More of Fiji

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4/10

After much panic and the help of a little tablet, we arrive in Brisbane airport, reasonably well I might add. Spending a whole night on the couch however, was not the most pleasant experience. Workmen were working in the terminal all night doing renovations, banging hammers on steel, and cleaners were vacuuming around us, even bumping the couches we were trying to sleep on. Every five minutes, a commentary was broadcast on the nearby television, telling us how great Brisbane airport is.

Landing in Fiji was a bit rough due to turbulence, but I coped quite well. It was wonderful and warm and time to take the shoes off! Aquarius Resort is lovely, perhaps a little smaller than we expected but perfect to us. Unfortunately, we were sharing the resort with a large group of loud adolescent school kids. We had to wait forever to get onto the internet!

5/10

The school kids have gone this morning. – Yay! We are just going to write a couple of emails and then catch the bus into Nadi. The 65 cent bus ride into town was great. No windows, so plenty of fresh air. Nadi is still as pushy as ever and we were conned into a welcome kava ceremony. (Absolutely free, but a lot of pressure to buy extremely expensive souvenirs which you can get cheaper elsewhere.) A native Fijian showed us where the real items were made, and did tell us some interesting facts which he backed up from the Lonely Planets book.

On the way back to the Aquarius, the bus driver took the long way which included taking the bus on the sandy beach to drop off school children. It was a great way to have a scenic tour of the outer suburbs of Nadi. The food at the Aquarius was delicious but this time I won’t bore you with the details. We checked the emails and the kids hadn’t answered yet, but we were 2 ½ hrs ahead of Australian time.

6/10

First thing this morning, we checked the emails again and were relieved to find an answer from Nikki and Shane, so I can relax again! We went out the front to catch the bus into town again. As we were waiting, we met a young couple from England which had been backpacking for a year already. They had spent 6 months working in a French Ski resort, and then traveled to Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and more. Their names were Aymi and Neil. A taxi offered to drive the four of us into town for the same price as the bus fare, (65c) so we accepted. We exchanged Aussie dollars for Fijian dollars so that we would have spending money in the Yasawas.

As it was Saturday, we had the bus timetable wrong because it is different from the week days, so we ended up sharing a taxi back to Aquarius with Aymi and Neil again. We wrote another couple of emails again and then went for a swim in the sea to cool off.

The Aquarius put on a show that night which was fantastic. There was dancing and singing around the pool and the dancers were professional Polynesians. We took lots of photos. We had to pack our bags that night because we were leaving early next morning for the islands.

7/10

We were up at 6.00am so we could have breakfast before the bus took us to Denarau Harbour. Luckily the weather was beautifully calm! The boat we went on first was called Cougar and we stood on the front deck as we went along. We had to stay out there until the boat stops which was fine because our first island was only 30mins away. Bounty Island was beautiful. It looked like a lower budget Castaway Island which was perfect for us. Unfortunately, I was starting to get a cold, but in a beautiful place like this, I can cope!

The fish are huge and colourful and the food was very good. We booked a parasailing flight this afternoon, but we had to take a 25min boat ride to another island called Beachcomer Island. It was a hair-raising trip which was not the most pleasant ride because of the choppy water in a tiny boat. We picked up four other passengers along the way from Treasure Island who also had booked a flight. The first girl had a perfect flight but the second girl ended up in the sea because the boat had a fuel blockage and by the time they had fixed it, we had run out of wind. So we were taken back to bounty on a better and faster boat. This time, I enjoyed the ride.

8/10

Today is Fiji Day. Unfortunately Fiji has just lost the Grand Final Rugby match, and everyone was a lot more subdued than normal. We were meant to be sailing on the ‘Seaspray’ today but with my cold and the hair-raising boat ride from yesterday, I chickened out. All was not lost because we booked another parasailing trip. This time it worked and we had great fun.

We also walked around the whole of Bounty Island and saw the ruins of a film set of an English soapy called Celebrity Love Island. It was severely vandalized in the short time that the filming has stopped and such a waste of a beautiful building and site! Phil took the catamaran out and I went snorkelling. This island is wonderful!

9/10

We got up early again so that we could pack and get organized to move on to the next island resort - Waya Lailai Eco-haven. We caught the white boat ‘Cougar’ again and went out onto the front of the boat for the great view and fresh air for me. Luckily the water was beautifully calm again.

Waya Lailai is a stunning island with beautiful turquoise waters and the resort is set into the side of the hill. It is one of the few resorts that is run and owned by locals! Our bure has a shower and toilet which we didn’t expect – Bonus! We had just enough time for a swim before lunch. The fish and coral are stunning here. We found that most of the English tourists can’t even recognise what they are eating and they keep thinking that the fish was chicken. We now call the fish underwater chicken!

