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Published: April 6th 2008
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Great curry.
Arriving in Nadi airport, starving hungry as the muck the airline served was inedible, I was excited to find a cafe in the arrivals lounge with the same ambience as some of the best restaurants in the world, found in ramshackle buildings throughout India and Nepal. The veggy curry they served me was simply delicious. My time in Fiji was off to an excellent start.
Pressure Drop
It turns out that Fiji is even more chilled out than Australia and New Zealand and I could feel my blood-pressure drop another few bars, or whatever it's measured in, as the staff from the Nadi Bay Hotel ushered us onto the bus to take us to the hotel. Not that I was particularly stressed out after almost twelve months of travelling, although the thought of getting a job was starting to germinate in a part of my brain I hadn't accessed for a while.
Too easy!
In less than half an hour after arriving at the hotel, I was checked in to a dorm room and sitting in the bar trying out a local beer. From leaving the airport to arriving at the hotel, I must have said "Bula!",
the traditional greeting, to just about the entire population of the island. Man, these people are friendly!
Octopus Resort
Friends of mine had recommended staying at the Octopus Resort on Waya Island, part of the Yasawa group of islands, a stunning two hour or so boat ride across the most beautiful ocean I'd seen since, well, about a week ago in New Zealand, to be honest, north west of Fiji. Dipping my hand into the surf as we sped along I discovered that the big difference between the Pacific round Fiji and the Pacific off the coast of NZ, is that Fiji's waters are warm.
Octopus Resort is paradise. Kylie and Chris who run the place do a top-notch job of perfectly keeping the balance between the needs of us backpackers staying in the dorm and the guests with a bit more cash who stay in the beach-side bungalows, called bures. The bar and restaurant are staffed by people from the nearby village of Nalauwaki, and the food and drink are without fault. If sitting by the pool, swimming or snorkling on the colourful reef where you can see leopard sharks and rays amongst many other brightly coloured
fish, or lounging on Likuliku Bay, one of the top ten beaches in the world, isn't enough for you, then there are groups treks round the island each day.
My original plan was to stay at Octopus for two nights and then do some island hopping, but after a couple of days there I really couldn't be bothered to move. On top of that, just about everyone that arrived on Waya from other islands said that Octopus was definitely the best place they'd stayed. I even extended my stay, moving my flight to LA by a couple of days.
I did manage to leave the comfort of the sun-lounger a few times. I joined a group visit to Nalauwaki for a traditional kava-drinking ceremony. I acted as the visiting chief and lead the way drinking the ground root drink. After drinking one or two bowls of the horrible tasting brew, my mouth went numb, it started to taste better and I couldn't stop smiling for about an hour. Top stuff!
I didn't get to see any big game diving off Waya, but there were plenty of smaller animals to see in the 20m visibility and the water
was deliciously warm. I also did a night-dive, which I was a bit apprehensive about. It was great fun, and I felt like James Bond as we slipped beneath the waves as the sun set. The divemaster had warned us not to bunch up under the water, but this was more easily said than done. I couldn't see a thing outside of my torch's beam and there were several Laurel and Hardy style moments that had me struggling to keep the regulator in my mouth. The dive itself was fantastic; we saw a load of shrimp, their eyes shining in the torch-light, some dozing parrot fish, cosy in tiny caves, a reef shark and some enormous crabs. I actually found it more relaxing than diving during the day!
I met some fantasticly clever people while on the island and for one of the first times in my life I found myself on a winning quiz team. The prize was a champagne breakfast on the beach. Marvellous! Every evening there was always something amusing to take part in from international crab-racing to beach games, and it was all done with style. The best time, though, was when pretty much the
entire population of the resort body-surfed up the beach; that was a blast.
I was sad to leave the beautiful Waya Island and the very friendly and welcoming people there; I could have stayed another month or twelve, but now it was time to head to LA.
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