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Published: August 7th 2007
Afternoon everyone. Sorry about the delay in blogging but we have been on Fiji time. 1 day kind of melted into 12 as we relaxed. And relaxed. And lazed...
Fiji is a wonderful place. From the moment we landed we were told constantly that everything was on Fiji time and that we needed to slow down. So we did. We spent our first 9 days island hopping through the Yasawa and Mamanuca islands and then our last few days around Nadi with a bit of diving and sight seeing.
So then, back to the beginning. We loaded our bags onto the Yasawa Flyer boat (a big catamaran full of backpackers) and set off. We headed to the far end of the Yasawas to Tavewa to begin our hopping at Coral View Resort.
We turned up at Coral View just in time for lunch and a shouted Bula greeting from all the staff. We dropped our bags off at our waterfront hut and then made our way for some lunch. The afternoon was fully taken up with lazing in a hammock, taking the occasional dip in the sea and sipping Fiji Bitter.
The beer in Fiji is kind
of what you would expect - a little limited. Only 3 varieties and all brewed under license from Fosters. They're all lagers, all 4.6% so as you can imagine there isn't much between them apart from different coloured cans. All tasty though so they have kept me going on these sun-kissed islands. The choice however is made easier due to the advertising slogans. Fiji Bitter is labled 'The Sportsman's beer' - naturally this was my beer of choice for the duration.
Our second day at Coral View was a momentous occasion. My 28th birthday. A beautiful day cut off from civilisation on a distant Fijian island. We spent the morning at the Blue Lagoon (Brooke Shields film - your mother will know it). Mrs Deane thought that it was a blue movie but turns out it was some romantic schmalz from a few years back. An excellent spot for a little snorkelling though and we managed to while away the whole morning there working on our tans (off-white in my case) and taking dips in the sea.
My birthday afternoon was also busy with more lounging, some occassional swimming and snorkelling and a slice of birthday cake in
the afternoon. Very peaceful. About half four I managed to rouse myself for a little beach volleyball. I'm not the best at it but I'm working on it. In the evening we had a little dinner before all the staff (at Mrs Deane's request) sang me happy birthday. I got a kiss from all the female staff as well. We sat up chatting and enjoying the odd glass of wine (or was it the odd bottle) until about midnight before heading back to the hut.
Not a bad birthday by any stretch of the imagination but definitely the strangest I've ever had. If you had told me I would spend the day chilling in the sunshine about the furthest you can get from the UK whilst reading Dostoyevsky's Crime And Punishment I don't think I would have believed you.
In the morning we checked out, grabbed our bag, got a little boat to a big boat and back on to another little boat to make our way about one mile away to our next island - Nanuya LaiLai and the Gold Coast resort. This was definitely getting back to nature. No electricity in the huts and the generator
for the kitchen room shut down at 10pm. We lived by lantern light for the whole time we were there. The place had a hostess - a lovely lady by the name of Debra (it could have been Douglas). She was great though and organised a few trips out for us.
After spending the first day chilling out (and enjoying 2 lunches courtesy of a slight timing thing) we set out on the next morning for a trip to some caves. Cool trip of about 45 minutes north got us to these caves. Once there you don snorkel kit and dive in to the pool in the cave. You then get to swim through an underwater passage to the next part of the cave and swim through a few tunnelly bits. Good fun.
Back at the resort we spent the afternoon with the spear fisherman who was catching our dinner. The idea was that we snorkelled on the surface and followed him around and watched him spear fish. Soooo tiring. Took 90 minutes to catch the first part of dinner and we were shattered. We made the decision to rest in the boat while he spent over another
hour catching a couple more fish. At least we didn't go hungry.
On our last morning we went with a few other Brits (there were only 5 people at the resort first night and this had swelled to 12 for the second) over to another island for a trip to a little village. This is where I donned my fetching, metrosexual sarong or Suri. This is purely to show respect to the villagers and not a new fashion movement for the Deane meister. Only inhabited by 100; we managed to see some of the kids running around, meet the chief, buy some trinkets and get stuck into the Kava.
Kava is strange stuff. Made by mixing water with the ground root of a pepper-type tree it is a bit of an institution in Fiji. Looks and tastes a little like dishwater and it is supposed to be a very mild narcotic. It kind of makes your tongue go a bit tizzy but nothing more than that. Lots of clapping and other ceremonial bits go with the Kava drinking as well.
Back at the resort it was time to move on again. Grab a bag, a big hearty
send off from Debra and it was little boat, big boat, little boat time again before we landed at Manta Ray resort on Nanuya Baluva Island. Beautiful. Nothing more needs to be said. We only had 24 hours here but the food was great, our hut superb and we had a whale of a time. In the evening I moved from being a poor volleyball player to a just below average player. A superb improvement. In the evening we had a very nice (and big) tea and then drank Fiji beers with a couple English guys until we had a pyramid.
