Blogs from Nanuya Island, Yasawa Islands, Fiji, Oceania

Desert island holidays had lost much of their appeal after the Caribbean so we shortened our stay on Fiji to two weeks. We really weren't sure what to expect so we decided that two weeks was short enough if Fiji turned out to be another Caribbean disappointment and long enough if it was a Californian dream to enjoy ourselves. We booked two nights near Nadi, the largest city on the “mainland” of Viti Levu after Suva, the capital, and ten minutes from the international airport. We stayed just outside of Nadi in New Town, at a very reasonable little place called New Town Beach Motel. The owner was an Indo-Fijian who was extremely helpful and made our stay very pleasant. Fiji seems to be one of those places that suffers from either too much or too ... read more

Where to start. Paradise, sheer paradise. Sat outside on the veranda of our Bure (a traditional thatched Fijian bungalow) in the grounds of an old coconut plantation, feet up on a low slung sofa , Amy inside, in the cool, taking her usual morning nap after breakfast. I’m currently trying to work out how to stay in Fiji longer than the three weeks our pre-planed ticket will allow; I don’t want to leave. Having just spent 15 days on one island and now taking 2 days out on another before moving to a third. We are more than chilled; this is how normal should feel. When we arrived in Fiji, we had no idea what to expect, after all these are the south pacific islands that have always been, and still are, tribal with a history ... read more

Mainland Nadi We arrived to terrible Cairns-esque weather and we all thought oh no, not again! BUt this was just typical Nadi at this time of the year. We stayed at the Smugglers Cove, we met with Ryan early the following morning and had a swim and played some volleyball and american footy with the ball Guy had somehow acquired, we visited Nadi city centre and stocked up on booze and noodles (the backpackers diet). The next day we began our island trip. Tawewa Island, Coral View Resort We chose to travel to the most northern part of our island trip first and work our way back towards the mainland, hopping from island to island en route. This island was where I opened my first coconut with natural resources and we all got involved in international ... read more

We got up pleased that we had a whole day of doing nothing ahead of us. I know that we’ve had plenty of those sorts of days over the last two months, but over the last week it has been different as Matt has been doing his diving course, I’ve not been well or we’ve been on trips. We’ve missed just hanging out together and snorkelling and laying on the beach and that is how we planned to spend our entire day. We started with a late breakfast - 8.30am which was a massive lay in compared to normal. We were the only ones in the bar eating as everyone else had long been and gone. Before we’d even finished it started to rain so our hopes of getting on the beach started to look slim. ... read more

I was feeling better still today so we headed down to breakfast together before Matt headed off for the final day of his course. I sat in the lounge area reading, as I still didn’t feel up to sitting in the sunshine yet. Above my head I saw a big spider with a white body, hanging in his web. I moved seats quickly so that I was no longer sitting underneath him and took some pictures, then I thought it only fair to tell reception so that he didn’t fall on anyone. One of the workmen came and hooked him onto a broom and then gently grabbed him in his hands and placed him in a tree over one of the hammocks. I was pleased he didn’t squash him as I didn’t want to be responsible ... read more

We woke up bright and early ready for Matt to head to the dive shop. I didn’t feel good and before we’d even got dressed I’d been sick. Thinking the worst was over we went down to breakfast. Matt headed off to watch more videos and I went to the beach with my book thinking that it would do me good to just lay and read for a while until I felt better. A few minuets later Matt walked out of the dive shop in a wetsuit ready to take his first dive - at least he didn’t have to watch more videos after all. I later found out that he was asked to get out of the boat and swim 200m without fins in the lagoon. He’d been expecting and dreading this part because as ... read more