Fiji - Paradise, Part 1!

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We arrived in Fiji early in the morning. We didn’t sleep too much on the flight and were wrecked by the time we arrived. When we stepped off the plane, the heat hit us right away! Great to be back in the hot weather. As soon as we stepped into the airport, a few men playing guitars and singing met us at the entrance. It was the first of many warm welcomes we received here. The next step was the slowest immigration queue I have ever encountered and this too was the first of many of the laid back procedures of the Fijians! It didn’t help that there were about 100 Filipino men arriving to work on fishing boats in the region so I suppose it was more difficult to process this paperwork over the average holiday stamp!

It took us 2 hours to get from the plane to our hotel all in all. Yes, are you getting the idea – the Fijians are definitely horizontal people in attitude! Their stature however is definitely not of the vertically challenged type and they have had a few good meals, like me! After feeling like the Big Friendly Giant in Asia, I felt small here! There would be a few good strapping men out here for you all you tall girls! We arrived at our hotel after having to give them a call. There were serious floods here last week and the local town of Nadi is still closed (there was up to 4m of water).The airport was completely closed and the infrastructure is being repaired which meant our hotel had no internet to see our email to confirm we needed a transfer!

The place is grand, could be cleaner and with less bugs/geckos but we are used to this now and we sleep the whole day! Its Sunday anyway and in Fiji with their large Christian population – the place truly shuts down on Sundays! Businesses close and apart from church the locals do little else. So we arrived tired on the perfect day. That evening we have a nice, large portioned, dinner, some beers, play a couple of games of cards and go back to sleep!

The next morning we are up early to head island hopping for 7 days and 6 nights! We are told breakfast starts at 6am, we are being collected at 7.15am so when we sit for breakfast at 6.30 – the buffet is not ready and we are given eggs and toast without choice! So all this relaxed attitude is what is known as Fiji Time. I know Laos is laid back and even the Irish can be pretty loose about times (especially some of my friends in Dublin – you know who you are) but the way of life here is that a time is an extremely “loose” guideline!

Nacula Island – Safe Landing Resort

We are off on our island adventure with Awesome Adventures Fiji; we booked a trip with all accommodation and meals included so we only have to worry about beers and to choose where to stay off a list they have given us. We booked our first two nights at a place called Safe Landing Resort on Nacula (pronounced Nathula). The trip out here takes about 4 hours (after an hour late departure he he). Looking at the islands on the way out, we are impressed, this place looks stunning! We arrive earlier than expected and there are only 4 of us at the resort – for the next two nights :D When we pull up to the resort, we are greeted by the customary welcome song with all the staff singing and shouting “Bula” or Hello to us from the shore. The palm tree lined beach with this warm welcome is more than we expected! WE are helped off the boat, given a lovely welcome drink and introduction to the resort by a young lady called Tima who is learning the ropes! When we are shown to our Bure (Bungalow) on the beachfront, I was grinning like a Cheshire cat! Our own little seafront bungalow about 10 steps from the water with hammock out front….. The next two days are a recipe for heaven!

And heaven they were. The days were a mix between getting up for an early morning swim to sleeping in hammocks, to getting delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner served with an idyllic view, Fijian live music in the background, gorgeous sunsets. We visited the local village of Nasisili on our first morning. The village is a few steps from the resort and all the staff at the resort are from here. There are about 350 people living there. When visiting a Fijian village you must e take by a local and you must first meet the chief! Each village has a chief who is the person whom the villagers take guidance from but also who makes rules about the running of the land, laws etc. So we were taken on our visit by Romeo who is about our age and we are immediately impressed by the place. It is laid out methodically with all the houses in rows by family. The chief’s family are in the middle row with the heads of other respected families next to his row working outwards. The village is very well kept and everyone is very friendly and welcoming to us. We arrive at the chief's house which is next to his main building in the village where he meets other chiefs or has meetings with villagers or meets tourists! The building is very old and has been there for many years, it is made of materials all native to the island (nothing from the mainland of Nadi, we are told) and it is impressive! We then have a chat with the chief (about 8 tourists in total) and questions are asked about his role, how long he has been chief, who will be next, can anyone move to the village etc. He was a humorous man who quickly replied that if any young woman wants to marry a local they are welcome to! He also told us that he has been to Washington for a few months and on holiday to Australia. It is unclear how he funds these trips and the question of payment for role of chief is broached but he says he doesn’t get payment, it is voluntary, yet we hand over some money in an envelope (we paid 15 Fijian dollars earlier).

