Fiji

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After breakfast we headed out on a boat trip to the caves. It seemed like a popular trip and we’d met other people who’d said it was good so we had high hopes for it, especially seeing as we’re limiting the trips we do to try to conserve money (shame we’re don’t have the same will power when it comes to dinners and eating expensive fillet steaks!)

We got in the boat with a family from New Zealand who we’d been chatting to over breakfast. The speedboat then headed around the corner to collect a couple of girls from the Sunrise resort. I heard them chatting on the bench behind me and recognised the accent straight away. I asked them where they were from and I was right; they were from Lincoln. Not only that but one of the girls used to work in Torksey and even knew people that I went to school with. It was so bizarre so we had to spend ages chatting about places back home, including the fact that we’re all craving Damons ribs and onion loaf with a passion.

When we arrived at the beach by the caves we all got out of the boat and went up some steep steps, then down some more steps into the caves. One by one we had to get to the bottom step and jump into the water. I was expecting it to be freezing but it actually wasn’t too bad. The hard bit was putting your mask and fins on in deep water when surrounded by lots of other people.

The main cave was tall and there was daylight streaming in from above. The walls of the caves were uneven and full of ledges. In the water with us were probably thirty to forty people and as we swam treading water we kept getting bashed by fins from every direction. The guides welcomed us to the caves and told us to go one by one into a cave next door that was accessed by an underwater tunnel. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as it sounds, it just meant swimming through a gap in the rock underwater and swimming under for about 5 seconds til you got to the other side. Still I wasn’t keen on the idea of underwater tunnels and so I hung around in the big cave with one of the ladies from our group while the rest went in there. I asked the guide whether the group would come out of there before continuing the tour and he didn’t really understand me so I gave up and we waited. A few minutes later people started coming back out again and before long we were all back in the main cave again watching the guides do death defying jumps from the high ledges to encouraging shreaks of ‘bula’ from all of the swimmers. I expected to them move off into one of the other caves, but then everyone started to get out.

As we queued to get out people started commenting that they’d felt something biting them and a few people said there was definitely something in the water that nipped. That made us get out that bit quicker!

That was it. The trip took over an hours travel each way and cost £17 each and all we got to see was two caves and I didn’t even get to see the second! I felt like we’d been had! Not only that, the caves are of spiritual significance and we weren’t told anything about them at all.

The journey back was a bit less choppy than the journey in and I sat chatting to the Lincoln girls about whether the steep hill in Dunedin in NZ is actually as steep as Steep Hill. Chatting to other people from back home made me realise how much I miss Lincoln.

The family told us that they were doing a snorkelling trip later that day in case we were interested. We decided to give it a go too. We spent the early part of the afternoon having lunch and then killed some time on the beach. I went out for a snorkel from the shore and tried my best to find the seahorses but after at least half an hour I gave up and went back to find Matt. This time he came in with me and after a while he found them still in the same spot he’d seen them while diving. They’re amazing creatures - much smaller than I’d expected and rather than staying upright, they lay down in the grass and under leaves and things to hide in the shallows. They look so delicate, it’s amazing that they don’t get hurt as they live right by all the boats and people are constantly walking in and out of the water around there.

Once I’d seen them I was happy to get out as the water had some really cold streams running through it. Matt came and joined me and we were standing by our sun loungers drying off when he told me to look up. Strung across the trees above our heads were giant spider webs. Dotted in the various webs were the same giant spiders with the white bodies that we’d seen in the lounge earlier this week. There was one tiny one and there were at least four others that were as big as the palm of Matt’s hand. It suddenly made me feel uncomfortable sitting our loungers under the shade of the trees!

By this time it was already 4pm and time to get in the boat again for our next trip. It was just the family and us, and George, who works at Nanuya, took us out about ten minutes across the lagoon to a spot with lots of coral. It was high tide so we were a couple of metres over the coral which made it easy to swim around without the fear of bumping into anything. There were plenty of fish to see and we all had a great time fish spotting. I don’t want to bore you with yet another list of fish but I will anyway! We saw clown fish (nemo), lots of different butterfly fish, racoon fish, a spotted fish that I swear has a face like a puppy (it’s the big brown eyes that does it!) and so many more. The colours were amazing, it’s such a shame that the colours aren’t picked up as well on the camera. Eventually I started shivering quite badly so had to get back into the boat. I was gutted that I couldn’t stay in longer, especially when one of the girls spotted a lion fish as I still haven’t seen one of those. I debated about whether I could handle jumping back into the cold as I’d just started to warm up a bit, but I didn’t think I could , so was pleased that Matt took some pictures of it.

We went back to the beach tired and a bit sunburnt (Matt has kept saying that after 8 weeks in the sun it’s no longer possible for us to get burnt but today disproved it as he has a seriously red face!)

After a hot shower to warm us back up again we sat on the bed looking at our days photos on the laptop when Matt felt something wet dripping on his leg. We looked up wondering if it was rain coming through the ceiling, but it wasn’t raining. Then we realised; it was gecko wee. I couldn’t stop laughing at him. That’s the problem having thatched ceilings with animals living in them.

We headed down to dinner (still laughing!) and despite saying we’d only have a starter (as we’d had a big lunch today) we ended up with fillet steak again. Why does this always happen to us! I would have been strong if it hadn’t been for the fact that tonight it came with dauphoise potatoes and that’s our favourite!!

After dinner we showed the family the pictures we’d taken today from our laptop, and they thanked us by giving us their address in NZ so that we can go and visit them when we are travelling around in a couple of weeks. That’s the third time that has happened so far. New Zealanders are so friendly - in England you’d never invite someone to stay with you after spending a day chatting to them. It’s so amazing how friendly everyone is in this part of the world.

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Photos

A fish that looks like a puppy
It's the big brown eyes that do it!