Advertisement
Published: April 19th 2009
Edit Blog Post
after a chilled out morning at jim and frankies in aukland, it was off to the airport to be reunited with jodie!! yey!! i was sad to say goodbye to jim and frankie but excited as i have really missed my traveling friend and couldn't wait for us to be able to catch up and share our adventures and stories.
our flight to fiji was uneventful, but arriving in fiji was great, we were greeted by some guys in the airport singing a fijian welcome song and then when we were given our fiji itinerary a lovely lady put shell necklaces around our neck and all of a sudden me and jodie were in full holiday mode. we arrived at our hostel and after the initial disappointment of being put in a 34 bed dorm (we couldnt remember what we had booked!) we ordered a cocktail and watched a spectacular sunset on the beach. at dinner i was very pleased to bump into penny and harriet, two girls i had met in cape tribulation.
early start on the saturday morning to catch the ferry over to our home for the next five days, manta ray island in the yasawa group of
coconut bangle
very proud of my handiwork islands. absolutely stunning!! we were wlcomed on to the island with a welcome song and a drink. shown to our tiny jungle bure and i seemed to relax straight away!! i spent the afternoon chilling on the beach and in the hammocks. we were soon into the fiji way of life, chilled out and only knowing what time it was by the banging drum which indicated that it was meal times!
i spent the following morning enjoying the sunshine on the beach and then in the afternoon me, jodie and a fab girl called claire decided to try our hand at making shell bracelets and coconut bangles. i couldnt work the shells very well but i was very pleased with me coconut bangle, that was until i realised it was stuck on my wrist! i had to spend quite some time with soap in the bathroom trying to prise it off my hand!! such a shame as i swear i could have bought something similar in topshop....
another early night, i really was so chilled out i could hardly stay awake!! it was great!!
on the monday jodie, claire and i decided to go over to the village linked with
jodie
loving the coconut! manta ray island. soso village is tiny and so remote, it has only a few houses, church and a school on the island. the people there were wonderful though and a lady called rachel showed us around. the church was very pretty but the highlight was going in to the school. first up was the nursery class, the teacher was nowhere to be seen and the kids were running riot but they were so sweet and threw themselves at us for hugs.
next was the 11-14 year olds who were so hard at work we didnt want to disturb them but then they spotted us and welcomed us into their classroom. the pupils were so polite and interested in who we were and where we were from. i was chatting to two boys called lego and pepio who were working on their health text books. the last class we visited were 5-7 year olds who were a very lively bunch!! they sang us their very special song:
''i am special, i am special, look at me, look at me. a very special person a very special person, cant you see cant you see.''
after buying handmade fijian gifts we got
back on the little boat back to manta ray island in time for dinner. the afternoon was spent snorkeling in the reef that surrounds the island, it is known as one of the best reefs in the world and is now a protected site and i could see why. it was absolutely stunning and definitely rivals the great barrier reef. the great thing is that i swam about 100meters from the beach and entered an amazing underwater world with stunning fish and gorgeous coral. to find reefs like that you usually have to get a boat out into the ocean. had a lovely time spotting fish including angel fish, star fish, hippy fish (so called by me as they looked tie-died) and some ace blue fish that looked like tiny moving lights.
after that very busy day i chilled out in a hammock and then when the drum went for dinner i headed up to the dining room and had a really lovely evening with jodie, claire and melanie.
tuesday morning was torrential rain!! never mind though, jodie and i just chilled out in our bure (with the doors open it felt like we were outside and i could see
the sea) and read our books. the afternoon was nicer and i did make it to the beach for a little while and waved off claire and her boyfriend mark as they left that day.
in the evening there was traditional fijian entertainment from the soso village which was fab. although i was a bit dubious when they started dragging members of the audience up to dance!! i got into the swing of it though! it was a great night though and all was going well until we went back to the room to find ants and a cockroach. not so lovely.
wednesday was another rainy morning so spent half of it chatting to melanie and matt, both fellow peadiatric nurses and then i had a nap before lunch (told you i was chilled out!).
once the rain eased in the afternoon we decided to go snorkilling and i commenced my mission to find nemo...and i found him!! yes, nemo was on holiday in fiji and he had a suntan!! nemo was his usual color but with a shade of brown over the top. also saw lots of other very pretty fish.
at night the rain started with real force,
school children
singing us a song i was actually concerned that our jungle hut was going to wash away into the sea and me and jodie would wake up in the middle of the pacific ocean.
thursday, our last day in fiji was also cloudy so we chilled out before catching the boat back to nadi and our flight to america. the flight left at 10pm (well 11pm as its fiji time!!) 10 hours later we arrived in LA at 2pm, the same day...travelling back in time is weird and absolutely exhausting!! jodie went to catch her flight to san fransisco and after a race through LA airport and being quized by security (no i havn't ever been to ohio and no i havn't ever been in trouble there!) i made it to my flight to new york to meet my girls there!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0387s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb