Advertisement
Published: September 25th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Bola! (Hello in Fijian)
Wow, well we've had a truely amazing time since arriving in beautiful unspoilt Fiji 2 weeks ago!! The people are so friendly and helpful and we've met lots of fantastic people we've had great fun with & Sunshine!!
We started off by staying on the main island of Nadi for 2 nights up in the mountains which was lovely.
We then started our trip with Awesome Adventures which was a 12 day/ 11 night trip around the Yasawa Islands. The first Island the Ferry dropped us off at was called Bounty Island, it is the island where they filmed 'Love Island' a few years ago, its a tiny island like the majority of them we stayed at, only a few kilometeres long and you worry when the tide comes in at night there might not be any island left!
A tiny little glass bottom boat took us from the ferry to the island, luxury actually although we were not aware of it at the time, as these little boats became smaller and smaller and much less equipped as we headed further north! The locals meet and greet you when you arrive and depart the islands singing welcome
and goodbye songs!
Whilst on Bounty we took a day trip on a ship called 'Seaspray' which took us to the outer Mamanua Islands to crystal clear waters for snorkelling and a traditional village visit where we had a cava Ceremony (A dried pepper plant is ground down to a powder and put into something that resembles a sock, which then in the cava ceremony is soaked and squeezed like a tea bag to make a muddy water and apparently tastes like it too - yummy!!) In the ceremony the chief mixes it up and offers it to 2 lads who agreed to take part. The village was very basic but very clean and everyone was so friendly. We also got to visit the island featured in the Tom Hanks movie 'Castaway' which was beautiful and suprisingly unspoilt with no resort or touristy gimmik to be seen.
From Bounty we headed to Kuata - A bigger island than Bounty with 3 resorts on it. When I say resort I dont mean 5 star by any means, Bounty was true luxury as the remaining islands had no hot water, electricity was restricted to a few hours each night so it was
like stepping back in time i.e lots of card games! Our hut (Bura) on Kuata and most of the islands was made out of wicker and wood with a thatched roof - very basic! The food is what you are given on your plate there is no snack bar or alternative. It was mainly curry's or salads or vegetables, not alot of meat as very expensive. Breakfast quite often was cakes and fruit.
Whilst on Kuata we took a snorkelling trip to feed Reef Sharks which was a REAL experience! It was a very overcast day and the sea unfortunately very choppy but nevertheless the locals crammed us onto their little motor boats and took us into the middle of the ocean where we followed a swimmer (local lad) who speared fish and then 1 reef shark appeared, then another, then another at one time there were 5 reef sharks below us and big ones at this too. It kind of spooked me a bit as they came up very close to you so i chickened out and got back into the boat, Jason bravely stuck it out and said that the swimmer fed the sharks the fish he had
speared and actually caught a shark and everyone stroked it! Amazing experience!
Our next Island was Korovou where we did lots of snorkelling and a trek where we saw massive strange looking spiders! Jason spent hours being fascinated by the hermit crabs!!
The furthest north Island we stayed at and the most basic was Sunrise. The side of the island we were staying at was incredibly windy so we treked over to the otherside to the 'Blue Lagoon' which was incredibly beautiful and yep they filmed the film 'Blue Lagoon' there. We did lots of snorkelling again and the coral and fish were amazing. At night we were entertained by 2 men (or ladyboys I should say) called Queen and Deborah who performed different dances and songs. Hillarious!! Apparently Queen performed for Oprah Winfrey and was then invited over to America to perform at her birthday party! Whilst on Sunrise we took a trip to the Sawailau Caves where the boat trip was an experience in itself over very rough water. The first cave we entered we jumped into the lagoon inside then had to swim through a tunnel underwater to another cave which was pitch black! you had to
swim towards the torch light someone was holding the otherside and then when you could come up they would tap you on the head so you didnt bang your head! Neadless to say once in the first cave and told this I couldnt do it. Jason did and said that it was very spooky and they told ghost stories in there and the cave had lovely acustics, but not worth it if you ask me!
From Sunrise Island our next stay was onboard The Wanna taki Cruise ship where we had hot showers, air con and amazing food (bbq)! We spent time snorkelling and diving off the boat (quite high) then at night having games and crab racing!
Our final Island and a lovely place to end our stay in Fiji was Beachcomber - The party Island! We had a lovely room apart from an incidence with a field mouse running up Jason's arm in the night. The Dorms on this island were one of the biggest in the world at 100 people per room!! and very suprising as this island was one of the smallest islands and you could walk around the island in 5 mins max! They had
all the facilities - hot showers and fans and great food - Buffet! Entertainment at night was great with lots of traditional dancing and games.
All in all Fiji has been true Paradise, we've had fantastic experiences here with lovely people and will deifinately be a place we'd love to return to and remember fondly.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.056s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0332s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb