tourist, smoking, chewing gum, hacking, spitting and taking photos all at once! What skills... Turns out because South Sea Island is so close to Nadi, it gets day trip tourists visiting for a good chunk of the day. I watched as they took photos of EVERYTHING! It was very funny to watch. I decided to test my theory - I had spotted half a dead lobster earlier and I called a Korean tourist over with my (obviously very enticing) lobster impression. Sure enough he started taking photos of the incomplete crustacean and called some fellow photographers over to join in. They then went on to create some sort of weird 'Zen garden' of coral and rocks around the centre piece of half a dead lobster! LOL Ironically I also had to take a photo to show you all what they had made!

I then sat drinking rum and coke (to help pretend it wasn't raining again) talking to Elaine about her trip to New Zealand. The sunset was very colourful, prompting hope of better weather tomorrow - 'red sky at night' and all that. The day tourists left and another boat-load of overnight guests arrived. We all had dinner (very nice food!) and then there was crab racing...

My crab (Hermes - the Olympian god of athletes) stormed the first 2 rounds (he came first both times) but fell at the last inch on the final - think he was drugged! I took him back to the sea to release him.

Tried getting drunk on Fiji Gold and cans of whisky and coke - failed miserably!

Friday 30th June:
I woke up in the middle of the night and thought I had gone blind! The generator gets turned off over night and there are no lights on and no light pollution from any nearby cities - it really was pitch black!

After a really nice buffet breakfast I realise that perhaps I didn't fail to get drunk - I had lost my camera (I had it with me late last night). Luckily one of the staff found it and it was in the 'office'.

The sun had come out and it was a really nice, ideal to go sailing for the day! We were taken by transfer boat to Mana island, where we boarded a sailing boat called Sea Spray. We picked up other people from Bounty and Treasure Island on the way.

We stopped off at Monu to go ashore for a traditional Cava ceremony. Lots of "Bula" and clapping, while drinking muddy ditch water with a peppery taste, leaving you with a slightly numb feeling in the mouth... One of the 'elders' had a swanky expensive looking watch on and the whole thing felt so 'fake'. The women selling 'traditional handicrafts' were in fact the same 'handicrafts' you see all over Fiji, probably mass produced no where near this island. I just wanted out of there. I hate the herding of tourists in to these artificial situations. I'd rather take the risk to go exploring on my own and find out how it really is... I gave some money towards village projects and walked to the beach. I noticed lots of broken glass on the beach as I walked about waiting for everyone else... :-(

We then sailed on to Monuriki Island where they filmed Castaway. Nice island, I snorkelled to the beach from the boat, saw lots of cool fish and then found more rubbish on the beach... Didn't find Wilson though (have to watch the film Cast Away to know what I mean).

We had really nice food on the boat, as the crew played guitars and sang. We had free booze all day too, so they were plying us with 'champagne', beer, wine, etc...

I met two Kiwi girls on the boat - Philippa and Katrina, who gave me a list of lots of things I must eat and drink while in NZ. Emma & Tam's favourite sort of 'to do' list! ;-) A few examples of the list:

*Kumara chips
*Roast Lamb
*Bluff Oysters
*Nelson Scallops
*Kaikoura Crayfish
*Whitebait Fritters
*Chocolate Fish
*Tip Top Hockey Pockey Ice Cream
*Pineapple Lumps (covered in chocolate)
*Pavalova
*Monteiths Radler Beer
*Monteiths Winter/Summer Ale
*Speights Gold Beer
*Marlborough Sauvingon Blanc
*Central Otago Pinot Noir
*42 Below Vodka

Got back from the cruise and I laid on the beach watching stars. It was the best starfield I had ever seen - you could clearly see the huge cloudy band of stars that make up the Milky Way. So much better than I had ever seen it, and the shooting stars seemed so bright and to last for so long. I wished on shooting stars and watched distant, faint moving lights (planes/ satellites/UFOs). I laid for what seemed like hours, with the sound of the sea lapping at the shore, a few metres from my feet and fell asleep.

I woke up forgetting where I was for a second. Then realised and put myself to bed. I was in a room off the main dorm, but could hear some guy in the main dorm who had a terrible cough that sounded really sickly and he just kept coughing. I can't imagine how annoying it would have been to be his bunk mate or in the beds nearby. It reminded me of the that bit in the film 'The Beach' where there is a guy who is dying slowly after being bitten by a shark and keeping everyone awake with his screams/moans, etc.. Imagined everyone covering up their faces too - with him coughing all those germs about and his cough sounding so bad!

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Photos

Sea Spray
This was the boat we spent the day on, with fantastic food and free booze! :-)

Me on Sea Spray
Me chilling on the boat (after some fizzy wine and lots of beer)

Cast Away Island...
But no sign of Wilson... Just rubbish washed up on the beach...