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Published: September 17th 2007
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Whilst staying at Smuggler's Cove, we were initiated into what they call the Kavaholics. This basically meant that we tried Kava which is a local Fijian speciality made from some sort of root. There was a ceremony of sorts, and as we were 'kava virgins' everyone in the restaurant had to look. Then there was a clapping thing, clap once before then 3 times after drinking it. It tasted a bit like muddy water so we didn't feel the need to go for a second! It is supposedly slightly narcotic, but affects people in different ways. Fi had no effects whatsoever and Jon's toungue went slightly numb so it was nothing too bad! In fact, it shut him up for a bit which was nice. 😊
A day or so later, we left the relative safety (and luxury in hindsight) of Nadi and started our tour of the islands. The first was South Sea Island which was only 25 mins away from the mainland. It is a tiny island at 200m wide and has one building of accomodation (32 bed dorm...only 2 COLD showers!). We managed to walk round the whole thing in 10 mins which gives you some indication
of the size. As it's so close, there are lots of daytrippers, so the activities list was huge, and the food was great - all you can eat BBQ. Unfortunately not all you can drink though we did manage to get a couple of freebies by making friends with the diving instructor!
We decided first of all that we would go snorkeling. Fi has never been a big fan (something to do with waves coming over the top of the snorkel) but it was amazing!! There were so many fish, starfish and different corals only a few metres from the shore. We even managed to attract the attention of a fish who decided to follow us around! After this we attempted to go kayaking. Our great plan was to kayak round the whole island, but this proved to be difficult as the waves grew stronger and the current was stronger than us! So we went halfway round then back the same way...technically the same distance..?? After all the activities the day trippers left only leaving a few of us (10 or so) on the island, plus the staff. Food followed shortly which was again very good. After this the
host ('Dave' - not his real name, we couldn't pronounce that but it means King David or something) introduced us to a drinking game called paralyzer. The next day we just chilled out, had a massage and waited in anticipation of our next island......
The next morning we woke up early to be picked up at 9 to go to the next island 'Kuata'. As we approached it the scenery was breathtaking, huge cliffs and crystal clear waters. We were welcomed with a song by the locals, and shown to our bure (hut). Unfortunately this is where it started to go downhill. Now maybe we are snobs, or just like our home comforts but our bure (or cowshed as Jon named it) was hellish. We've seen dustbins cleaner. There was no light in the bathroom so we had to go with the door open, attractive when you are sharing a room! The lunch was then served, and here was the rice and tinned veg we had heard about...it was pretty disgusting but we had to eat, and it filled our stomachs!
We then strolled down to the beach, the one good thing about the place. By now the
sun was very strong so after a couple hours we retreated to the cowshed. Where we stayed till dinner. This was actually not too bad but they serve you (don't trust us??) so you are lumped with what you are given. We made a sharp exit (the band playing was slightly dodgy) and headed back to the shed to sleep. We then realised it was 8 o' clock! Awful, but by now we hated the place.
Fi had been bitten plenty by something nasty on South Sea, so we were pleased to have a mozzie net over our bed. Until we realised that it didn't actually shut, there was a large gap. We did our best to keep it shut and settled for the night..... Several hours later Jon was awoken with Fi screaming 'there's something on me! Get it off!!!' Jon shone the torch but could not see anything until he felt something crawling up his back....a COCKROACH!!! Ugh. 'King cockroach of Kuata' is what Jon named it, to be honest it was only about 2 inches but big enough! After slaying the bug, we attempted to get back to sleep.
The next morning we heard the
horn sound for breakfast. By now we had got used to their way of thinking as Jon joked 'bet they've cooked all the toast ready for us'....this was true!! So four slices of cold toast later we decided enough was enough. By this time Fi had been bitten so much (by invisible sea mosquitos we later found out!!) that we decided to call it quits. We made the decision to head back to Nadi, as despite the beauty we were miserable. We were so keen to leave that we took the first boat out despite the fact that it would take 7 hours instead of 2 to get back to mainland. This also meant that we got a free boat trip of sorts round the islands, so not all bad.
While this sounds like a horrible waste of money, we were ecstatic to be back with hot showers, less bugs and decent food. Jon later counted Fi's bites and there were.....227!!! This included 26 on her right hand alone! So you can imagine how crazy she was going!
As we realised we now had 10 days left until our flight, we made the decision to head to Oz
8 days early. So we changed our flights, and awaited our Ozzie adventure....first up Brisbane.....
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David
non-member comment
Hey
Omg fi how could u live with that 227 bites ouch!!wat a mess huh??but bet ur still havin a gd time !Jonny 2 settle the peace im glad 2 tell u hopefully becoming a turfs player gt trainin 2mz night(18-09-2007) so all been well ill be a turfman!!loland i'm gna shagaluff hopefully!!speak soon buddy!jon can u just send me an original email so i gt ur email addy??have fun in ur next destination all the best xxxxxxx