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Published: October 18th 2007
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Hoisting the Sail
Just after we left the marina the crew got some of us to help hoist the sails. Although my first journal entry may have given the idea that I was not enjoying myself or was rather underwhelmed by Fiji, in reality, it was just Nadi that I didn't really enjoy. After our one day in the city of walking around and being pestered to "Just come and take a look," Elke and I headed down to the local marina to meet up with the sailing ship that was going to be taking us out to the Yasawas for the next four days. The Yasawas are a beautiful group of Islands that are just off the western coast of the main Fijian island and are really exactly what you would expect to find in a post card for some tropical paradise.
We got our ride down to the marina after dealing with the driver who was 40 minutes late for the pick-up because, hey, everything in Fiji runs on "Fiji time" which is kind of a fun concept to explain any lateness or mistakes that might pop up during any of the activites that you are involved in. Now at first I really liked this idea, because punctuality has not always been my strong suit, but the whole
Hard at work
This was why I had to help get the sails up. Our crew were all about working hard. thing really starts to get to you when your cruise is leaving at 9:00am, and will not come back for you, and you are still sitting in the office a good 15 minute drive from the marina as the clock slowly starts creeping up on 8:40am. Anyway, we got down to the marina with a few minutes to spare although we really didn't need to rush because apparantly the cruise was running on Fiji time as well.
The trip out to the islands was great. It took about 5 hours because we were on a 108ft sailing ship, as opposed to one of the faster power boats, but this was actually quite nice because it was a lot quieter and gave you plenty of time to soak in the gorgeous scenery. We also stopped about half way out to our island, Drawaqa, to do a little snorkeling, which was spectacular, and check out the many schools of brightly coloured fish as well as the coral and bright blue starfish that were as big as my face.
The island we were staying on was not all that big, about 1.5km long and 500m wide at the narrowest point, with
I'm the King of the....
really, really terrible lines. beaches and native huts front the water on both sides of the narrow area, but it was gorgeous. Beautiful white beaches, tons of fruit trees, all the snorkeling I could handle and walking out the door of my hut directly on to the beach. Sent loads of time relaxing, snorkeling, lying in the sun (thus also spending lots of time putting on sunscreen...), and watching as many sunrises and sunsets as I could.
Highlights from the islands:
1: Our accomodation. Everything was perfect and there were only eleven guests on the island while we were there although they do have space for forty so the staff really took care of us.
2: Scuba diving and snorkeling. The wildlife and coral were incredible and really made both activites worthwhile. Most days I was in the water till my hands were wrinkly as dried fruit.
3: Sunrise and Sunset. Because the island had beaches on either side we were able to watch sunrise and sunset every day which was just magnificient.
The islands were great but unfortunately we did have to head back to Nadi after our four day cruise. We were only there for one full
Right to the front
Elke sitting right out at the front of the boat. day with nothing planned so we decided to head to the local tourist information centre and find out what was available on a monday. As it turns out the best available activity was skydiving, which for me was something of a mixed blessing as I really am not all that fond of height, so we signed up for a dive the next day.
Surprisingly, I was not all that nervous that night or the next morning when the company picked us up and brought us out to the offices to sign all the forms that basically said should something go wrong, and I hit the ground at terminal velocity, they really aren't liable...wonderful, gripping small print really. I really only started to get nervous when I was sitting in the smallest plane imaginable (barely enough room for myself, Elke, our two instructors and the pilot) and the door closed for takeoff. We headed up to about 11,000ft for our jump and by this time I was very nervous and was sweating like...like...a canadian guy in Fiji. As we reached our height the door was flung open and I was sitting just in the plane, feet on the landing wheels,
Beach landing
This is the beach that we landed on a Drawaqa island looking down at a whole lot of empty sky....
I was perched there for about 3 seconds, teeth clenched, white knuckle grip on my harness and the strangest sensation of a really, really full bladder, before my instructor gave me the ok and we jumped. The initial fall from the plane was really the worst part, as you pick up speed, but after that things were great . The adrenaline is really pumping and you feel like you are floating as you free fall for about 30 seconds. Then the parachute came out and it was time to enjoy the view.
Quite an exciting last day in Fiji, thanks to the jump, which finished up in a local bar taking with a texan who gave us a ton of great information for thailand.
Fiji was a great experience and I am really looking forward to the next leg of the trip in New Zealand.
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steve
non-member comment
so glad
i'm very glad that you are having loads of fun conor, sit back and enjoy the ride! you're building a lifetime of memories with a great partner!! haha