Fiji

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Well, I'm in Auckland now, left Fiji behind me after two weeks 😞. Fiji started off well... on the first day i was walking along the beach and a Fijian guy callled me over, i thought he was going to tell me off for some reason, but he just handed me a beer 😊. After this i travelled out to a hostel calll Beachouse on the main island. It was so nice here, the facilities must have been almost 4 star and i was only paying the equivelant of 11GBP per night, and it was only 1.50GBP for a pint 😊 fun times. I did lots of activities while i was here including a trek through the rainforest to a waterfall which we climbed up and sat under, unfortunately it was raining that day, and the next two days after, but at least it was still hot. I also went horse riding with one of the locals and went snorkelling, swimming and fishing. One night i tryed Kava, the local tribal drink, this acts as a sedative, which is quite a strange feeling. First it makes your tongue and mouth go numb and then you just become really really relaxed, which may explain the Fijian culture. The staff here were amazing, they all remembered your name as soon as you'd met them and always said hi. I met loads of other really cool people here which was nice. With a few of these people i travelled back to the main town (although not the capital) Nadi.
The next day i had to be up early to catch a boat to the Yasawa chain of islands. These island vary from purely party island to, really basic resorts where you are almost living in one of the locals houses. I went to an resort called White Sandy Beach first, as you may have guessed the beach was amazing here and my dorm was literally on the beach. It was a family run, very basic resort, no hot water, like most of the islands, and only had electricity from 1800-0000. The staff here were also sooo friendly, when we arrived we were greeted by them singing to us and were given, freshly picked coconuts with a straw in them which was really nice. Got to know the people here really well and diddnt want to leave.
Next i went to Coral view resort. It was much bigger here and more staff, so on Fiji terms seemed almost impersonal, but would just be normal compared to any other resort, it was a bit to touristy for me i think. Met a big group of people on a tour here so that was fun, especially as the bar closed when the last person left, plenty of time for drinking games. In the morning I went to some caves, one of which you had to swim underwater to get to. In the afternoon me and another guy kayaked across to the opposite island and then went snorkelling on the way back, the coral was so brightly coloured, it was amazing!
Next i went to Nabua Lodge for a night, this was another really small basic resort and the people here were lovely as well. I went on a tour of the local village and got to see the chiefs house, unfortunately he had gone to the mainland for the day so i didnt get to meet him. Only stayed here for a night, but had a dorm, which was a traditional Fijian house to myself which was nice.
The final island i went to was Waya Lailai, I really liked this resort because it was fairly big but it was also run by a family and so really friendly. The resort was built into the hill with 3 different levels to it which was really cool. The day after i arrived i kayaked round to the other side of the opposite island, and saw where they filmed the rocky scenes of the Castaway film. On the way back the wind picked up so it was about force 4 which was pretty interesting kayaking against, especially with the waves. When i was going into the beach I tryed surfing a wave in, but wasn't quite square and ended up capsizing on the reef. I got a pretty good war wound from this on my back, where i got grated by the coral, and my feet got a few small cuts, but i was ok.
The next day i went back to the mainland and flew out the next day. 😞 I will miss Fiji very much, especially 'Fiji time' which is the slow time that Fijians seem to live on.
Sorry about the essay, i'll try and do another one sooner so its not so long.

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