At sunset, we watched the little boat to the island, come in and deliver supplies. It takes 3 hrs from the mainland and we could not believe how much stuff they cram into the little boat including six people as well. Tonight, we are having a Fijian singing and dancing night. It was an informal version of what we saw at The Aquarius. It was hilarious; I don’t know who laughed more, the audience or the Fijians.

10/10

I can’t believe that they have internet here, but only while the generator is running. We wrote another email to the kids. Time for another snorkel. The water is almost too warm in certain areas; I never thought that I would ever say that. While we were having lunch on the balcony, we watched one of the Fijian men with his pet pigeon. It followed him all around the resort and when he calls it, it flies over to him. It was the only pigeon we saw in Fiji so far. The weather was still perfect and I hoped that it would stay that way through our Yasawa leg of our journey.

In the afternoon, we took a guided herbal medicine walk through the grounds of the resort by a man called Nepotai. We were shown all sorts of vines and plants which are useful for healing anything from boils, diahhrea, tummy bugs, to inducing labour in pregnant women. He also made us a refreshing cup of tea made from lemon leaves.

Tonight is Lovo night. The women here are decorating the posts with flowers which not only look great but smell great too! The food was great, all cooked in an underground earth oven of hot rocks. The show they put on this time was a little more formal and we had an official Kava ceremony, where Phil was made chief spokesman because of his grey hair which Fijians respect. The singing was beautiful and entertaining again.

11/10

We didn’t have to get up early this time as the boat didn’t pick us up until 10.30ish. The next Resort was called Sanawai on Yaqeta Island. The trip on the ferry was nice and calm again. The Bures were neat little wooden buildings with a shower and a toilet much to our delight again. We were the only people staying at the resort at the time which was great. The girl who cooks and runs the resort is called Titilia and she sat and talked to us that night and told us about her life and we told her about ours. She is going to take us to her village tomorrow.

12/10

It rained during the night several times, but by the morning, there were only a few clouds in the sky. We had pancakes for breakfast and went for a snorkel. After lunch, we walked to the village which was about 20 mins away. Titilia told us that everyone in the village was related and all aunties’ uncles’ nieces and cousins etc. Everyone was friendly and curious and said Bula as we walked past. We saw the school and the children but they were in lessons so we didn’t want to disturb them.

The school was right next door to a beautiful beach where we saw several men fishing, including several school children who were wagging – which is a common occurrence. The men herd the fish into shore and then throw nets over them, and divide the days catch between the villagers. After walking back, we were soaked in perspiration and we know why every one walks slowly carrying a water bottle. The beautiful resident dog of the resort ‘Angel’, a big white Sheppard came with us wherever we went.

Later that evening, Angel took us to the Summit of the Island (a strenuous 30 min walk through dense jungle and steep hills) for the beautiful view and sunset. We didn’t stay up there too long because we were worried that it was going to be too dark to find our way back to the resort, because the paths were very overgrown and hard enough to find in the daylight. Luckily Angel showed us the way and she waited patiently for us to catch up if she got too far in front. She really was an Angel!!

13/10

We left Yaqeta at about 11.30am which was about half an hour earlier than we needed because the tide was going out rapidly and the boat wouldn’t be able to get us out much longer. We sat on the other side of the island and waited for the Yasawa Flyer. When it finally came into view, our little boat’s engine stalled and we thought that we would miss the boat, but the Fijians always get you there in the end.

The next island was called Nanua Lai Lai and the resort was called Sunrise Lagoon Resort. The bure was fabulous. It had a four poster bed and a real bathroom! There is a four star resort on the other side of the island where they filmed the original movie, ‘Blue Lagoon’. After the 30min walk to get there, we found a huge luxury cruise ship in the lagoon on one side and a very nice resort on the other side. The best part was the walk over there, because the view from the top of the island overlooking all the other islands was magnificent.

At night we were entertained by the famous ‘Queen’ who was a gay Fijian who ran this resort, but who used to work on Turtle Island where you pay $1,500 per night with a minimum 5 night stay. He entertained us with stories about all the stars that had stayed there and he had served.

14/10

Our Anniversary day!

It was Sunday and we decided to go to church with the locals on the neighboring island called Nacula. We were the only white people ho went this time. The clouds were black and there was lightning and thunder. After the boat trip there we walked for quite a while, passing 2 other churches on the way before we got to the Methodist church in the middle of the island.

Once we were inside the church, it started raining, but only for a short while. The singing was beautiful, even the children had strong beautiful voices. After the two hour service, we were taken to a Fijian family’s bure to have lunch with them. The woman’s name was Maca (pronounced Mother).