In the morning I made Mrs Deane a coconut bracelet (involved sourcing a coconut, de-husking it, sawing a little (including my finger), sandpapering a bit and getting rid of the mush in the middle). We snorkelled quite a bit as the water was even more amazing than some of the other islands and we took a kayak out to the next island along for a mooch around. Top notch place.
Our penultimate stop (following the little boat, big boat, little boat thing again) was Kuata Eco resort. Not too much to write about. Not because it was
a bad place but because we completely chilled. We read a lot, hammocked, swam, snorkelled, Kava'ed and that was about it for two whole days. Not a bad place to do it either as it had a great beach and lovely views.
Final stop on our island hopping was Bounty Island. I had been looking forward to this one ever since I heard that it was the location for Celebrity Love Island. I know Linz & Sara would have loved to be here. There was no Calum, Fran or Dangerous Danan but there was the derelict remains of the love shack and set-up from the filming.
The island itself was stunning. Took a grand total of 25 minutes to completely walk round, food was top notch and the beach hut we had was our best yet - check out the photo. It even had hot water, something we had not had since New Zealand. We spent the evening chatting to some Norwegians and a Dane and playing little party games. Managed to win a couple of shell trinkets before calling it a night. We had the rest of the following day to explore the island, check out the
ramshackle love island set, swim and read. And we did all these activities with aplomb.
We landed back on the mainland in the early evening and headed back to the Traveler's Beach hostel. Out of the blue we bumped into Tom and Helen who we met on our Whitsundays Trip. Bit of a bizarre coincidence but we just chatted the night away and had some food and dinner.
With a couple days to kill before the US we spent the first one having a look round Nadi town. Very bizarre place - felt like we were properly backpacking again after the safe, clean environments of Oz & NZ. Bought myself a beer t-shirt (the sportsman's beer of course), some postcards and took in the sights of the market. Also enjoyed some very nice curries for hardly any money. Excellent stuff. We chilled for the rest of the evening with a little wine and some dinner.
Yesterday was our diving day. We took off in the morning with Ed, Mike & Randy for a little diving off the Mamanuca Islands. The first dive was really tough as the current changed on us but it was still nice. It
brought up the half century of dives for the combined Deane tally.
The second dive was beauitiful though, like a pretty underwater garden. Saw my first moray eel, a couple sharks (white tips) and a very graceful turtle swam right past us. Loads and loads of other fish too.
As for today? We've got a time travel flight tonight (landing nearly 10 hours before we leave) so we've been chilling out and organising a few things ready for the US. Tea for tonight is Fijian McD's. Another country notched.
Time for me to go. Take care everyone - only a few weeks left for us. Don't feel too sorry for us.
Deane & Mrs Deane
P.S. Thanks in advance for all the birthday presents awaiting me on my return
P.P.S. Technically we've already arrived in LA. Weird stuff this time travelling
Beer 151: QF Lager, New Zealand, Draught, ?%, 5.0, Rubbish beer
Beer 152: Father Ted's Draught, New Zealand, Draught, ?%, 7.0, not too bad home brew in an Irish pub
Beer 153: Pucks Pixil(L)ation, New Zealand, Draught, 11.1%, 7.5, A very unusual beer from the Shakespeare Pub with a really
Beer 154: Fiji Bitter Export, Fiji, Can, 4.6%, 7.5, not a bad beer for a small country.
Beer 155: Fiji Gold, Fiji, Can, 4.6%, 7.5, remarkably similar to above (just fewer calories)
Beer 156: Fiji Bitter, Fiji, Can, 4.6%, 7.5, remarkably similar to above but targeted at sportsmen like myself
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Mr and Mrs Reid
non-member comment
Another day in ... Sydney
Dear both, G'day from a cold and wet Sydney - you may be surprised to hear it but the weather you had when you were here was better than at the moment - we are sleeping with two duvets and have invested in a beautiful heater, which we lovingly call Harry - but enough about our sleeping arrangements! Sounds like your having a fantastic time on your continued journey (I looked at the pictures and James read the words and then summarised!) and I have now decided that Fiji needs to go on our list of places to visit - it looks beautiful. Glad to know that you are keeping up with the McDonalds and beer as you travel around the world, are the Big Mac's the same in every country, are the rumours true?! Anyway, enough of my ramblings - keep up the good work, and happy travelling. Looking forward to hearing about your next installment from my avid reader husband, Lots of Love and big hugs, Lesley (and James) xxx