Fiji time

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Sunday 16 July - Yasawa Islands
Fiji Nadi - Finally got to Fiji after a 6 ½ hour flight to Honolulu - Hawaii, 1 hour stop over, then 6 hours to Nadi which made it 5.15am over there & the day didn’t start well when our FREE hostel transfer bus didn’t show up. After waiting at the airport for 30 mins I made one of the local women phone to say where the hell are they. They said no probs will be there in 10 mins - another 30 mins passed and no show so I phoned them AGAIN and the same story - 10 mins - another 30 mins passed and still no show. So being there for nearly 2 hours we finally decided to take a cab. As soon as we arrived the woman on reception asked me how we were and boy did I sock it to her. So as you can imagine we had a full refund. WICKED.
For the first day well we didn’t do much regards with sight seeing, but we did manage to book a tour to the smaller Yasawa Islands with Awesome adventures for 1 week & a trip around the main Island of Fiji with FeeGee Experience for the last week. If anyone is planning to go to Fiji wait till you get there to book any tours its much cheaper out there & you can barter with them too.

The next day we made it into town - Nadi. So many people warned us that the locals will force you into their shops & try to get us to buy something. Not sure if we looked like right hard gits but we didn’t encounter anything like that. The worse thing we found was cab drivers honking their horn to see if we wanted a taxi. I mean every 2 mins they would pass honking saying “You want a taxi lady” it got a bit annoying to say the least. The most interesting thing was the welcoming ceremony we had at one of the local handicraft shops. Its called a Kava ceremony and it starts with a guy mixing the Kava (its grinded down root of some plant) saying a few words in Fijian, sounded V impressive but for all we knew he was saying bloody brits just spend some money and go ! but im sure he wasn’t !? After the few words everyone would clap 3 times & 1 person would be handed a bowl of this Kava stuff and you would have to neck it - BLOODY AWFUL STUFF TOO ! there were 3 types of Bowls 1. Low tide - about a mouthful & trust me you would have wanted this size, 2.High tide - far too much in this one, 3.Tsumami - which is HUGE and your suppose to down it 1, YUK !!! Really gross stuff but the locals live on it, its like tea for England I suppose. Another reason why the locals love it so much is, it has the lovely effects of alcohol (after a couple of LARGE bowls that is) but without the morning after hang over!! Don’t worry guys we have bought some for you guys to try out when we get back.

Tues 18 July
Early day today, we got the boat to the Yasawa’s (By the way this was the area where they filmed the Blue Lagoon with Brooke Sheilds & Castaway with tom Hanks) the trip was for 5 nights/6 days. First stop Taweva Island - Coral view was the resorts name. Lovely place with breath taking views but the bathrooms could have been improved (basically a hole in the ground) and NO HOT WATER !!! Gals you would have never survived 1 wk without hot showers. The dinning/lounge area has sand on the floor and there was an abundance of hammocks outside to relax in. YEAP paradise. I loved it there as I could do as much snorkeling as I could possibly do, magic, and I think Mand thought that too, as she only saw me for the end part of the day. About 30 mins boat ride away are some caves we went to have a look at, getting there was half the fun as they cain’d these little boats, im telling you talk about being in a wind tunnel! Luckily we got there in 1 piece, once we got into the cave it was low tide - thank GOD as we had to dive under the water to reach most of the other caves, in particular the cave where Brooke shields had her first period on in the film Blue Lagoon - Nice. But as it was low tide we didn’t have to dive under, much to Mands relief. All in all nice caves but worth the money, we’re not so sure.
I decided to go on my first out of the UK dive and as the Kiwi’s & Canadians would say ‘TOTALLY AWESOME’ the site where I dived was called the cabbage garden & it was wicked, a huge patch of soft corral which funnily enough looked like a huge cabbage patch !! The coral was amazing, all the different colors BUT the fish wow! I can’t really describe how amazing they were, the only thing I can say is that it is 110% better than Devon diving.
After 2 nights at coral View we got the boat to Naviti Island & we stayed there another 2 nights and this time it was called coconut Bay resort. Nice enough but not as nice as Coral View - in our opinion. I did my regular snorkeling sessions & mand did her regular reading the book in the shade sessions. I did another dive where a saw a shark !!!!!!!! how cool is that, it was only a white tipped reef shark (pretty small non threatening and no way a Jaws lookie likie) but never the less a shark and it was wicked. The water here is crystal clear with about 30-40 m visibility & amazing corals & fish. Guys if you like diving Fiji is a must. My 2’nd dive outside the UK was even better then the 1’st, so what will I see for my 3’rd ……………….?
The last stop on the Yasawa’s Tour was South Sea Is which is actually part of the Mamnmucas Islands. A Very Very Very Very small Island you can basically walk around it in 5 mins. It was different from the other islands, it was more of a party place with drinking games. The games that come to mind was Fuzzy duck, Roxanne & F*ck the dealer. Don’t worry we will pass on this knowledge when we are back. All I can say was it is V funny, and Mand watching people getting smashed is nothing new for her . During the day believe it or not I got Mand to do an introductory dive whilst I went on a wreck dive. The dive master was V good and made Mand V comfortable under the water - which by her own admission is not easy. She thought it was a great experience but doesn’t now if she’ll do it again - as if she has a choice with me on her back in Auz.