We all sat on the floor and ate fish boiled in coconut cream, and cooked green bananas, which tasted a little like taro. Phil and I were given the biggest and best pieces of fish and a bowl of coconut soup?? I think. Maca had lots of photos on her walls of the people who had come to visit her and we hope to have ours on the wall as well.

The only income Maca has is to sell her homemade jewellery to Sunday visitors and her husband goes fishing for their dinner. We then found out that the village generator had packed up two months ago and the village hadn’t had power for that whole time. They managed to persuade Phil to come back the next day to look at it before we leave.

15/10

After breakfast, we were taken back to Yanuca Island. Unfortunately, Phil couldn’t fix the generator because it needed a part which had already been ordered but still hadn’t turned up from a month ago, but the villagers were grateful that Phil had a look anyway.

After lunch, we were taken to the Wanna Taki boat where we were to spend the next two nights, moving around the middle islands. We had a curtained area for our cabin, (there were two others) and the rest of the floor was full of bunk beds and a television and couches

The top floor was the bar, dining and kitchen area. The lower floor was made up of showers and toilets, and staff quarters. The clouds here were amazing. In the distance, we could see three mini tornadoes. The one in the middle was a water spout. The captain of the boat loved his fishing, so he anchored the boat over a sand mound which creates water movement which the fish supposedly like.

However, it made the boat rock nauseatingly. The dive master on the boat (Dean – an Aussie) said that this was the roughest he had experienced on this boat. The crew then decided to drop a second anchor and pull the boat around into a calmer position which thankfully worked but not enough for me to eat tea.

16/10

After sleeping fairly well, and having been rocked gently all night, we awoke with a small bang. We looked out of the curtained window and saw a large barge ship about a foot away from our faces. It was 6.00am and the barge was supplying our boat with fuel.

At 7.00am, we went up to the top deck for breakfast. They had a large variety, but I just stuck to pawpaw, bananas and coffee. During the night we had a large amount of rain and the carpet on the upper deck was saturated and a few minor leaks inside the boat aswell. The clouds and rain soon disappeared and we were taken to the beach of the island we were staying next to.

We spent many hours snorkelling and while waiting for the picnic lunch to arrive, we spoke to a couple of Fijians who were looking after the beach and keeping it clean for the future resort owners. They gave us a drink of coconut milk which was badly needed as I didn’t bring water to the island and lunch with drinks was still about 30mins away. After spending time on this island it seemed funny that the island seemed to be rocking a bit!

When we got back onto the boat after a great lunch, we organized a walk to the summit on the island on the other side. Sye was our guide and he was seriously fit so we walked quickly. The view was definitely worth it, it was stunning! Sye picked two coconuts on the walk back to the boat and gave them to us to have on the boat. The Wanna Taki was still rocking but I think that I might be getting my sea legs finally. I did manage to have dinner and a beer. We were exhausted so we went down to watch a DVD while the youngsters played games like musical chairs and crab races etc. They sounded like a herd of elephants and even the light fittings shook. It rained again that night and half of the next day aswell..

17/10

I slept fairly well despite the rocking and managed breakfast. Our next stop was Manta Ray Island which was where we were berthed in front of overnight. The bures were beautiful and this time there was no bathroom in the bure. The toilet block had self composting toilets and had piped music. The shower block was modernly designed and strangely Australian looking! Snorkelling here was also the best in the whole of Fiji so far!

The dinner here was the best so far and this whole resort was set out very well. We liked it so much that we decided to stay an extra night. The Bure had a ceiling fan all night which was heaven! Phil has gone diving, so I took the time to write a couple of emails. By the time he came back I was feeling awful, dizzy and had no energy. Unfortunately I had to spend the rest of the day in bed. I couldn’t eat lunch and Phil brought dinner down to me that night. It was the weirdest feeling, and it doesn’t help knowing that the nearest medical care was 3 hours away by boat on the mainland.

19/10

The next morning wasn’t too bad, I actually managed to walk up the steep hill to the dining room for breakfast – very slowly! Phil went for two more dives while I sat in the hammock in the shade. At 2.30pm, it was time to leave, and as I had missed lunch, I should be ok for the 3 hour boat ride back to Denarau Harbour on the mainland. The funny thing was that when I got on the boat, I felt much better.

