Blogs from Kadavu Island, Fiji, Oceania

Shortly after our last blog, we were able to get back in the water and complete the diving course. It was absolutely fantastic and we had a hard job concentrating on doing the required exercises as we were constantly being sidetracked by fish, nudibranchs, sea cucumbers, cushion stars and the huge diversity of corals. The main criticism the dive instructor had was that when we saw the white tipped reef sharks for the first time, and the large eagle ray, we stopped breathing, which you are never supposed to do when diving ! After finishing the course we were invited to a kava session in the village just north of Levuka, our first taste of the stuff, but sadly not our last! So we left Levuka , feeling only slightly peculiar,for a brief sojourn on the ... read more

From us both... read more

There were still no golden doves to be found in the forest the next morning, or much else (but I'd pretty much got most of what I was after the day before anyway so that was alright). When we got back to Raintree, Robyn went fishing. There was a sign at the counter saying that if you could catch a fish in the lake then they would cook it for you for free. If it sounds like there might be a catch you'd be right. The fishing line was just a length of cord tied to an empty coke bottle, there was no sinker, the bait was an old piece of bread, the double-hulled wooden canoe provided was leaking so badly that there were actually small fish living inside it, and finally Tilapia don't really take ... read more

Our boat was supposed to leave at 10pm. We didn't realise that is was Fiji time and therefore it left at 2am! After a very bumpy journey, we finally docked at 12pm at Vunisea harbour (Kadavu's main port) - what a nightmare! We took a short speed boat ride to Gaola Island, arriving at our "resort", Reece's Place. Again, we were the only travellers there and would be for the next 4 nights. We were shown to a wonderful cabin that would be "our house". The place was run by the Reece family and had such a homely feel about it. The day that we arrived was Tess, one of the daughters, 18th birthday. We were invited to join their celebrations that night. We drank Kava with the men, whilst the ladies prepared the meal and ... read more

Ni sa bula iedereen! Tsja, dat was het dan alweer…. De trip naar Fiji is gekomen, en alweer gegaan. Helaas gaat dat nou eenmaal zo he met vakanties! Het was een heerlijke vakantie, zelfs na een bijna-noodlanding, 2 bijna-schipbreuken, ontelbare muggenbeten, meerdere hondenaanvallen, verscheidenen haaien ontmoetingen en diverse spannende Miami Vice achtige speedboot tochten over het rif!! Kortom, het was weer een vakantie om niet te vergeten... Nou, voordat ik het uitgebreid over Fiji ga hebben eerst even voorzichtig backtracken naar de week ervoor. De trip naar de bergen hadden we net gehad, en het was dus aftellen voordat we naar Fiji zouden gaan. De week was redelijk chaotisch qua werk, maar we hadden ook wel een aantal leuke momenten. Zo hadden we die week 2 afscheidsfeestjes voor collega’s die vertrokken (1 terug naar de VS ... read more