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Published: January 2nd 2010
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Us on the beach at Oarsmans bay resort it was bloody boilingBye Fiji we’ll miss you
We transferred in the morning to the next island which again happened to be over the water on the other side of the blue lagoon bay so we were beginning to feel like we knew the whole area back to front. It looked great on arrival with the dining area on decking right at the sea front. I heard this was one of the nicer hostels so I’d booked us into dorms. It was the hottest it had been so far and when we were taken to the dorm which was in the attic above the kitchen it was even hotter. There were a few guys passed out on the beds and only two beds left (luckily by the window) so we grabbed those.
From the minute we’d got there our greeting wasn’t on par with the others and the lady in charge just seemed a bit pushy, I don’t know why but something just didn’t seem right. We joined everyone for lunch (and were mistaken for Australians for the 2nd time on our travels) and got pestered by the “entertainments guy” who told us about the blue lagoon trip. When I asked more
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It’s a hard life about it, having heard someone say you could go to the blue lagoon resort and see the turtles, the guy said yeah that’s the trip. So we went out on the boat with them after lunch but soon found that for more money than we’d paid previously at Otto and Fanny’s we were just taken over the water again to the same beach we’d spent our birthday on. The trip didn’t go anywhere near the other resort with the turtles and when I asked the guy again he seemed to imply he hadn’t said that and I’d misunderstood (which maybe I had) and he then proceeded to fall asleep on a piece of corrugated iron that littered the shore line. I hid my disappointment though as we had been promised we could get home made ice-cream at the resort we were visiting so it wasn’t all bad. So we got on with it and spent another few hours on the island, I again didn’t go snorkelling but Nath did some more. We went up the resort after an hour and my mood hadn’t improved but the ice cream was gonna help - but by the time we got there we
were told they only make it in the morning and had run out. So all in all we had paid more for a trip we had already done, for less time on the island and no ice cream - I was fuming!!! (See related photo 😊 )
Ok so I wasn’t that annoyed really but I was hot and hungry and looking back it was no big deal but anyway…. That afternoon we just chilled and read and walked up the beach etc, you know the usual and then got ready for dinner. What was great about this resort was although the toilets etc where the most disgusting by far the shower was actually warm!! Which made a nice change not just coz of the heat as we had got used to the cold water but for the first time in 10 days we actually felt clean (it seems shampoo just isn’t as effective when washed out with cold water). That evening we sat with the only guy in our dorm, a Chinese Glaswegian fella (Gordon Chan) who spent the night drinking with us and teaching us some Chinese for the end of our trip - I wrote it
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View from my dorm bed in the roof down as I knew I’d never remember everything.
That night we slept on the most uncomfortable mattresses so far, they were only about 5 cm thick, we tried changing them over but all of them were rubbish. We should have tried doubling them up but there were too many people in the dorm that would have been less than pleased at sleeping on wood. I again had picked a spot over by the window, where I could see the ocean from laying in my bed, it was a great view. The mosquito nets were needed not for the mosquitoes but for the other bugs crawling around!!! That night I was kept awake by the chirping of a few geckos that were crawling around the room but mostly the force 9 gale that seemed to be blowing outside!!! I laid there for quite awhile watching the flag get blown around and the pole itself bend. I was at the point were I was planning in my head where the important documents were if we were suddenly evacuated (Nath as always sleeping soundly, probably due to the beer). I finally managed to get to sleep, and the next morning no one
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Our very stuffy dorm else in the dorm seemed to have noticed the wind, although a member of staff cleaning the bathroom did say it was very windy last night - I knew I hadn’t imagined it!!
That day (our last day) I decided I would finally attempt the snorkelling as my lips were a bit better. Gordon had woken up with sore lips too and within a few hours had got sores like me; anyone would think we’d been kissing or something!!! I was again peeved as they only had a few crappy snorkels and flippers left and none that would fit me so Nath and I had to share (it was like wearing clown shoes). Anyway the snorkelling was good but not as good as at Manta Ray, mainly because the storm had dragged up sand etc and the water was all misty. I went out on occasion on my own but found I was so nervous of hitting the coral again I didn’t go far and we were also the only people out there so again I go nervous about being followed by a shark or something stupid!! I sat on the beach whilst Nath had a go, and lay
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Stupid misleading tour guide and now "no ice cream" face down on a towel in the hope I could go one day without forming a pearl from all the sand I kept finding everywhere!!! I only laid down for a second and looked up at the trees along the edge of the beach and noticed loads of cobwebs, …..The more I looked the more I saw and then I noticed them…..yes them! a whole load of huge spiders just hanging on the webs in the wind. The wind was blowing so hard I was sure if I lay there long enough I’d be rained upon by my arch nemesis so quickly moved along the beach a little way. Needless to say Nath was confused at how far he had snorkelled when he got out of the surf though, but I only had to point and he realised why!!!!
