Fi in Fiji

---

So this is Fiji...not a bad place to stop for a few months. I'm in week 3 now and really enjoying myself. I've met lots of people at Homestay, where I'm living, mostly kiwis which is a worry, but they're lovely all the same :-)

I won't write much here, because I've put descriptions in the pictures. But basically I've been keeping busy, when I'm not at work I'm out having dinner or drinks somewhere and weekends I try to get out of Suva, which makes coming back to work more bearable.

---

Photos

View from my balcony
I'm in my new room now and it has a lovely balcony and view.

My new room @ Homestay
It's very comfortable, with a lil kitchen & great balcony.

Homestay room
My balcony...perfect for relaxing after work with a glass of wine :-)

Fijian Cultural Village river tour
A friend from Homestay, Jane, and I spent a weekend at a backpackers near the beach. The accomodation was part of a cultural village complex. It gave an insight to olden day Fiji.

Priest of the village
During the river tour we saw different aspects of what village life would be like. This was the priest, identified by the big mother of pearl necklace...i was a bit jealous of it!

Fijian Dancers
They were very engergic, good fun to watch.

Fijian dancers at the cultural village show
The cultural show was really fun, they had firewalkers, dancers and just general 'life' in a village. At one point the village boys were going to have a competition of who could open cococuts the quickest. They decided the prize would be Jane and I and were making a few gestures about 'coconuts'...hmmm...questionable behaviour. I looked around the crowd at this point and realised we were the only young girls there, prime target for their attention obviously.

Firewalkers preparing the stones
As part of their many rituals they had to prepare the stones by turning and poking and stuff

Firewalkers
They had a whole ritual around the firewalking (including no female contact for 2 weeks before walking!). They had the fire built, then placed the rocks on the hot coals and heated them, then turned them, and bunch of other rituals.

Chiefs House
The village was all man made for tourists, but it was fun seeing what things used to look like. This was the Chiefs house.

Morning walk on the beach
This is my kiwi friend Jane. She's staying in the apt above mine at Homestay.

Lovely blue sky
We had the beach all to ourselves on our walk and it was lovely. But looks can be deceiving, standing the one spot this is the view I had when facing South, but if I turned around....

Not so picture perfect
Looks can be deceiving! Makes you wonder about all those glossy advertisements you see...maybe they just happenend to be facing the right way. I've gotten used to overcast days, Suva gets a lot of rain, so although it might be warm it isn't always clear blue skies unfortunately.

Pacific Harbour
I'm guessing this is why they have named the area 'Pacific Harbour', cause there wasn't much else that looked like a harbour! This was where I got the boat to go diving a few weeks ago. Our accomodation was about 15 minutes up the road, we passed this on our morning walk.

Tsulu backpackers
This is around the grounds of the backbackers and cultural village. It was really pretty and they did really well in making things look 'authentic'.

Luxury backpackers
I never knew there was such a thing as luxury backpackers, but apparently there is!

Lillies
It was just pretty...had to take a photo

Waterfall room
Our room was in a an apartment called Waterfall. There were about 4-5 rooms in each apartment which shared a common lounge area, bathroom & kitchen. We had bunks in our room and could lock it when we left. Pretty good set-up for a cheap option.

Waterfall motives
All the walls in our room & the common areas were painted in various waterfalls. It was kinda cool, gave it a bit of life.

Waterfall loungeroom
I saw the apartment next to ours was called 'Sunset' so I'm guessing they had sunset's all through the rooms.

The pool @ Tsulu backpackers
This was such a cool pool, it actually had sand all around it. There was a hot tub up the back and a pool bar and had top 40 music playing the whole time. At night they lit lanterns around the pool. I really like it :-)

Comments

[Liz Webster]

How can I get your job!!
Photos look great, you win, beats the island of Cyprus any day. Enjoy. Love Mum

[Jeanette Abbey]

Too Good
I want your job too!!!! It looks and sounds awesome, I'd love to be snorkelling off the beach in that clear blue water. (I need a holiday). Hope your not missing Canberra's winter! cheers Jeanette

[jaci]

homestay question!
Hi! yYour homestay looked great. do you haev any inoformaation about that place? would love to do the same when i go in July. thanks heaps, please reply to [e-mail] thanks! Jaci