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Published: February 8th 2015
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Bula, still here and not wanting to leave. Yesterday we did a bit of island hoping, such a brilliant day. It was a 2 hour journey to the port to catch the boats to the islands. We decided to do the Mamanuca Islands on a yacht. We had to catch a catermaran to the yacht which took an hour and a half. The scenery was magnificent, took you're breath away, there were islands everywhere, some people hopped off as people chose different islands to visit. We transferred onto the yacht with various other people, only to be greeted with champayne, flippin heck, loving this already. We were introduced to the crew who were a real friendly bunch and proceeded to wait on us hand and foot, they then started playing guitars and singing as we sailed out to Mondriki. Now Mondriki, if you haven't already guessed is the island where Tom Hanks filmed 'Cast Away'. Meanwhile the crew said it was an endless free open bar, so I watched Stu as he was 'necking' beer down him like nobody's business!! I knew he was on the way, when his said he had to do 40 lengths in the South Pacific ocean
and promptly produced his swimming googles from his pocket !!! We then hopped off onto the island, did some snorkelling which was pretty amazing, just to see all the different fishes and coral was incredible. The water was like a warm bath and so clear and turquoise Bluey/green. After we snorkelled, drew some 'wilson's' and a ball in the sand, we looked a bit sad actually as no one was doing it ! Then watched Eilei, one of the crew, climb a coconut tree and throw down a coconut. With that the heavens opened up and it poured, but it was a nice rain as it was so hot and humid. Onto the boat we got to a lovely lunch, a bbq, more drink, chatted to some young Americans who were on placements in Australia for 6 months, they couldn't believe their luck they were doing that, met an English chap from Cornwall, said his company didn't have any more work for him but could transfer him to Sydney, that was 4 years ago, said he was never going back to the UK to live again. Infact met a load of people, all with their different stories, everyone really friendly
and happy, mind you that may have been the alcohol !!
We then went onto another island called Yanuya, people lived here, they had a boarding school which had 10 teachers and 142 children. These children came from different islands and would arrive Sunday afternoon and leave again Friday after school. Some of them were there and sang some songs to us, they were really cute. We were then taken to the Chief's hut to drink 'Kava', which was a ceremony we had to do. We had to cover up with skirts or sarongs and the men were not allowed to have sunglasses on their heads or hats on as it was disrespectful. We then sat with Chief and he passed the Kava drink around, it was pretty disgusting but all the same when in Rome do what the Romans do. We each had to clap once, say Bula ( they just love that word) then drink the kava, then clap 3 times and thank the chief. The traditional drink, looked and tasted like 'dish water', awful and it left you're mouth numb for about 15 - 20 minutes, God knows what it does to you're insides !!
Well the day came to an end, it went too fast, the islands are quite some distance apart, well the ones that are inhabited, quite a few have resorts on where you can go for lunch and do water sports, others just cater for back packers, we were taken to Mana island after a sing off from the crew where we waited for the catermaran to take us back to the port. Everyone was in a good mood, the sun was shining, everyone chit chatting like we've known each other forever, loved every minute of it.
The Fijians are lovely people, always wanting to please, always have a big smile on their faces, they refer to you by you're first names and remember. I'm ashamed to say, I don't remember their names.
We got back quite late last night, slept in late, got up today had brekki where I sauntered off for a massage. Do you know what, life couldn't get better than this !! This is heaven.
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Denise
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OMG what a fantastic time your having. That trip sounds amazing! Love the pictures Karol. Tell Stu unable to send cash there's another pair of boots I need sorry!! Keep blogging........ Xxxx