We caught a courtesy bus from the wharf to Nadi Bay Hotel which Phil had booked from Manta Ray Island. This hotel was great. They upgraded us to a whole unit for the same price as a room. (Phil’s grey hair was definitely a bonus in Fiji yet again!) I felt much better as long as I took it easy. I had Kokoda – my favourite meal. We dropped our washing off due to lack of time. The next morning, we had a complimentary breakfast which was lovely. We then hired a late model Toyota Corona through Satellite Car Rentals for a week to take us around Viti Levu.

Now that we had transport it was time to go into town to download the photos off our memory sticks because they were full already. My sandal had broken a few days earlier, so we took that in to get fixed, which only cost us $1.00. We still had to go back to the hotel to pick up our washing.

It was now time to move on down the coast. We took the long way so we could see a place called Momi Bay where there was a Bunker left over from WW2 but it was shut by the time we got there. The roads were all dirt so the journey was slow going and we were beginning to wonder if we were on the right road.

We found a wonderful place called Vakaviti which was only a few doors down from The Outrigger Resort. It was a great poolside unit, but unfortunately the weather was stormy and grey. We stayed there so we could go to the resort for a belated anniversary dinner, and to find the Reverend who married us.

The dinner was fabulous and we found the Reverend’s daughter working there and she gave us his phone number and current church that he was working at. Maciuau is a minister of five Reverends and is in the process of trying to establish a church in Sigatoka. At the moment, he uses a Hotel which gets turned into a church for two hours on a Sunday morning.

On Sunday morning, it was the rugby grand final between South Africa and England and no-one went to church because they were watching the game on television. The Reverend was so happy to see us, and we sat and talked to him for about an hour. Some church goers turned up late but he had to turn them away because he could only have the hotel for a certain amount of time. He thanked us many times and said a prayer with us and gave us his email address.

After leaving the Reverend, we went to find the new Sigatoka fire station which had only opened two weeks ago. The fire fighters there were very friendly and invited us inside to have a look. They have the first Fijian woman fire fighter who was a lovely girl. They welcomed us with Kava. The whole station was an Australian funded and designed building – very modern and efficient!

After that visit, it was time for lunch so we went to our favourite café (Le Café) next to The Outrigger and had a great lunch. Time to pack up again and move on toward Suva.

It was raining all the way and we were actually able to turn the air conditioner off because it had cooled down a little. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry and they were overtaking on blind corners. I was surprised not to see any accidents. We booked into a less than average hotel called the Townhouse with mouldy sheets and only one towel. Too late to change now.

22/10

The day’s mission was to find the Australian embassy to see if we could speed up the fixing of the generator on Nacula Island. After going to the Embassy, then to the Fijian Energy Authority, and last but not least, the Ministry of Energy – we found that the generator part was already in Nadi and was waiting to be cleared through customs. The people there didn’t have a contact phone no. for the island, so we would try and leave a message for the island via phone call to the nearest resort.

We then booked into a much better hotel called the Suva Motor Inn, and had lunch in the hotel’s restaurant and went to Colo-i-Suva national park. The weather was overcast and drizzling occasionally – perfect for a long walk!

The path through the park took us about two and a half hours. You can have a guide show you the way or you can go by yourself, we of course opted to go by ourselves. We walked through beautiful rainforest and saw awesome looking waterfalls. Sometimes the tracks were fairly narrow and steep but the waterfalls were all set up so you could go swimming. There were even little change rooms there and steps to get in and out of the water. We would have gladly spent all day there but the park actually closes at night and our car was in the ranger station.

On the way back to the Hotel, we decided that we needed was a 55 cent soft serve ice-cream from Macca’s. Yum! We had tea at the hotel which was delicious and then had an early night. We booked the next nights accommodation at Takalana from the hotel.

23/10

After breakfast, we went into town and had a coffee at The Republic of Cuppaccino, wrote another email, got money out of the ATM and then drove up the east coast towards Takalana. It was a long and slow drive on very wet and potholed roads. We almost got bogged and weren’t sure if we had taken the right road yet again, but sure enough we made it safe and sound.

Takalana was absolutely stunning. The Bure was much bigger than we expected and the service was unbeatable. The food was also fantastic. The woman who did the catering was called Buli and she was the only tiny Fijian woman I had ever seen and she could cook amazing meals and variety. We were told about a very special reef called Moon Reef which we could just see from Takalana. It was a place where dolphins go every day regardless of the weather, because it is always calm. The reef was about 25 mins from the shore.

24/10

The next morning, we were taken out to the reef. We also took two villagers, who we dropped off on the way who were spear fishing while we were seeing the dolphins. These guys had a 2 Litre drink bottle as a marker in the water while they were submersed so we could find them. (Yeah right –kms from shore with choppy waves hiding the bottles – it took us 20 mins of searching to find them) I started wishing that I had taken a Quell. Once inside Moon Reef, the dolphins were amazing. They love the boat moving so they swam with us. It was so calm in the middle of the reef, almost artificial looking. A few of the dolphins even did flips in the air and put on a great show for us.

