Advertisement
Published: September 15th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Regretting the back-to-back-movie-and-tetris-athon that Richard Branson provided us with on our first leg of the flight, we briefly touched down in LA like zombies, our body clocks all over the shop. Unsuprisingly we were all asleep before take off for the LA- Nadi 10.5 hr journey and arrived in Fiji earrrrlllyy morning to some very cliche (but very welcoming) men in grass skirts playing the guitar and singing. We would soon learn that this would become an arrival gesture for each island we landed on (we were pros at the 'bula' dance after a couple of days). We were quickly briefed on the concept of 'fiji tiiiiimmmee' which basically means 'your boat may or may not arrive in plus or minus one hour from this time.' It's brilliant. Everyone is so chilled out which is very handy when you sleep in and forget to pack your backpack up the night before.
After about a total of 32 hours travelling, we arrived at our first island...Mana. The weather was a bit dodgey so (after a slightly rough boat right and a slightly green Tona) we slept off the jet lag before waking up for some evening entertainment. The locals have a
CIMG5549
Our first taxi from the mainland to paradise! drink called 'Kava' so, excited for this champange arrival, we sat cross legged on the floor next to the staff with their hula shirts and guitars, overlooking a beautiful sunset and enjoying their singing. Then they served us our Kava....a bowl of non alcoholic muddy water. We were a little surprised but curious to experience what was promised to give us a 'body but not mind drunk' sensation. It was interesting and fun. Although not particularly delicious. Some really fun people at this lodge who we explored the local sunset beach with (totally beautiful), walked to the look out point and took on the locals at beach volleyball. The chief of the village joined our team and was a little frustrated with Tona for (very rare) missed shots, and particularly for 'having a boy's name like Tony.'
Next stop was Nabua Lodge by the Blue Lagoon area in the north islands. Even after 3 nights there I could genuinely not get my head around the views. They were unreal. The water was literally like a a snippet from a Thomas Cook holiday brochure. Absolute paradise, and by now in glorious sunshine. The power cut off at 10pm on this
island which was a great excuse for us to jam pack the days with activities before tucking up in our mosi nets like old ladies nice and early. We walked to the local village for the fathers' day church service to see how the villagers really lived and enjoy the choir. The families then took us to their huts for lunch which was a great experience and the little boy (who had great english) took us out the back to see their view of the ocean when we'd finished eating. The water was like nothing I've ever seen before, so incredibly beautiful, the pictures we took will never do it justice. The same day in the afternoon we went on a snorkelling trip to the blue lagoon itself which was awesome. Saw loads of really colourful and some pretty big fish. By this point we'd also met our friend Sparky from uni and there was a lot of muffled underwater excited squealing and pointing on an otherwise deserted beach.
The following day we went on a cave diving (more like swimming) trip which I'll pop some photos up of. There were 2 caves, one open and one closed roof. The
closed one you have to swim underwarer for about 3 metres towards a light and wait for some bloke to bop you on the head to let you know it's safe to come up. Still barely capable of earning my 25m 5 year old swimming badge I found this a wee bit more daunting than the idea of jumping out of a plane, but safely through the other side, still covered over, it was well worth it- amazing.
For our last night on the islands before we headed back to the mainland for our early morning flight we went to Beachcomber which is known to be the 'party' island to meet Dan and James and celebrate my 23rd birthday. It was brilliant. The girls had tipped off the staff that it was my birthday so the night started with the standard grass skirted man on a mike with a guitar rounding everyone up to the sand based, neon lighted dancefloor for an acoustic rendition of happy birthday. This then turned into a mass bula dance (we were doing it in our sleep by now) and a rather competitive game of musical statues. James did us proud making it to
CIMG5561
Sunset on Mana island final two but got the giggles, losing us the free drinks prize at the final hurdle. When it turned 12 o clock, we naturally felt it was appropriate to go for a dip in the sea to celebrate the start of my birthday, followed by some time in an outdoor salt water spa pool overlooking the ocean, before hot showers, a change into our pjs and a return to the dancefloor for the rest of the night. Brilliant fun. We spent my actual (Fijian) birthday chilling out on the beach before heading back to the mainland for our flight to Auckland the next day. Opened my bundle of goodies from home over breakfast. Lovely, thankyou...the goodies from home as well as the pancake feast...!!! It really was such a tough life spending your birthday in paradise.
We landed in Auckland today and have crucially invested some time located supermarkets and irish flags and facepaints ready for the rugby on Saturday. We're going all out to get a TV appearance so keep an eye out. Don't be fooled if you see 4 gingers- Carmel and I have got tona a wig and plan to get some hair dye on Kate
while she sleeps off her jet lag...not really. Kate's family friends are pretty involved with the rugby over here- the dad does the commentating/ interviewing for NZ and the daughter works in PR so she's actually giving us her RWC flat in auckland to stay in after the game so we can go out without having to head back to the family home as originally planned. Brilliant.
What an essay- will learn to keep these more concise in the future. Thankyou all for the birthday messages, hope everyone is well back home. Lots of love xx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.084s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 56; dbt: 0.051s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Pat Forster- (Mum)
non-member comment
Wow!
What a great read - an amazing start to what will be a wonderful 6 months. Perhaps you are in a photographic studio in London infront of glossy backdrops?! Seriously - Fiji is a pretty special birthday venue! It is great to see you all relaxing and looking so happy - well deserved after all that studying! xx