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Published: February 8th 2009
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After much worry due to the major flooding of Fiji, we arrived on an early morning flight to extreme heat & humidity and were welcomed at the airport by a group of Fijians singing & playing the guitar. Taking a taxi through Nadi on our way to Denerau Marina, our driver informed us the area we were driving through 2 weeks ago had been severely affected with houses only showing the tin roofs. The driver was passionately sad & angry - his house was still half underwater with his family and children evacuated elsewhere. He lost all his possessions and was losing more and more money due to the lack of tourism due to the floods. The clean up operation had already started around a week before we arrived and despite all the devastation of the floods, the fijian people were so welcoming & friendly. We soon adapted to what is known in Fiji as 'Fiji Time' - which basically means life is relaxed, clocks barely exist and things get done when they are done!
To start our island tour we caught the Yasawa Flyer for 5 hours to the top of the Yasawa group of islands (most northern islands
in Fiji) and met our first travelling friend - Lennart from Holland. Sitting on the top deck, the sea breezes were deceiving and we both were painfully sun burnt for the next few days! The first island we visited was Tavewa where we stayed at the Coral View Resort and had our first dorm stay and backpacker experience! Arriving at the island, we were greeted with Fijian singing and a big BULA! (Fijian for Hello/Welcome!) Sunbathing and relaxing during the day, we then followed in the evening learning the Bula dance & listening to live Fijian music while it heavily rained outside. Over the next few days we made friends with Jamie & Tracey, Mel & Luis, Ben, Lennart, Lars, Will & Debbie. Enjoying our first night in a ‘dorm’ Kev was woken in the middle of the night by Holly desperate for the toilet but too scared by the extreme darkness outside! We both ventured to the toilet only to be stopped halfway by the most amazing of skies - everywhere was pitch black, and the sky was illuminated by thousands of stars and constellations.
An early rise the next morning we headed on an excursion to the
Sawaliau Caves - underwater caves and caverns set on an amazing beach where Fijian forefathers believed their God resided. The caves were fresh water and we had to swim under water for 2-3 metres to reach the other side - more caves in the pitch black. After swimming around following the light of the guide’s torch we returned to the original caves to catch some locals joined by the third biggest Romanian rock band jumping from heights into the pool of the first cave! A few eels were seen swimming around and we weren’t too disappointed to find out it was time to head back to our resort for lunch! On the way back in the boat, Holly was squirted everywhere by what seemed to be boat petrol/oil, and which the Argentineans believed to be bird poo, but what was actually a school of squid that got caught in the propellers! We quickly used seawater to get rid of the ink! After lunch we investigated and visited the beach on the other side of the island, where Kev stumbled across an unopened coconut and remained on the beach for at least an hour trying to remove the main body from
its shell - with success! The evening entertainment consisted of crab racing, after which we headed to our friends bure/patio for some evening drinks/laughter and silly camera pictures!
At lunch the next day we departed the island not before hearing the first of many performances of the Fijian farewell song ‘Isaley’. We left Coral View and boarded two boats to take us to the Wana Taki live-aboard cruise. Somehow Kevs bag managed to get lost, holding up the connecting boats, we soon realised it was taken back to our original resort and was reunited with it the next day. The thought the bag could be anywhere in the pacific was not a great way to start our first few days travelling, but the next day the worry was over! In the afternoon we jumped off the top deck into the sea and went snorkelling looking for reef sharks, we only saw a few sea cucumbers and heaps of fish, it started raining heavily while snorkelling and the contrast between tranquillity underwater and craziness of the rain above was amazing. In the evening we had a relaxed dinner, being very fortunate that there were only 7 of us staying on
a boat that easily sleeps around 30 people. Late evening we did some line fishing off the back of the Wana Taki boat, where Kev caught a fish! After hearing that someone jumped in at night a year or so ago to be met by a barracuda biting his lower leg/knee cap - we didn’t think that dangling our legs over the edge was such a great idea any more!
In the afternoon we transferred to the island Wayasewa (known also as Little Waya) and stayed at the Waya Lailai resort. The resort looked similar to a setting from the series ‘Lost’ with stunning landscape & scenery. That night we stayed in our first thatched bure, walking in for the first time we spotted a huge spider on the door which had to be removed by a local! Insects then started dropping from the ceiling including massive centipedes and a small lizard that bit Kevs finger as he tried to take a picture. After finding a further two gigantic hairy spiders on the walls needless to say none of us slept that night - but we had a great time coming up with alternative endings to the ‘Isaley’ song
and trying to build temporary tents over our heads laughing into the early hours. Luis ended up sleeping with a huge plastic laundry basket over his head!!
Despite the lack of sleep, Kev decided on a 4:30am rise to go on the sunrise summit walk to the top of the island. Pitch black, a group of 8 trekked to the top guided only by torchlight, the views from the top of the mountain were amazing as the sun rose, but the walk was so physically demanding. Holly later woke to see gangly legs crawling across her face - yet another not so incy wincey spider! Later in the afternoon we went snorkelling where we swam with around 5-6 white tip reef sharks at around 2 metres each. The Fijian guys fed them off a long rod and they were flipping about all around us fighting for the food. Later that day, Holly joined the backpackers on the beach for a few games of volleyball while Kev chilled in a hammock overlooking the ocean. That night we had our first taste of the traditional Fijian drink ‘Kava’. We joined the locals in a kava ceremony and knocked back a few
bowls of the Kava which strangely has a soapy water taste but is actually made from the roots of a kava tree. The next day was spent playing beach volleyball followed by a later afternoon south transfer to South Sea Island. The island is one of the smallest in the Mamanuca group of islands where we chilled, played in the pool and had dinner.
The next day we went on the ‘Seaspray’ sailing boat, and visited an island where we went around the village, including a tour of the homes, school and church. Strangely on the island, graves are actually outside peoples front door steps! We then headed to Modriki island (where the Tom Hanks movie ‘Castaway’ was filmed). The island is uninhabited with a beautiful beach and mountains. Finishing our island tour we headed back to the port and booked our selves into Nadi Bay Resort for our last supper with friends before saying our sad goodbyes and starting our mainland tour the next day…..
In all, we had a fantastic first week on the Fijian islands and met some absolutely amazing people who completely made the trip what it was - unforgettable. We made some great
friends for life and look forward to meeting up with them all in the not so distant future…….
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