week 28 (Fiji)

Oceania » Fiji » Mamanuca Islands » Mana Island
April 8th 2009

Published: April 9th 2009

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LCinNZ

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byebye to Dave in Mt Eden

SUN - Got the bus to the airport with Dave, had food then said goodbye to him. Plane was delayed a bit but I didn't actually realise until the lass sitting next to me on the plane said it was annoying! Ha! Shows how much attention I pay in airports, it's a wonder I get anywhere! Lass was a really nice, chatty kiwi, I now have aplace to stay and a curry to eat in Auckland if ever I need it 😊 She lent me her lonely planet so I could read up on Fiji on the way over. When we landed there was a Fijian band playing for us as we collected our bags :D Heard someone shout my name and Tasha appeared infront of me 😊 Yay! I'm in Fiji with Tasha! Got a lift to the hostel, dumped my stuff and walked on the beach. THERE'S COCONUT PALMS WITH COCONUTS ON THE TREES :D Got some really nice, cheap food in a small hostel/restaurant (none of the hostels here have kitchens, just restaurants) then back to dip our legs in the pool (yes our hostel has a pool!!) and plan what we were going to do on Mana

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first night in Nadi

for the week 😊

MON - Up early (9) to walk into Nadi, Tasha had made friends with the staff yesterday so they offered us breakfast of freshly made bread and jam with tea, mmm yummy, then walked into central Nadi, took about an hour, lost count of how many times men called out at us or beeped their horns! Really hot and dusty so got really grimy, I stupidly wore a white (no longer) strap top! Oh well. Internet (aircon :D) for an hour then went to find snorkels for Mana, grabbed some food in a cafeteria type place, so cheap $3.50 for a mountain of veg fried rice!! mmm. Got the bus back for 70c! and straight into the pool, felt soooo good! Out for a $6.50 fish curry, soooo good! then bed.

TUES - Got the boat across to Mana in the terrential rain. Saw 2 islands (well more than that but these were proper islands, small round, edge of golden sand and tropical bush in the middle, amazing) ont he way over, so surreal!! Tropical islands in the middle of the sea don't happen in my life!! Water was so warm when we go

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Yay!! I'm with Tasha in Fiji!!

toff the boat to the hostel. Had the briefing from the lady then on up to our room, it's miles away, well it's not, only a 3min walk from reception/beach, but in the rain its miles away! In a 12 bed dorm with a couple Sarah and Mischa from Essex, they're really nice 😊 Me and Tasha changed into bikinis and went snorkelling in the pouring rain 😊 water was sooo warm, like a bath! Saw loads of fish and coral, beautiful 😊 MUST learn to dive! It's a completely different world down there! Lay on the beach in the rain after that, could have had a shower in it it was so heavy! Played cards at night time with Sarah, Mischa and a Dutch couple Caroline and Martin. Good laugh, i got cold though because my top never dried from getting soaked in the rain!

WEDS - up sillyly early (8.15) for brekki, all you can eat pancakes and papaya is worth getting up for! Went collecting coconuts on the beach after breakfast to make coconut jewellery with 😊 made a bracelet, drank the fresh coconut milk and ate them too :D After lunch we went to find

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70c bus ride back from town

hermit crabs for the crab race in the evening with Tue (accented e, pronounced too-ee, like the nz bird/beer Tui) and Uncle George, was fun 😊 Race in the eving was funny, I ebt on no.7 (lucky number and was the crab i caught) as a free snorkel was up for grabs, didnt win anything but it was a laugh 😊 Played cards with the same lot from last night and the local guys offered me and Tasha to join them drinking kava 😊 so we did, played cards with them aswell. Nice joining in with them properly and was a laugh 😊

THURS - Beach all day today but was so windy we got covered in sand! Ah well, was nice and relaxing, sleeping on the beach after getting back lateish from the kava and cards. Snorkelled again 😊 my mask keeps leaking mind, rather annoying, theres a hole in the seal boo! Saw lots of Gill's (from Finding Nemo), bright blue little fish, yellow ones, black and white ones, a blue starfish, lots of coral, lovely 😊 Drank Kava with the guys again after food, Tasha went back earlier but i stayed up and Tue walked me

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our pool

back to the dorm 😊

FRI - Booked a discover scuba dive for Sunday today 😊 can't wait, mad eit sunday so i'm not tempted to do a course as i won't have enough time!! Beach all day again, was less windy, nice 😊 sleeping in the sun mmm. Played musical statues in the evening - prize being a free dive - found myself in some positions with Tasha I never thought I would be in with her haha! Was hilarious, great fun 😊 Didn't win sadly! Kava with the guys again, Tue had the guitar out aswell, was nice. I don't think many of the guests drink Kava with them properly, they'll join for a bit but not drink every night so they really liked me, made good friends 😊 Always say bula to them now and if i walk past and don't see them they'll cal after me. Everyone's so friendly here, and laid back, its lovely 😊 Tue walked me back again, chatted for ages too 😊 He's lovely, good smile 😊

