Blogs from Fiji, Oceania - page 23

2nd – 10th June ’12 Fiji 2nd June ’12 Nadi We arrived at Nadi airport at 8.30pm and the travel desk we were supposed to report to was closed! However a very helpful lady contacted Mama’s Tropic of Capricorn for us and arranged for them to come and pick us up. There were 4 of us altogether staying there altogether, so Howard and I climbed aboard along with 2 Tongan guys, one of whom was silent and the other one who was bizarrely (for Tongans) wearing little shorts and was really chatty. It turned out that he had been back to Tonga to visit family and was on his way back to Maui where he lives. We arrived at the guest house and found we had a lovely room with air con and a balcony overlooking ... read more

Fiji, this is the furthest away we can go before we start getting closer to the UK, it literally is the other side of the world. After arriving on the Mainland in the capital of Nadi we were waiting to get a boat over to Waya island in the Yasawa group, a 2 hour trip through the South Pacific. Trust me, once you’re out of the bays and there are no islands for shelter, it gets rough, really rough. 30 minutes in to the trip and one of the outboard motors decided to dump its power steering fluid in to the ocean causing us to turn sharp right, sending us into a circle at 14 knots. In large swell this is an experience! We limped back to the harbour using a teenager to hold the engine ... read more

Octopus Resort. Having been to such an amazing resort for 9 nights, it was hard to move on. We did however take some solace in the fact that our next resort, Octopus, was a sister resort of the Blue Lagoon and, as everyone who we had met that had been there said it was great, we felt better about having to leave one paradise for another. Naturally, as soon as we got there, we were making comparisons about the two, and which one we preferred… however they were both so similar that the differences between the two were actually very small. For us, one of the things that was most different was the sea. Although both of them are amazing, we actually preferred the beach and sea of Blue Lagoon, however as Octopus had ... read more

Villages: Bula! (Hello!) We went to several villages on the cruise. To attend church, visit a school and have a feast We were asked to respect the culture by dressing modestly, covering shoulders and legs (to below the knee). Every visit included lots of singing and dancing and usually a handicraft market- at which we bought some lovely shell and coconut gifts (Neiria bought a rather fetching ankle bracelet) then we worried about bringing then back through biological security in New Zealand (you simply declare it). Everywhere you go, even on the ship there was the traditional "Sevusevu" ceremony, where like the Maori culture you are welcomed to the village declaring you come in peace. The appointed Western chief presents the kava which is a root of the pepper tree or yaqona to the village chief ... read more

Having lugged our bags around for 8 months, hopped on and off questionable buses and on the occasion, stayed at some pretty scruffy places, we were ready to have ourselves a holiday! Yes, I realise that swanning off around the world could be classed as a holiday in its own right, however what we wanted for three weeks was to simply do nothing. No looking at historical sights, no hunting for hostels or booking buses, nothing. We just wanted to put our bags down for a while and lay in the sun, and why not, it had been a tough 8 months! One thing we didn’t count on when we booked our flights to Fiji way back in February of last year was how expensive Fiji would be. As a lot of people tend to come ... read more