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Published: August 16th 2008
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Fiji
Okay, so its time to talk about Fiji. As usual I'm a good few weeks behind, infact I left Fiji nearly 6 weeks ago, and after all I've been doing in New Zealand it seems like a lot more longer than that even. Anyway, here we go...
So, after over 5 months in Asia, finishing with a hectic few days in Hong Kong and Macau, it was finally tiem to say goodbye to the "first stop" of my journey and head on to Fiji. After booking the whole thing so long ago and then messing around with my flights I wasnt even sure how long I was due to stay in Fiji. It turned out to be 16 days which, just about all of which were fantastic. The journey over was long, as after waiting in Hong Kong airport for about 5 hours before leaving at 11pm and then having to wait for a further 8 hours in Brisbane airport, (which was a bit weird as I was in Australia a few months before I was due, although not technicaly as I never went through customs) and then another flight to Nadi in Fiji, I fanally arrived at
10pm local time, massively over-tired with no where to stay. I managed to check into a guesthouse, in a dorm room of 10 beds, of which I was the only person, and had the best sleep ever.
The next day I decided to book an island hopping package to travel the Yasawa Islands off the West Coast of teh main Island which is a fairly common backpacker route, and with good reason as I would discover. Dispite an anoying fist couple of days where I had to walk in the roasting heat for 45mins to find a cash point only for HSBC to cancel my card, forcing me to ring them from a pay phone on a main road outside a building site in 30+degree heat to get stressed out and shout at the woman down the phone like a bit of a nutter (Listen - I'm standing, boiling hot in a pay phone on a dusty road in the middle of Fiji and I just want my OWN MONEY...etc) But she sorted it all out in the end and after 3 nights on the main Island I headed on to my trip.
Over the next 12 days
I stayed on 5 different Islands (and spent a night on a boat where I got massively attacked by bedbugs which is not that pleasant at all), each of which were amazing in there own different way. All different tropical paradises with various activites to do and loads of time to chill out on the beautiful beaches.
The first Island I stayed on was South Sea Island which was so small you could walk round the whole thing in less than 5 minutes, it was barely more than a bit of sand in the Ocean with a couple of trees and a building on there. My next stop was Kuata Island, which was the best place I went to in teh whole of Fiji. There I snorkeled with Sharks (While the Fijian guys dived down to feed then and then grabbed onto their fins as they tried to swim away), walked up to the top of the island for some amazing views (see the pics) and spent an evening drinking Cava, (which is the local traditional drink made from a plant root and very important over there) with and English guy and girl and about 20 local people from
Crab Race
Exactly what it sounds like the village, including the chief, who had all come out to drink with us as we had brought the roots. We just sat round for hours as they all chatted and sang all these awesome songs. Seriously - it was amazing!
From then on I went to a couple more Islands (Korovou and Coral View) which were again both really nice and so beautiful, so I had plenty more swimming and sunbathing. In Korovou they switch all the power off around 11pm so there is no light at all. One night it was so clear I went down to the beach to watch the stars which was one of the most incredible things I have seen in my entire time away. The Milky way was so clear across the sky I could just see thousands on thousands of stars, with shooting stars appearing every few minutes or so too. As I was sitting there I realised it would be about midday back in England and it was so weird just lying there in the dark, listening to my music thinking about everyone at home at that exact moment, buzzing round at work or getting lunch or whatever, while I
was here watching the stars about as relaxed as its possible to be. It was a really strange feeling and although it sounds a bit lame as I type it out now, at the time it was pretty moving. It made me a bit sad thinking about everyone but also reminded me how happy I was to be away in a place like this!
Anyway, moving away from that hippy paragraph, after a night on board a small cruise ship which (dispite the aforementioned bed bugs) was great, jumping off the top deck and swimming around, I spent my final two night on the island of Beachcomber. Its a bit more of a party island as far as Fiji is concerned which to be honsest isnt saying that much, but I met a some Ozzie girls there from Melbourne and we had a good couple of days playing cards and drinking Fijian beer so it was a pretty cool way to end the trip.
I spent one last night on the mainland before I had back over to the Airport to head on to Auckland to start my New Zealand adventure and remember what cold weather was like.
Anyway, I loved my two weeks in Fiji and could easily have stayed longer, I think this blog has roughly covered my time there and the best things about it; I.E. the local people and their chilled out life style along with the beautiful beaches and weather. I definatley hope to go back some day.
Okay, so now I have caught up to New Zealand, where I am now, although I still have loads to catch up on so as always watch this space, as always thanks for reading, as always I hope you're all good and as always, speak soon!
Andy 😊
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