SAT - beach all day again, windy again though, me and Tasha ended up laughing so much because we turned into the beach,

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rain in the pool

especially compared to Michelle, George and Kate (girls in our dorm). Gave up on the beach in the end. Cards in the evning, they kept blowing away in the wind thoguh! Tue came and stole me to go drink with him, Uncle George, Raki (his cousin) and a guy i forget the name of, before the entertainment for tonight. They did island dances, Raki was in a long grass skirt with hula leaves around her hips, awesome dancing, and Tue and the other guy were in sarong and grass, also greta dancing. Tue then did some fire dancing, was amazing! He told me after it was rubbbish becaus ehe was drunk and couldn't see as his eyes were watering from being out at sea all day! Safe? maybe not but it was good 😊 Drank with him and the others afterwards, we were joined by Tera (from the kitchen) and others form the island, was nice being involved with them 😊 Got in really late, so tired! Tasha and the girls have been in bed by about 10 every day and I've been getting in at silly hours! ah well, I'm having fun 😊

SUN - Dive today! Got

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rain in Mana

into wetsuit, fins, mask and scuba gear at 9, in the water at the shore by 9.15 to do skills and get used to the regulator then into the boat by 9.30 to go out with the other divers to dive the Supermarket (known for its sharks - White Tips, Black Tips and Grey Reef sharks) Backwards roll into the water with Hana - my instructer, awesome lass - the others were there too and said 'there's a shark behind you' sure enough there was!!! Awesome, a White Tip swimming around behind us, my first dive, first minute in the wate rnad i see a shark!! Sweet as! Descended to 12m and swam along the reef, was amazing, completwely different world, so many beautiful colourful fish and corals! Love it!!! Water was really warm, 29C at 12m!! Hana was well impressed with me, she said alot of people are a bit nervous in the water and some totally freak, especially if they see a shark, it felt like second nature to me! Bought a t-shirt which Hana wrote on when we got back to shore, then she tried her very best to persuade me to do a dive course, i

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we got soaked coming down from our dorm in the terrential rain

resisted so much (money issues even thoguh it was cheap for a course and only a 2 day one, i really really wanted to) so then Andrew - dive shop manager - offered me a free fun dive if i did the course, wasn't going to turn that down as i had already decided i would do it anyway!!! awesome, resistance pays! :D So the rest of the afternoon and evening was taken up by learning everything, watching dive dvds and doing little quizes to test me. Had Kava with the guys afterwards and went for a walk on the beach wih Tue 😊 Didn't get in until about 2.30!! Soooo tired!

MON - Beach in the morining whilst waiting for my free dive, ended upa s just a shore dive because the timings for all the boats had been messed up. Was still good, just me and Hana so we danced underwater and messed on 😊 Went looking for a wreck but couldn't find it, was good though, saw a few fish 😊 Back in, quick lunch then back to padi lessons, putting together and taking apart the equipment, then into the water at the shore to practise

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my top's ment to be light pink, but the rain made it darker!

other things like changing from regulator to snorkel underwater, taking our masks off underwater and clearing them and other stuff, won't bore you with details. After went up, took off all equipment and swam back out to Hana to float for 10mins, she started throwing stuff at me! Fun, back in, took equpiment apart, shattered! Up to the dorm for a quick shower then down for food, tried to nap on the table, didnt work lol. Entertainment tongiht was International Night, had to get into groups of our nationalities and sing our national anthems and a popular song from our country, hadnt a clue what the national anthem was for england, not even the tune!! everyone was belting it out and it was just sat there trying to shrink away from the patriotism!! lol Afterwards went and sat on the beach with Tue, had a little nap on his lap 😊 last night with him in Mana 😞

TUES - Up for a quick breakfast, said goodbye to all the local guys who were going to nadi ont he early boat then out for my last dive 😊 Went back to the supermaret, did a few more skills underwater

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hibiscus

at 12m then had fun, swimming around finding stuff 😊 love it, absolutely and utterly love it! shame its so expensive, things i like to do do seem to be expensive, horse riding, skiing, diving...hmmm. Back to shore, Hana quickly sorted out all my stuff for certification, I am now officially a Padi Scuba Diver :D yay!!!! Quickly ran to my room to get my bag down to go in the boat back to mainland. Sammy, Ravi, Uncle George and Tue sang us a farewell song then byebye pics and hugs :*( Going to miss Mana and everyone on it 😞 Got the boat back to mainland, checked in, dumped stuff, wandered around, ate foodm, bed.

WEDS - Up at 5.45am for the taxi to the airport, ended up having to practically run through the airport for my plane - not good when you're pretty ill - because I couldn't find my ticket for leaving NZ and then they couldn't find me on the data base!! Got it eventually and got on the plane, tried to sleep, couldn't, felt too ill. Shock horror, but I was actually sad going back to NZ, I'll miss Mana so much (people more