That eve we had a BBQ which was lush and headed to bed a bit earlier than our evening with Gordon (he had left the island earlier that day). Gordon had warned us the manager had tried to con him out of money by placing an extra zero on his bar bill!! And having had a “weird unfriendly” vibe about this
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Weird halo around the sun spooky resort we had kept a list of what we had put on our bar and activities bill ready for check out in the morning.
It was another windy night but nothing like the night before, all I could hear were the sounds of the ocean and the chief and his tribe men sharing a kava ceremony (clapping in between is customary). Next morning though Nath did let me know that when he had awoken earlier he had seen a spider on my mosquito net …..See I knew having one for oz was a good idea, based not on the mosquitoes but what might crawl on me in the night …ha!!!
Anyway we paid our bill without any fuss after preparing our speeches in our heads; they were perfectly courteous, so maybe they just didn’t like Gordon? We had to wait till midday for the Yasawa flyer to make it all the way up to us before ascending back to port. We had a 5 hour boat journey back and it was a really hot day, so Nath slept on the lower deck, and I, determined to get some more tan on my legs before we got to New
Zealand (in case it wasn’t sunny and was like the UK) sat at the very top, reading my book for about 4 hours. On the way back we had bumped into a couple (Flo and Simon) who we had met on Manta Ray Island who were due to fly back on the same plane as us. So we caught up with them (they had gone to Octopus resort which many people had recommended - but I’d already pre booked our stops, dam it, oh well). We had recommended the Blue Water lodge for their night before the flight and they had taken our suggestion and booked it, so we decided to share a taxi back from the port and to the airport the next day.
The bus took us back to the hotel, door to door service, not bad really for a back packer’s trip, but first we had had to wait about an hour for the last Yasawa flyer to come back to port (think there’s about 4 of them). This was the bright yellow one they advertise on the website and was full of the “younger rowdier” crowd we had been lucky enough to avoid. And hey
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Don’t panic but Nath is reading! What’s up with the world its not that I’m old or hate having fun, believe me I’m the first one to get shit faced normally (one glass is usually enough), but these people were annoying as soon as the group of girls got on. I think they were drunk, they were loud, stupid and annoying….they were also American so maybe they weren’t drunk??? And we were tired and needed our hot milk and slippers before bed.
We got back to the lodge and had the same double room, Nath went to retrieve our bags from the storage (we had left some of our stuff at the lodge so we had less to carry round the islands), and came down with only one bag and a white face saying they had lost the other one! As I started to panic and shout Nath’s face broke into a smile as Joe (a member of staff) walked in carrying the other bag! With Nath now crying with laughter I was not amused….yeah thanks dear, when you’re being eaten by a wolf in the bush don’t expect me to come running!! We had a hot shower, yipppeee, and headed for the great dinners on the decking we’d had
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Mmm bbq dinner before. Early to bed and rise we were up and ready to leave at 5am, we waited in the lobby for our taxi that the guy on the night shift had said he’d order…well we never did know if he had ordered it or if it was just late. But as time went on Flo and Simon seemed to get a little bit nervous at being late to the airport so we demanded they order another one right now in front of us so we knew it was coming. I think Flo and Simon were slightly more concerned than we were, but we joined in so they didn’t feel like they were making a scene (after our airport fun in Los Angeles we were as cool as a cucumber!).
I must say this flight to New Zealand wasn’t worrying me at all. Not sure if I’m getting used to the whole flight thing, or that it was a short flight, or that it was during the day (this makes a difference to me you see), so heading over was fine and I was excited having heard so much about New Zealand and couldn’t wait to see some familiar faces…………………
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