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Published: August 6th 2007
Never before have I found myself awake at 5:00 in the morning, dressed, awake and willing, if not eager to go out into the cold winter air. So you could imagine the wonderfully stark comparison between getting dropped off at Sydney Airport and arriving at Nadi Airport (mmm, 28 degree celcius).
The way I see it, my trip to Fiji fell into three sections:
The first section were the days of a carefree beach getaway.
Our first night was relatively uneventful, but fabulously so. We ate our free buffet dinner, drank our free vodka sunrises (oh the wonders of the all-inclusive deal) and sat listening to the resident band. Sunny's calls of "You still have the stick, thank you sit doooown" as part of a game for the Kids Club became a classic saying for the trip, anyone who listens to the message tone of Belinda's phone will appreciate how cool it is.
On Monday night, we were told to come over to a man's house to go night snorkelling, but as he never showed up (oh well, Fiji time), we spent over an hour sitting with his family watching Jamie's Kitchen, and trying to talk
My first ever bike ride!
A closer view would reveal the large amounts of scratches and bruises I had at that point.to the cutest little kid- who unfortunately only spoke Fijian. We ended up saying bula a lot.
Actually you end up saying bula A LOT in Fiji. Someone said this was because the word means long life and people believe the more they say it the longer they live. Oh well. Soon into our trip we took lessons in Fijian and over the course of the trip learnt a few more words: sanga nalanga, io, gaina, ouro etc.
Other activities included watching traditional fire-walking, singing karaoke, bumming around the pool (or you know, actually swimming), walking over to the 'island', going on a hike to a waterfall, me learning how to ride a bike (at the tender age of 18). And of course eating and drinking A LOT (anyone who knows me would not doubt my feeling of obligation to take advantage of any free food or drink offered to me).
This leads to section two of the trip.
Wednesday night I was feeling a bit sick leading up to dinner, and more so afterwards, but still couldnt resist the lures of a banana split (or in mixed Fijian, a split gaina- thanks b). Anyway, feeling
Waterfall
The heavenly sight after trekking through creeks and over rocks. There are cool leaves in Fiji that make a popping noise when you hit them though. That was fun... sick + stuffing your gut resulted in the predictable way, and the next morning I couldnt get out of bed, so luckily for me Maddi, Belinda and b stole me a muffin from breakfast and continued the ritual of theft until I felt up to going to meals. I was nauseous, more so when i moved, and had headaches on and off (and no, not from the banana split, I had a virus). Later on as I started moving around more, I discovered I wasnt able to stay standing still without feeling like fainting. And Maddi went home *tear*. In short, bad times.
It wasnt all bad though, I went dancing one night- and actually felt better for a while, and another night I attempted to go to a beach party, but started feeling really sick before we even got there, so ended up eating the worst tasting chips in the world and going to bed.
Now for phase three: Harry Potter 7 came out.
I came into the only store in Sigatoka that I had sussed out that sold it, and had an argument with the lady on the front desk who thought it didnt come
The pool
Complete with pool bar and underwater bar stools... out until 11:30am Fiji time, but at 11:10 and $70 later the precious beacon of perfection was in my hands.
Basically all that happened from then on is that I read. And gasped. And expressed all the emotions suitable to a Harry Potter book. I think I boarded a plane at some point, because I remember finishing reading it, looking up and finding myself in one. Next thing I know I was home.
P.S. I've left out a lot here, especially of the fantastic people I met there. But lets face it, if I was to talk about how cool the Naviti gang are, we would be here all day...
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