Fiji Time

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After all the madness of Sydney and 2 months driving, we were looking forward to kicking back on a resort and being waited on for a week, so Fiji seemed like the exact place we needed.
After the 7 hour journey we were greeted at the airport by a huge indo Fijian called Uma, who immediately warned us that driving at night was NOT a good idea and also the place we were booked into was in the middle of nowhere and allthough it was really nice, there would be no one else there but us and that we should have booked elsewhere, so we were a bit apprahensive from the start.
The journey was 2 hours long along pitch black unlit roads, and every so often a few cows would appear from nowhere, then a few dogs, then a few horses, then mothers holding new borns......... it was a sight to see.
We then started comming through villages with people everywhere and we started to think that we may have got the wrong plane and landed in Africa, so it wasnt looking good!!
Uma then stopped at a village shop just on the outskirts of sigataka which was his local town and on entry to the shop we noticed the whole store was caged up and this made us even more wary??
An hours more driving into nowhere and the driver took a turn up a 2km gravel road going into a mangrove forest and our resort was right at the end so no escaping this place on foot!!!
We were checked into our room and it was a beautiful place with lovely hand carved wooden furniture and fresh flowers scattered about for effect and I think this was to soften the blow from no TV no PHONE and no communication what so ever nad we started to think what have we done!
The manager and manageress were cool and luckily the chef had prepared us a meal each at dinner time and wrapped it up ready for our night arrival, so we ate and slept hopping the morning would turn out better!!!
The next morning we got up for a look around and the place was awesome, only 10 rooms a wicked restaraunt bar area, huge swimming pool all with views into the lagoon and surrounded by palm trees and ornate gardens.....Paradise!
To top it all off we only had to share with one other couple!
As the week progressed we got right into the swing of doing nothing except snorkling the beautiful reef and kayaking around investigating the area and being fed by Henry our excellent chef who actually cooked for the pope, so the food was top notch, lots of fresh fish and veg.
over the week a few more people checked and we met a cool couple from NZ who turned out to be the manageress's parents and they were good company in the evenings and someone we could have a drink and a giggle with.
We took one day out of the resort to check out Pacific Harbour and see the traditional Fijian cultural tour, which was like a reinactment with fire walkers and displays on the same stretch of river that Anaconda the movie was filmed and it was an excellent day.
Our resort was right next door to a Fijian village called the numanguamungua village and all the staff who looked after us were from there, so over the week we got to know them and they were amazingly friendly people considering how they live.
I got to know a few blokes from the village who explained how things work for them and even got invited to a kava ceremony, which is when all the men sit around a huge bowl of ground tree roots mixed with water clapping before and after each cup and shouting "Bula!". Kava makes your mouth go numb and relaxes your body and everynight they consume between 50 - 100 cups each. And of course it costs them nothing so a very cheap habit to have!!!
Over all Fiji was amazing and after getting to know the people, this was one of our favourite places so far.

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Photos

An audience with teh chief
Please dont eat us!!!!

Numanguamungua crew
Me and the boys!!!

Tori kayaking
Kayaking the Fijian Coral Coast

Fijian sunset
Paradise