Fiji

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We managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 8.45am this morning. It made me realise how much I’d been enjoying going to bed early and getting up early as this felt really late - it was like we‘d wasted half a morning.

We grabbed some breakfast and then decided to head over the hill to the bay on the other side of the island. It was up some steep steps, and then down a steep dirt track on the other side. On the way we met a few villagers who welcomed us with a cheery Bula. One guy stopped and introduced himself and shook our hands. I asked to check if we could go down to the bay and he seemed genuinely pleased that I’d asked (as much of the island isn’t accessible as it belongs to the village) and showed us where to go. We had to walk past some pig pens and then we came around from the trees onto a beautiful, deserted beach. The view was just amazing as the bay had a backdrop of beautiful mountains covered with greenery, and lots of palm trees leaning inwards towards the sun. The water was crystal clear and had green grass growing along the sea bed which gave the sea a patchy appearance.

We paddled in the water but decided not to snorkel as the tide looked too low. The water here was completely still - not like on the other side of the island at all.

I looked up and saw a pig and a trail of tiny piglets walk into the water to cool off further up the beach. We walked around from the beach back to the water. It felt too hot to lay in the sun there, but we also weren’t going to swim either so we just hung around paddling and enjoying the view. Another group of pigs came down to the water with lots more piglets.

Walking back over the hill was much easier than the walk there and we made it back to the beach just in time for lunch. Perfect timing.

In the afternoon we both had a massage in a little hut on the beach. It only cost about £13 each and lasted for a whole hour. Matt hadn’t been sure whether to have one or not as he is seriously ticklish and didn’t think he could stand someone touching his knees or feet, but he decided seeing as it was so cheap to give it a go. Our hut was open to the front giving us views out across the water, although we didn’t get to enjoy that view as we were laid face down on massage beds next to each other. Through the hole in the massage table we could each see a big bowl of water with large floating pink flowers in it. It wasn’t quite the same view as when I had my massage at the Intercontinental in Bora but it was actually just as nice. I could have stayed there all afternoon and it was well worth the money.

Afterwards we decided to go snorkelling for the last time at this resort. We saw some amazing fish again and took lots of pictures. At one point I was floating around a couple of hundred fish in different schoals around me - it was awesome. It’s going to be so strange going back to normal life and not seeing these views every day as it’s become part of our daily lives here.

We had a quick half hour on the internet to try to get some of our flight problems sorted out, and to catch up on the gossip back home, before heading back to our bure to pack. As always Matt started off the packing by stating that there was no way it was all going to fit, but as always, it did.

We weren’t really hungry but headed over to the bar for the seafood bbq buffet anyway. Paying for a food package is good in some ways as it can be good value but it also means you feel obliged to eat even when you don’t want to as you’ve already paid for it!

We were the last to arrive and they were just starting to pack up the salads, but there was still plenty left. After a meal sitting on the deck overlooking the sand we headed over to the pool area. Chris, the owner, had just announced that the movie being shown on the big screen was a pirate copy of the new Batman film, and although we’d already seen it in LA we thought it would be fun laying on the large day bed that ran the length of the pool to watch it in the open air.

The movie was great and I kept looking up at the sky trying to come to terms with the fact that I was laying on a day bed with twenty other guests watching a movie in the dark on a Fijian island. This is the best place to watch a film - who needs surround sound and dolby! They even brought pop corn around for everyone!

The movie finished around 11pm and we headed back to our bure. Most guests had gone to bed ages ago and only a hardcore few had managed to stay for the full three hour film.

We walked into our bure chatting, having really enjoyed our last night at Octopus and thinking about how much we were going to miss the place when we move on as it has really grown on us the longer we’ve been there. Then I saw it. On the curtain.

It was the biggest spider I had ever seen. I shouted Matt to turn around. We both swore. My heart was beating so fast I could almost hear it. Instinctively I tried to think about what we could use to catch it, but then I realised that there was no way I was going anywhere near to it and Matt didn’t look any braver than me. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was the size of my hand with the fingers stretched out into a fan. There was no way it would fit into a pint glass - it was double the size of that. Matt confirmed that he wasn’t going to go near it, even though he is usually ok at getting rid of the biggest spiders back home. We also both admitted there was no way we were going to share our room with that overnight. There was only one thing for it, I had to head to the bar and ask if someone could come and get rid of it. I’d previously read in the arrival book that the staff would be happy to come and get rid of any creatures that found their way into the rooms, so I didn’t feel too silly.

As it was night time and the staff were leaving it just left the resort security man who was from the local village. I told him about the spider and he smiled and said he’d be right there. We walked back terrified that it might have moved as if he couldn’t find it we didn’t think we’d be able to go to bed knowing it was somewhere in there with us. Luckily it was still sitting on the curtain where we’d left it. Matt got the camera out to take some shots and he wanted to put something else in the shot to show the scale of it but I was worried he’d scare it into running away, so he had to be content with taking the photos from a distance. A minute later the security man turned up, took one look at it and used his woolly hat to grab it off the curtains into his hand. I was sad that he’d squashed it but so relieved that it was gone. I thanked him about three times as he walked off before we crawled into our bed, safely underneath our mosquito net.

Then it dawned on us. There was a net over our beds yet of all the places we’ve visited this one had the least number of mosquitos so we’d wondered why it was there. Now we know. As the roof of the bures is traditional thatch all kinds of things live up there - geckos, spiders, lizards, cockroaches - and they can easily lose their footing and drop off (did I mention that in Bora a massive cockroach fell from the ceiling while I sat on the bed one day and landed right down my top?!!! Luckily it was daytime - if that had happened at night I don‘t know what I‘d have done!)

Getting to sleep wasn’t easy after that.

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