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Published: April 13th 2008
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We arrived in Fiji to be greeted by torrential rain which wasn't really what we had in mind but it was still incredibly humid, we went to a nearby hostel just for the night as we were leaving for Taveuni the next day. We got a good nights sleep somehow despite being in a 32 bed dorm and headed to the airport ready for our fight. As it was our first full day in Fiji we weren't yet aware of the 'Fiji time' the country operates on, which basically means people can be constantly late for everything without feeling guilty by just using the excuse that they're on Fiji time... Once we checked in and didn't even yet a boarding pass we became a little suspicious but we did as we were told and sat down and waited for the flight. By the time it got to 3:30 and we hadn't been called we decided to ask again and they told us after looking at a random bit of paper it was just delayed...this went from a bit delayed to indefinitely delayed!! So with nowhere to go and no flight until 7am the next day we prepared ourselves for a long
night at the airport, and a long night it was! We had a nice bed in big leather sofas which were surprisingly comfortable but the nights sleep was interrupted every 15 minutes by a ridiculously loud announcement telling international customers (none in airport as no overnight flights) that they could no take liquids in their hand luggage !! I think hearing this is now going to haunt me for life!
Thankfully the next morning our flights was only running about 40 mins behind schedule (good for Fiji) and off we went in our tiny plane to Taveuni! The island was beautiful, covered in palm trees and with tiny villages spread around the coast, this was the Fiji we had imagined! Once we got to the resort we started our dive course that afternoon as were a date late. Our padi instructor was called Tawake and although he tutted at us for not reading our books enough we think he secretly really liked us! We got the impression not many people learn to dive there as we had an audience when we were training in the pool trying to swim gracefully but really just flailing around! Once we'd watched all
the training dvds and done the pool work we then had four open water training dives. We were both amazed at how amazing the coral looked that was only meters from the shore and we saw loads of different varieties of fish. One dive we did from a desert island across from the resort which was extra good as we saw hundreds of dolphins swim past our boat on the way over, and I wasn't seasick so enjoyed this dolphin experience much more.
We finished our course on the Thursday which meant we had one full day left before we returned to the mainland. We hinted to our instructor that we'd like to do another dive before we left and he very kindly offered to come in his day off to take us out on the boat with the other divers. I found it quite scary going out on the boat as we had to jump off in the middle of the ocean rather than just off the shore! We did the 'Zoo' and the 'Great White Wall' dives which were both amazing. On the Zoo dive Tawake was telling us to look out for all the sharks which
we just laughed along with..little did we know there really were reef sharks..everywhere!! I think we saw about 7 or 8 in total on the dive! I was petrified at first but once we had seen a couple and they didn't try to eat us I felt a bit more comfortable! Also it gave us a chance use our 'shark' signal which was very amusing but resulted in a lot of water being swallowed as laughing underwater is near impossible! We also saw a turtle and other fish that we hadn't seen in our previous dives on the shallow coral. The other divers we were with all rated the Fiji dives highly and some said it was the best coral they'd ever seen to we felt really lucky to be learning there.
The garden island resort was luxury compared with the rest of our trip with an ensuite room to ourselves and soft towels every day! The staff were also really friendly and eager to please. The diving took up most of our time at the resort but we also found ample time to pursue the 3 R's they promote in Fiji: Reading, Resting & Relaxation!! We headed up
to the 'date line' one afternoon which was quite a slog in the boiling heat as it was all uphil. I was expecting something amazing, maybe a big line in the ground or something but it turned out to just be a board behind a rugby pitch, which we had to walk across whilst being plaid on by about 30 police officers to get to it! We met a nice man called george who took us over to the board and kept yelling at them to 'hold the ball' while we got across! We were a bit of a novelty In Taveuni, being tourists and non Americans, we really liked this as once we got back to the resort on the mainland we probably saw more tourists that locals!
Our destination for the second week was on the 'Coral Coast' on the mainland, we found a budget resort that was right on the beach and as it was the destination of the TV series Love Island we even more excited about going there!! The resort was really nice, especially for the amount we paid and we got free breakfast and afternoon tea which was a real luxury as we'd
spent the previous week eating dry crackers and supernoodles cooked in cup! I'm struggling to think of things to write about our time at the resort as the majority of the time was spent lazing..lazing on the beach...lazing in the shallow sea water...lazing by the pool...lazing in the hammock!! We went on a jungle trek one morning to a nearby water fall which was quite good but we had a racist, sexist local guide who kept showing us things that 'black power' had built and that 'white power' would never be capable of...especially white female power! Despite his nonsense ramblings along the way it was a nice walk through the jungle and the waterfall was really refreshing once we got there. Hannah made some coconut jewellery (non edible) one day which turned out really well, I tried to start making some but gave up in favor of some more lazing.
We left the resort the day before our flight as it was a 3 hour journey and we had to be at the airport at 4:55am, we considered staying at the backpackers close to the airport but after hearing bad reports of theft we decided we'd rather not…so you
guessed it another night at the airport was in store for us!! Again little sleep was had due to the damn announcement but we were pleased with ourselves having saved $30!
We're now back in New Zealand and today Me, Han and Winnie the Pooh (All to be revealed in the next installment) head off on our North Island adventure!
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Aunty Pauline
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holidays
Just been to the Trout for lunch (one of the highlights of my holiday in Tiverton along with matalan and Clark's village) but after reading your blog it might be Fiji next time!!! Have added my email address so you can add it to your list. Have a great time in North Island landscape of Lord of the Rings. love from Aunty Pauline