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Published: August 10th 2011
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Hello,
It has been a while since I have written so its time to bring this blog up to speed.
The remainder of NZ was mainly spent driving back up to Auckland, we stayed in a really nice hostel in Mt Eden (5 mins from Auckland city centre) called Bamber House, very homely! We didnt really like Auckland too much but it was nice to meet up with my uncle who lives out there. The city was pretty nondescript and a little boring really, I also dont think that the rainy cold weather helped its cause that much!
So we dropped off our trusty hire care back at the airport (having covered some 3000km's!!) and headed for our next destination, Fiji! We were a little worried as when we boarded the plane there were literally hundreds of kids on it (school holidays in NZ) but it didnt turn out to be a problem in the places we stayed at. We were flying with Air Pacific who wern't great but they did the job with only an hours delay... We arrived in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) in the evening and our hostel pick up was waiting for us (the people
we had met in our hostel in Sydney). The hostel was very basic with the most uncomfortable bunk beds ever, but we were only staying there one night and they sorted out all of our boat transfers for us which was nice and easy. That night we joined in a traditional Cava ceremony which involves drinking water mixed with the ground roots of the pepper tree. It looks like muddy water and tastes very earthy but its tradition so I wasnt about to decline!
The next morning we had to catch our boat to our first island (the main island doesn't have as many picturesque beaches so we spent all of our time on the remote outer islands of the Mamanuca's and Yasawa's). Our first island was the tiny Beachcomber Island which is billed to be the party island. The island could be walked around in 10 minutes and I doubt I will ever stay on a smaller one! We were put in a 12 bed dorm but no one else was in it for the 2 nights we were there so we had it to ourselves! Next door was a 120 bed dorm which I kind of wish
we had stayed in for the experience but it was nice to have our dorm to ourselves nonetheless. Whilst we were at Beachcomber we mainly sat on the beach and swam in the sea during the day. At night we had a few drinks in the bar but from what I could see it wasn't as lively as I had read about? On the second day we went on a snorkelling trip and the coral and fish were really nice, lots of soft coral which made a change! The food on the outer islands is all compulsary meal plans, this is because there is no where else to get food. The food at Beachcomber wasn't too bad but we did encounter some odd options here and there.
After two nights on beachcomber we moved onto Waya Island where we had booked to stay at Octopus Resort. I had high hopes for this place due to good trip advisor reviews and lots of word of mouth reviews, it didn't let us down! We were staying in a 4 bed ensuite dorm which was essentially one of there traditional thatched "Bure's" (pronounced Buray) with 4 single beds in it. We were
sharing with a mother and daughter from Melbourne who were both pretty nice. The ensuite was nice as it had an open air shower (nice touch), it was also cool to stay in a thatched bure although lots of mice and bugs seemed to be able to get into the room very easily which kept Hevs awake a few nights. The resort itself was much nicer than Beachcomber and the food was much better. On the first day we did a walk over to the local village on the island which was really interesting, we got to see the real side of remote island living. The resort employs many of the villagers as staff and helps fund lots of projects in the village such as the newly built kindergarden which was pretty impressive. After watching and partaking in a traditional song and dance, we bought a few items from the craft market which they had set up.
There was always lots to do at Octopus and we got involved with some of the activities held day and night. One thing I really liked was that the staff all played volleyball on their lunch break (to a high standard!) which
was fun to watch, I got involved one day and my team did pretty well (winning 10 matches in a row). I did quite a bit of snorkelling whilst at Octopus as there was excellent reef right from the shore. The decent snorkelling enticed me into doing a scuba dive which turned out to be brilliant, the best visibility I have witnessed by a long way! We made lots of friends at Octopus and had a really good time, meal times were always sociable as everyone sits at long tables rather than private tables which was another nice touch. We stayed for a total of 5 nights at Octopus and we both really enjoyed it, the manager was super nice and the atmosphere was very friendly, the place doesn't really need more recommendations as apparently its 86% full at the quietest time of year! If you ever want to go (and not stay in a dorm) make sure you book early (can be booked up like 6-8 months in advance).
It was then time to move to our third and final resort, this was further up the Yasawa islands at the Blue Lagoon Resort (sister resort of octopus). The
setting was lovely and guests can swim all day (including low tide) easily. Blue Lagoon Resort was much more chilled out than Octopus although they did still have activities running regularly. We spent the first four nights in a 10 bed dorm followed by 2 nights in a double room. The beach was perfect for relaxing in the day and watching the sun go down in the evening. The water was crystal clear and again there was a decent reef right on the shore, paradise! We met and spoke to lots of new people and had a good laugh in the evenings. I had heard about a shark dive which was offered at the resort so I booked on that and tagged on a normal dive for afterwards. The shark dive was amazing! We were right up close to about 20 sharks, ranging from smaller reef sharks to massive lemon sharks (and possibly a bull shark!). The instructors brought down a wheely bin full of dead fish and it was interesting to see how the underwater hierarchy works with regard to who gets what. The second dive was pretty good also, the highlight being seeing a highly poisonous sea snake.
Now for the big news! Heather and I got engaged whilst at Blue Lagoon Resort! I had had it planned for a while and had bought a ring in Cairns, stashing it in my backpack until the right time. I decided to wait till the end of our time at the resort to do it which ended up kind of working against my favour because the weather wasnt brilliant in the last few days but it was still a lovely location in which to propose and we are both super happy about it all! The ring I bought was only a cheapy and I planned to go and buy the real deal with Heather when we got to our next and final stop of Hong Kong.
We both really loved Fiji, it was so relaxing and the fijian people are so friendly and welcoming. It wasn't cheap but it was definitely worth it! True paradise in the middle of no where.
(more pics at the bottom)
Next stop Hong Kong.
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