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Published: April 29th 2010
I flew to Fiji aboard an Air Pacific flight where I had a great feed of lamb goulash, fruit salad and profiteroles with custard, which was delicious and the best plane food I have ever tasted.
On arrival to Nadi airport there was a couple of men playing guitars and singing, I was met by a Fiji experience representative and given a shell necklace. We were then transported to smugglers cove resort. As part of my tour I had a free nights accommodation there.
I checked in and handed over my voucher, but Fiji experience had forgotten to book me in so smugglers cove gave me a free upgrade which was pretty good as I wasn't paying for the night anyway, I got to stay in the hotel section of the resort in my own private room. I had a T.V., fridge, hairdryer and my own private bathroom! It was great not to be in a dorm.
I had the complimentary breakfast at the hotel and then boarded the Fiji Experience bus. Our first stop was Nadi town where we had a look around the shops and local markets. We then headed to Natadola beach. We spent a
Smugglers Cove
Fire Dancing - Polynesian Nightcouple of hours sunbathing on the beach whilst our driver and guide prepared us a BBQ lunch. We had lamb sausages, chicken and salad which was all really tasty. We then headed to Malomalo village. We had to wear suva's which are sarongs and we were shown around this costal village. We sat in a traditional house that has survived many cyclones since the 1800's when it was built. Our guide then talked to us about different fijian customs and the village. We found out all about fiji's cannabalistic past and how they used to worship the pagan gods which regularly used human sacrifice. Our last stop was the sigatoka sand dunes where we got to sand board down a really steep dune which was very scary but not too bad when you started going down. We arrived at Mango Bay at 6.30pm and went to dinner. I had a traditional fijian meal called Kakoda which was a coconut, lime, chilli, fish soup. Which sounded great and it was tasty except they serve it ice cold which was strange especially with the fish. We had a trivia quiz night, and our team won! For winning we were given a bucket
of cocktail which tasted really fruity. We then had a welcoming kava ceremony. Kava, which is powdered root of the kava plant is mixed with water. We had to clap and drink a coconut shell full. It doesn't taste great and it makes your tongue and throat go numb.
We left Mango bay and went hiking in the Fijian jungle. It wasn't too difficult, but we did have to walk through swamps and rivers that at one point were up to our waists. My converse got trashed which was quite upsetting! We then had a long boat ride back down the river to where our coach was waiting for us.
We drove to Pacific Harbour, the adventure capital of Fiji, and had some lunch. In the afternoon we had a lesson about everything that a coconut tree can be used for. Two of our group got dressed up in traditional fijian warrior costumes which included having their faces painted with charcoal. We spent the last of the afternoon by the pool swimming and improving our tans.
From Pacific Harbour we went to the capital city, Suva and had a quick look around. We then went to a
village school and spent some time with the children who showed us around the different classes. They performed traditional songs and dances. The headteacher then asked us to sing so we did head, shoulders, knees and toes, the all time favourite!
We then went to a village and participated in a traditional cava ceremony with the chief. The taste does not get any better the more you try! We made bracelets which was really therapeutic. Then the chief took us down to the river and we went bilibili rafting which was good fun and we didn't have to paddle which was a nice change from the more active rafting of New Zealand! We spent the night at Volivoli beach.
We had a late departure from Volivoli and didn't have to leave till midday! So we spent the morning around the pool tanning and swimming! We went to an Indian Fijian restaurant in Ba for lunch where we got to make our own roti breads, a lot like chapati's. They were really easy to make and we had them with fish coconut curry which was really good but had a bit of a spicy kick.
We went to
mud pools and hot springs, on our way back to Nadi. The mud was meant to make your skin softer but I don't think mine feels any different. The hot pool was really hot and I could only go in up to my knees. When I got out it had given me red shins.
We got back to Nadi and spent the evening at a 'traditional fijian night' which turned out to be an indian buffet and a fire dancer that had been drinking for 3 days straight and kept dropping his stick!
We spent the next day on the beach, we had a go at husking coconuts and got to try some of the water and flesh which was really good. It rained for the rest of the afternoon so we sat under a thatched umbrella and played cards.
We woke up and it was tipping with rain, not good for tanning! We had to get a bus to the port at 7.15am where we boarded a high speed catamaran that took us to South Sea Island. It is the smallest island of Fiji and takes 2 minutes to walk around. We began the day by
Trekking
Trekking through the Jungle going in a submarine which drove us around the coral reef, there was a lot of marine life but a lot of the coral had been damaged in the recent cyclone.
We had a BBQ lunch, which was really delicious whilst the staff performed traditional fijian 'meke', songs and dances.
We had a watersports afternoon. We took a hobby cat out, which is a small sailing catamaran. Flo said she knew how to sail and realised once we were quite far out that she couldn't remember how to get back in. Luckily though our sail caught a freak wind that took us back into shore. We then took the kayaks out for a bit as they were easier to control.
We had an explosive game of extreme snap, and chatted to a few people on the island. At 5pm we got the boat back to the mainland.
Our last day in Fiji was stormy again, but luckily it was just overcast and only a little rain in the afternoon. We went to the town and market in the morning and then spent the afternoon making coconut shell bracelets and weaving hats from coconut palm leaves.
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