Next we take a walk around the village and meet some of the local women selling handmade jewellery and crafts. I bought a nice pair of earrings made of shells. There are also some local men erecting a temporary shelter as there will be a celebration day held in a few days for one of the local churches (there are four: catholic, Methodist and two gospel churches). Romeo is quick to explain that all the villagers are Christian and are very tolerant of each other’s beliefs.

We walk back to the resort after a quick visit to their pig farm and along the way we visit this little tea house that has the most amazing views. It is open from 3pm – 5pm usually but we are in luck today and the warm raspberry cake is just out of the oven and the four of us (Roman and Andrea, a Swiss couple and us) have tea and cake, amazed at how happy this little ramshackle hut can make you feel!

Later that night we all decide to go night snorkelling (I’m getting crazier and braver the longer I’m away). It was pretty good apart from my snorkel was useless so for half of it I was looking at the stars more than the starfish! John kindly swapped with me and although we didn’t find any sharks we did see some pretty cool stuff – a baby ray, a cool jellyfish (that stung me, ouch), a massive crab in a cone shell, a decent sized squid and wee nemos!

On our final morning, John and Roman headed off early to go on a shark dive!!! Andrea and I used this time to catch up on blogs/journals. Nothing nicer than chilling in the hammock, listening to the sea and having time alone! Then when I was fed up of that I just went for a swim! When John and Roman returned though, I was pretty jealous that I didn’t have the guts to go. The dive sounded terrifying but impressive. There were about 11 people on the dive and they all knelt on a ledge behind a rope, yes a rope, no cages! The Fijian dive master took down a wheelie bin full of fish, dumped it out and 30 – 40 sharks just appeared devouring the lot!! The scariest I would think were the bull sharks, one being 3.5m long!!! Took a lot of guts to stay calm, I reckon!

Nacula Island – Oarsman’s Bay

Later that day we headed off to our next resort. We couldn’t decide where to go really so we settled on Oarsman’s Bay Resort which was on the same island of Nacula looking out over the Blue Lagoon (anyone know the Brook Shields film?). The beach here was literally off a postcard and we were welcomed in the usual Fijian way and shown to our bure (again just a few steps from the beach). One of the reasons we decided to go here was to do some diving so we booked in for 2 dives the next day. After that we just chilled for the day and watched one of the best sunsets we have ever seen. The colours in the sky were surreal. I don’t think the photos do it justice but once the sun actually sets, the sky illuminates for about 40 mins from peaches to pinks to purples. Paradise!

Later that evening we were treated to some fabulous singing by a whole family who work at the resort. They also introduced us to their local bête noir, Cava! Cava is made from a type of pepper plant; it is ground to a thin dust and then mixed with water to make a drink. Some Fijians drink this every night and its effects are to relax the body and mind so much so that all your worries (you know them ones that keep you awake at night with a racing mind) are alleviated. It also is a serious muscle relaxant, we are told. We only had one cup as we have to get up early for diving but we sat watching the ritual of it all. Basically they all sing together then have a cup of cava, then sing another song, cava, you get the drift! There were one or two of them who seemed to be having immediate effects of the cava who had their eyes closed, a very relaxed posture etc. during the songs but once another cup was offered they were bright as buttons!

The net day we did our two dives. We were very lucky – the first dive was at a newly discovered pinnacle and we saw some pretty cool stuff (I got to see a shark, John says it was small!!). It was also the first time that we had to do a free descent (descending without a line to guide you down) and that was cool. On our second dive we also had some new experiences – we had to swim through rocky tunnels and caves. Now I know a bit earlier that I said I was getting braver but this was definitely new territory! It was pretty nerve racking cos the tunnels were tight and I even whacked my tank at one stage but afterwards the rush of adrenalin was pretty good. I know that it might be something small but to me going into a dark underground tunnel really is pushing the limits! That evening we got to have our second helping of the sunset and a wonderful dinner.

On our last morning at Oarsman’s we went for a snorkel out in the bay. The fish that were just a few meters out are so varied and colourful and it was cool. After this we are hopping back on the Awesome Adventures Fiji boat to another island a couple of hours away but not before a little mix up with payment for food that we were told was included in the price of the ticket…. Ill not go into too much detail but the system changed a few days before we went on the trip and we were given wrong documentation, the resort tried to charge us for food (350 dollars) and let’s just say I had a fairly adamant phone call with a lady from Awesome Adventures and they paid for it! Just a little trouble in paradise!!!

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