Fiji Imperial Invasion

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I have to write all of this in retrospect now- time has just flown by and we have been so busy and/or not had internet access that we are way behind now.

We left Tanna the day before we were due to fly to Fiji. The flight, despite being short, was pretty cool- mainly because I got to ride in the jump seat. I didn’t even know you could do that in light of new security measures on planes now, but I guess the whole threat of terrorism thing hasn’t reached Vanuatu yet, which makes a refreshing change, even if it is a bit risky. XRay machines to check bags? What are they and will the damage the chicken I am carrying in my hand luggage bag is more apt! Anyway, Dan joined me there mid flight and we were both given a guided tour of the islands of southern Vanuatu from the skies and I even managed to video some of the landing (still in the cockpit when we took off and landed). Pretty cool although pilots get paid a hell of lot of money to just sit there and eat lunch! When we arrived in Vila, we checked into the same hotel we stayed in when we first arrived in Vanuatu. Just as we were checking in, Poyta (Tahitian girl living in Luganville) came up to us- turns out she was staying there too whilst in town on business. Andy, one of the dive instructors who was finally going back home to Oz also checked in there later so there was a party by the pool until the early hours of the morning (Andy was on an early morning flight so didn’t intend to sleep before his flight). We said goodbye to Vanuatu in style and although we had had a wonderful time in this country, we were so looking forward to seeing the girls in Fiji.

We got to Fiji without any hitches- in fact I was even given a vegetarian meal, AND it tasted pretty good (anything after veg and rice would taste good but even so…). Once we arrived in Nadi we took the first cab out to Lautoka and checked into the same hotel as the girls. Veg was so out of it she didn’t realise it was us there- she just wondered who was going into the room reserved for us, bless her. It was really nice seeing the girls, albeit a little surreal seeing them in a tropical environment on the other side of the planet. Ollie and Jeanette were also there, and Ved and Uri (a friend of Ollie’s) were arriving the following day so it really was a mini- IC reunion in Fiji. We spent the next few days getting orientated and sorting out things out. Saturday was spent trekking in the National Park- beautiful place but it rained so hard absolutely everything got drenched (including Veg’s ipod unfortunately), and paths began looking like little streams. We managed to stay on track despite it raining heavily for a good few hours, but had to admit defeat when we got to the part of the path that crossed a river. The river was completely impassable due to the shed loads of water cascading down from the waterful next to it. My books got so drenched that 2 weeks later they were still damp. After that we and lazed on Bucana- Lautoka’s version of Luganville’s Aore. Lots of food, lots of snorkelling and lots of lazing in the sun- bliss. Ved arrived later that day and within a few hours had managed to secure some kava from the local firemen at the fire station down the road! The following day we headed our separate ways, with Ollie, Ved, Uri and Jeanette heading to Beachcomber Island and the rest of us heading to Octopus resort in the Yasawas.

Octopus is very much like a western resort, which was nice, but not quite the local island experience we had expected. Beautiful beaches, great snorkelling and a welcoming place (complete with a kava ceremony to welcome the next guests in. But the kava here tasted like water to me I have to admit, and was nowhere near as strong as the stuff in Vanuatu). Our next destination, the following day, was Boitera, which was more traditional. Boteira is a smaller resort, and not as plush as Octopus, but the atmosphere was even more welcoming and more relaxed which was great. We had a great day and night there too with lots of snorkelling (and one shark alert which the locals thought they’d shout to me just for the hell of it!). We played beach volleyball with the locals- pretty much no rules so it was good fun if not painful. You should have seen the size of Kathy’s wrist and thumb-huge! In both places the locals working at the resorts were too busy avoiding water in the water fights taking place. Traditionally, to welcome in the new year, the locals spend their time throwing each other into swimming pools, or spraying each other with water. Despite new years day having passed a fortnight ago, the locals were still busy celebrating (the chief basically hadn’t said stop yet so it was still party season). Most of this was happening in the background but just as we were leaving Boteira and boarding the Yasawa Flyer again, the guys working in the resort threw a bucket of water over me so I spent the trip down to Mantaray resort looking like a drowned rat. At least I didn’t fall in the water.

We arrived in Mantaray after Ollie and co did so the boys were snorkelling and Jeanette was lazing in the hammock we all got to know so well over the next two days. Food was ace- in fact I can’t remember eating so much since we left London. We spent the first day snorkelling and lazing around- we’re pretty good at that now. Also threw in some beach volleyball (more organised and with rules and even an umpire this time) which helped kill a few more hours until our next huge meal! With so many of the Imperial lot around, we even called our beach volleyball team Team Imperial at one stage (how sad is that! After dinner, we decided to make use of our numbers and throw a beach party, with a lovely beach fire. We got a bit sidetracked whilst collecting wood, because Kathy, Jeanette and I started an impromptu crab racing competition which everyone joined in eventually (there were little crabs EVERYWHERE!) but we eventually collected enough wood on the other beach (there were two beaches with this resort- the sunrise beach and the sunset beach as they were on opposing sides of the island) and Kathy, being the firestarter queen that she is, soon had a rip-roaring fire going- on a rather windy beach too. Some locals who were supposed to be working soon joined us and kept the fire and the drinking games going in style. Eventually we had the girls doing Hula dancing, the boys leading the way for the Bula dance (“we’re gonna have a beach partay”) , Dan demonstrating her prowess at line dancing (and Ved demonstrating his two left feet), lots of cartwheeling (into the sea in Ved’s case) and some awesome breakdancing from Ollie. The locals had their guitars out and sang away (we sang without guitars, rather loudly and rather tunelessly it must be said, but we were enthusiastic!) and everyone had a ball. We also discovered that Max, one of the locals, was only working there are was actually a rugby player in Fiji’s under 21 squad. More than that, he was also Rokokocu’s first cousin- we took lots of pics for Rose and Lis (we knew they’d be jealous otherwise)! Much later on, being the brightsparks that we are, we decided that swinging in the hammocks would be a great idea. Correction- nine of us swinging from a single two man hammock would be far more sociable and a better idea (the locals had gone back to work at this point and Arj had headed off to bed). Pretty cosy and everyone was actually comfortable and nodding off until Mazza decided to dive bomb on top of us all and so we all toppled out. Ouch.

The next day was pretty much filled with snorkelling and sea kayaking, with lots of food thrown in for good measure and after the heavy night the night before, we had a relatively early night (1am). Mainly because our plan to spend the night sleeping in the beach hammocks was ditched when it started raining. With only half a day remaining before heading back to the mainland, we ventured across the island, over slippery rocks etc to our own secluded private beach where some of us swam, some sunbathed and all chilled out in preparation for the action packed remaining few weeks. Ollie and Jeanette were staying on in Fiji, Ved was heading off to San Fran to see his brother and Uri was heading to Singapore. The rest of us were heading to NZ- Dan and I had an early morning flight at 5.30am and the girls would follow us a few hours later. With just two hours kip before we headed off to Nadi Airport, we were actually really looking forward to the next leg of our trip- Dan especially so because Jos would be meeting here there the following day!

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