Blogs from Nadi, Fiji, Oceania - page 13

The image of Fiji automatically provokes images of paradise beaches, the utopia of relaxation, where James bond would take his Mrs out on a date, there is a certain degree of truth to this imagery - yet I discovered the darker side of Fiji where Mother Nature and violent locals converge on innocent backpackers simply trying to make their way back to their mothers. Yes, there’s alot more to this group of islands stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean than meets the eye... My current situation: Arrived in Fiji two days before New Years Eve with no where to stay, previously this formula always works out well/interesting. However, I wasn't confident about finding the party of the year; I took a bus to pacific harbour on the south section of the Mainland, surprised at ... read more

Coming back to the main island and Nadi was like returning home. Shops, buses and restaurants. We had not seen any of these for nearly 4 weeks. Next day we had decided to catch the bus into town to try to get the camera repaired. Whilst waiting at the bus stop a girl came running up waving, It wass Anja who we mentioned in our last blog. This was the 3rd time we had met each other on 3 different islands. We arranged to eat together that evening. We were warned on the radio that "every man and his dog was in Nadi", as it was Xmas Eve. However they do not know the meaning of the phrase! They should experience Xmas Eve shopping in the UK! We received the expected news that our camera could ... read more

(apparently travelblog doesn't want to be an enabler to my privacy issues. so the public blogs are back. sorry it wasn't working for some of y'all) i boarded my flight to sydney from lax around 10:20 (for a 10:30pm flight). just the beginning of the troubles with this flight. a passenger was missing but had already checked bags so procedure dictates the bags be removed if the passenger no shows.... as the luggage was being found, amongst the baggage of 450 passengers plus crew, the dude showed up so his bags were chucked back in and we took off. i was in seat 85g. there were 89 rows. and 2 stories. i somehow ended up next to every family with angry children on the plane. the kids on my row (the unfortunate middle row) were french ... read more

We arrived on Fiji and took the advice of various people not to waste too much of our time on the main land and intead head straight out to the islands. After just one night on the main land we caught the 'Awesome Adventures' boat to Manta Ray island. This idyllic island resort was occupied by just 50 guests and had a sunrise beach and a sunset beach within just a 2 minute walk of each other. We were lucky here, not only because we were on a Fijian island in perfect sun, but because straight away at dinner we made friends with our own little group of about 8 people. After dinner we took our drinks down to the beach and experienced one of the funniest moment of all our lives. After multiple drinks and ... read more

Sky dive in Fiji Tony and are very competitive in nature, and him being a collector of hobbies means there are only 2 activities I can say I have done before him…Swimming with a Whale shark and jumping out of a plane at 15,000 feet. Both of which I know drives him a little bit crazy every day and in turn keeps me smiling, but it wasn’t long before the sun and the crazy all got too much for him and we were standing on the runway of the smallest airport watching a rickety old plane attempt to land in one piece, to take us up above the clouds over Fiji! The day was gorgeous, and as we climbed higher the views of the perfect desert islands in a turquoise sea, just became more breath taking, ... read more