Mon 24’th July
Feegee experience: on the main Island. This bus was a lot bigger than the Moose network bus - a full sized bus with lots of people on it and they ranged from 20 -70 (mostly mid 20’s thou). The 1’st day was pretty laid back, had lunch (BBQ on the beach) made for us by our tour guide Bola and the driver Arvin (ah this is the life for me). This was followed by a visit to a original Fijian village. I was lucky to make some 10 yr old friends - same mentality I know. After learning about how locals live we had a session of sand boarding. Coming down a sand dune on a body board didn’t appeal to me but Mand though she would give it a go and coming from her was ‘ it’s such a blast - but the worst thing was walking up the sand dune, and she would have done it again if it wasn’t for the climb upto the top’. The day come to a close at the resort Mango bay - which was only a couple of k’s from where they were filming celebrity love Island- anyone watch it at home?

The next day was pretty eventful. It started with a trek into the Fijian forest. Some of the walkways have been cleared & exposed to the sun so our guides made us hats/crowns out of leaves - a very fetching look . The trek came to an end at a river where we tubbed our way down to the bus. This river happened to be the one ‘Anaconda’ was filmed on. It was reassuring to know no snakes actually lived in the river - or so they say !! Then onto Suva - which is the capital of Fiji, so we thought we would compare the nightlife to that of the UK. We went out to a bar/club called O’Reillys but it wasn’t the least bit Irish. How does it compare……………….well the drinks were expensive as per norm, it had a small dance floor and 3 raised roles, which of course I had to Dance around one for 1 song with Bola on the next pole, V funny but V high.
Next day we went back up into the mountains & visited another village which of course the 1’st thing is the Kava ceremony & we had to have the 1’st 2 bowls then all the girls went with a local woman to weave bracelets, which I have to say we were damn good at it too. Of course we ended up buying 1 (not the ones we made by the way - tells you something doesn’t!) After the Village we went rafting in the river - bamboo rafting ! It was a raft of 4-6 large bamboos tied together, and you sat in it you were basically sitting in the river, just below your waist. It was freezing cold water & too add insult to injury it was Peeing it down, but once we got going it was fine, until one of the other groups/rafts decided to be pirates & try and tip us in. So of course they did as it doesn’t take a lot to tip the rafts over. So after that it was full on war & we decided to tip all of the boats in, if I was wet then I was damn sure they would be too ! After all that messing around we had a proper race & this time me and Mand split up, Mand was with 2 other English & a Canadian, in my boat was an English, a Swish and a Canadian & of course we won. I mean how could we not have won with a Welsh gal on board, heheh.
After we dried off we went to a school & mingled with the kids, basically it was them showing us around & wanting us to take as many picis of them as we could & then showing it to them, ah the magic of digital cameras. I was carrying the camera so I got dragged to loads of different class rooms to take photos & Mand got mobbed by kids giving her their address to send the pictures, stationary & basically anything else to. Just before we went back into the bus one of our friends (crazy German called Tom) decided to conga around the school, a V funny day.
On our way back to our accommodation in Voli Voli Bola jumped off the bus and swiped a sugar cane from a truck that was full of them & gave us the cane to suck on. No-one apart from the driver had ever done it before BUT we had our own expert on sucking the cane Miss Dippy KAUR, of course she had done it before and told us how to do it. V sweet & V naughty.
Once back at Voli Voli we had yet another Kava ceremony & the boys in our group had a good old knees up, as it was one of the boys B’days. The end of the party ended up with Tom wheeling Simon (the B’day boy) in a wheel barrow into the sea. Simon was not best pleased to say the least but V amusing if you were standing on the side watching.
We decided to leave our group & stay in Voli Voli for an extra 2 days to chill out and acouple of the boys that couldn’t bare to be without us stayed too. We relaxed at the beach did some sea kayaking, Mand and I in one and Tom and John in another racing, of course we won, NOT, they whipped our ass’s but we still enjoyed and it was some sort of exercise I suppose. At night time we all went to the beach to see the clearest sky I have ever seen. The milky way was crystal clear & I have never seen so many shooting stars as we did. I think the highest number of stars we saw in 1 night was 26 (Len your favorite No too). Later on that evening, well should I say early morning I decided to go for a walk and leave the group by the beach fire & go for a wonder. This was such a BAD move, as I stumbled upon a couple getting jiggy with it (if you know what I mean!!??). So may that be a warning to all of you out there to think before you go for a wonder on a beach late at night.
Funnily enough we did sweet FA the following day - come on its Fiji time !
The following day we picked the bus back up & the highlight of this day was a dip in the NATURAL mud pools & hot springs. Absolutely FAB, none of this fancy pool crap, it was basically a big pool of mud & you had to sit init and grab some warm mud from the side of the bank and rub all over you. Very attractive - sorry no pics as it was mud pools after all !! A nice wrap up to a great relaxing holiday.
Fiji we would give it 8-8 1/2 out of 10. An 8 ½ from me as I did see a shark, and 8 from Mand - hard bugger. All in all a big thumbs up and we would def go there again.

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Comments

[Janusz]

Bah!
So damn lucky!

[Eddie]

Lucky sod
Looks like you are having a fab time ......... All this adventure whilst it's business as usual for us back in UK ....... Were doing the Maldives in October and are looking forward to some great diving ......... Look forward to the next installment ...... Ed.