From Moon Reef, we went on to Shark Reef to do some snorkelling. Unfortunately, the water was very choppy and would you believe it, I actually felt sea sick in the water while snorkelling!! We didn’t see any sharks but the guy in the boat saw one. We went back to pick up the fishermen – after losing them for 20 mins and this was only half of the catch. This would also be shared with the rest of the villagers that night. They also caught a turtle, which they keep and feed to make it grow so they can eat it in a few months, which was actually illegal but who were we to argue, in a tiny boat out in the middle of the ocean? When we got back, Buli had cooked another fabulous meal, which I couldn’t eat because I was still feeling ill.

In the afternoon, we went for a walk to the waterfall which was about 30 mins away. Lennard took us and he was a real character, joking all the way! Phil jumped off a high rock into the rock pool below and swung from a vine, and I slid down the natural rock slide. The water was cool but not freezing and very refreshing. Lennard had no fear and jumped off a very high tree into the water – he climbs like a monkey. He told us that ‘monkey’ was his nickname when he was younger.

That night, we had BBQ fish (caught that day) for tea in the outside fale by lantern light. Jay and two other men sang for us, we couldn’t have wished for anything better! I kept hearing my name in the songs but as they were in Fijian, so we couldn’t understand them.

After a wonderful breakfast, we walked down to Jay’s village which was at the bottom of the hill to see the boat he was building. When we got there, we couldn’t see anyone because the whole village was watching a Polynesian series which they had on DVD on one of the few TV’s in the village. They all get together and watch it in one house.

Jay’s father was the main builder of the boat, and Jay was very proud of it. The village was lovely and tidy and the religion of this village was Assembly of God. We had a drink of coconut milk from the palms in Jay’s fathers garden and then made our way back up the hill

Lunch was fabulous again with heaps of variety. Buli was trying to fill us up before we left .I gave Buli a cookbook which we bought from Nadi Bay Hotel and I noticed Buli reading it the day before. She was very grateful. It was time to leave again and we said our sad farewells and continued on up the east coast on the dirt road.

We traveled very slowly because the road was so rough, but it was beautiful scenery. We were high up so we often had views from all sides. It took many hours to get to Ellington Wharf where we catch a boat to the island Nananu-i-ra. We had to book at the wharf, and as we couldn’t get into the place we stayed 2 years ago, we booked a different place on the other side of the island.

It was called The Safari Lodge. I won’t go into too much detail, bur the Aussie guy who owns the place is a dishonest shark. We were given a mossie ridden hot box next to a noisy generator which couldn’t drive a ceiling fan on top of a steep hill! It was not the photo we were shown of a fully self contained bure near the water. Needless to say we refused to stay and we were assured that we would get our money back – That didn’t happen, and we were told that he has done this heaps of times.

We walked to the other side of the island and booked into a wonderful place called Macdonalds, where we had a large Bure all to ourselves for the same cost. It had a master bedroom, separate bedroom, kitchen, sitting room and bathroom. We went snorkelling and lazed in hammocks all day - Lovely!!

Macdonalds had its own restaurant and the ladies there were great. We had tropical fruit for breakfast and at dinner time a very large Fijian woman sang for us. She had the voice of an angel.

27/10

On the last morning, we left the island with a boat from the other side of the island and Warren (the shark) gave Phil a bogus refund slip which of course didn’t work in Australia!!

We continued driving down the western coast towards Nadi. We stopped in Lautoka for lunch in a nice place called The Chilli Café. Back in Nadi, we booked into a place called Nomads Skylodge which was a very nice Flashpacker resort. We met Dean again at the front desk, he was spending his weekend off on the main land. We had a beer with him at happy hour and he introduced us to his friend Knox who was fantastic singer there. When Dean gets off the Wanna Taki, he always catches up with him.

We went out for dinner on our last night in Fiji to a place called the Bounty Restaurant. It was the first place we had gone to 2 years ago after leaving Castaway Island. They had my favourite Kokoda on the menu – yay! The food was better than it was before.

28/10

We had breakfast by the pool at Nomads and couldn’t believe that we would be back in Brisbane by the evening.

We were not looking forward to sleeping in the airport though!!!

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Photos

Viti Levu
Aquarius pool

Waya Lai Lai
Happy hour at Waya Lai lai

Nacula Island
Village Visit

Wanna Taki
Our floating hotel

Diving at Manta Ray
Coral at Manta Ray

Takalana
Dolphins at Takalana